Partners from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia gathered at the multilateral meeting of the project partners. The meeting took place in Pilsen, Czech Republic on 27 – 28 November 2018 and was hosted by Regional Development Agency of the Pilsen Region.

Partners met on Tuesday morning in the Renaissance City Hall in Pilsen and were greeted by Filip Uhlík from the Regional Development Agency of the Pilsen Region and by Vice-Mayor of the City of Pilsen Mr. Michal Vozobule.  The welcome speech was followed by presentations from technical experts. Mr. Petr Raška from Urban Planning and Development Institute of the City of Pilsen presented problems of the urban and transport planning in the City of Pilsen focused on walkability and Mr. Jakub Mareš from Ateliér k světu who presented the Scoobike-sharing system in the City of Pilsen. Technical presentations were followed by a guided walking tour of the city. The tour was guided by the hosts and technical expert showing specific measures already implemented in the city to improve walkability. The technical presentations combined with a guided tour gave participants a greater insight into the walkability in the City of Pilsen. The guided tour ended with a short trip with battery trolleybus with which participants returned to the City hall for lunch.

The second half of the day started with the Internal Steering Committee meeting where partners shortly discussed the overview of project activities so far. The short overview of the progress was followed by presentations on the status of walkability planning done by partners. Following this, partners gathered for a coffee break while the venue was being prepared for an interactive workshop on planning experiences. At the workshops partners worked in groups, divided based on their respective countries, to prepare a review of what was good, what worked well and what challenges they faced. Individual group findings were then discussed amongst partners. The workshop proved really valuable for updating the walkability planning guide, discussion on issues and difficulties and any questions regarding Local walkability plans. The day was continued with a guided tour of the Pilsner Urquell brewery which was rounded with a beer tasting of unfiltered Pilsner Urquell tapped straight from oak lager barrels in the historic brewery cellars. The evening concluded with a dinner accompanied with traditional Czech music.

On Wednesday morning partners met at the conference venue of the Technical authority where they had the opportunity to try the historical “pater noster” lift. During the day, partners discussed progress of work packages, presented already implemented activities and their plans for awareness raising campaigns and pilot activities. This was followed by a presentation of the Homepage and the walkability index. Partners also got to experience the Walk’n’Smile app which was developed in the scope of the project. The day continued with the discussion on project management issues and important information regarding the reporting and was concluded with overview of planned activities for the upcoming 6 months.

The final multilateral meeting will take place in Oradea, Romania in March 2019.

Download the Walk’n’Smile app, it is available in Google play store and through the link on the Homepage .