During the event were presented several programs available to public authorities
The webinar was organized by EPSI and the Municipality of Torino. Its aim was to present the options of a synergic approach and blend financing opportunities for public authorities. The meeting started with an introduction from each of the participants and a welcome speech by René Wijlens, the co-executive director of EPSI and manager of Sports and Technology.
After that, the first presentation was given by Kristiina Jokelainen. She mentioned the importance of regional-level cooperation in terms of sport that was initiated by the European Commission thanks to EPSI and Cluster Sport. Kristina focused on the social-economic and environmental development of sports for regions across Europe. Her presentation continued with the smart specialization strategies and the importance of European regions as an engine for economic growth and the importance of the regions collaborating together and with local organizations within them. During the presentation, Kristina presented in deep detail how public authorities can benefit from EU funding and use it to enable local and regional sports investments and tackle the challenges they face.
The second presentation was by René Wijlens who talked about the importance of interregional cooperation and talked about ClusSport and EPSI as networks and the instruments they use for collaboration and funding and some projects that have been financed. René also mentioned how the fundraising pillar of EPSI works talking about the Members Only Zone (MOZ) and the concept note that members use to share their project ideas that are later developed with project partnerships and matched with available grants.
Later in the webinar, Valeria Vacchiano from the Municipality of Torino talked about the city and the project experience they have mainly in social innovation. She mentioned how Torino has evolved from being an industrial city to one more dedicated to services, tourism, and big events. Valeria talked about the sports associations, federations, and organizations that facilitate sports participation in the cities of Torino and over the 300 sports facilities they manage. She talked about how sports and a healthy lifestyle are integrated into the municipal development strategy.
The meeting concluded with a session from the participants who discussed potential future collaboration and talked about how the rising price of energy cost can impact sporting facilities and how this can issue can be dealt with. Both executive directors of EPSI – Alberto Bichi and René Wijlens insured that this important topic and many others will be discussed during the Brokerage Event at the EPSI Annual Conference at Bergamo (17-19 October).