Conventa Best Event Award 2017 SHORTLIST: Information point Ljubljana

• Name of the event: Point.For.You
• Date: Throughout 2016
• Location: Ljubljana, Mestni trg 1
• Organizer: Municipality of Ljubljana
• Event type: Promotional and educational

Q: How would you describe the event and what were the key objectives?

The happening in the Point. For you. was characterised by a full-year programme of Ljubljana – the European Green Capital 2016. Located right in the city centre in front of the City Hall it hosted more than 600 events and activities in which numerous stakeholders have participated, including all 17 city districts, Ljubljana’s public institutes and companies, Ljubljana primary schools and kindergartens, NGOs, as well as start-ups, entrepreneurs and companies from the private sector, stakeholders from the academic and university sector, etc. The green year was divided into themed months:

• January: INTELLIGENT WASTE MANAGEMENT
• February: LOCAL SELF-SUFFICIENCY
• March: RESPONSIBLE WATER MANAGEMENT
• April: THE QUALITY OF THE SOUND ENVIRONMENT
• May: GREEN SPACES
• June: ENERGY EFFICIENCY
• July: BIODIVERSITY AND BEES
• August: SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
• September: SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY AND CARE FOR AIR QUALITY
• October: WOOD – A PRICELESS GIFT FROM NATURE
• November: ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE
• December: ECO-INNOVATION, GREEN JOBS AND SUSTAINABLE LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Objectives: to inform/educate, to promote, to include as many people as possible, to share a good practice, media coverage …

1. Since inhabitants of Ljubljana already knew that Ljubljana is the European Green Capital 2016, the challenge was to raise awareness of the general public about the reasons for winning this prestigious award.

2. The second ambitious aim was to involve every inhabitant and all commuters to participate and live sustainably every day.

3. To engage young people in raising environmental awareness, since they are the most influential ambassadors of sustainable future.

4. To let all visitors of Ljubljana know that Ljubljana is European Green Capital 2016 and to raise awareness about its achievements.

5. To share good practices.

Because of those challenges we set the info point in the city centre, just in front of the City Hall. We divided the green year into 12 themed months and organised green events in cooperation with numerous stakeholders. Every month we presented main achievements and sustainable measures that have been made in particular sustainable area. We also presented new sustainable projects and services that have been introduced this year.

We named the info point Point.For You. because we wanted to spread the message that everyone can participate in making Ljubljana even more sustainable. To reach the greatest number of people we organised various types of events free of charge that met the interests and needs of individuals.

Some types of events:

• Presentations of sustainable good practices that can enrich everyday life of each resident such as EURBAN, …
• Workshops for all generations such as children’s workshops on making a simple wooden toys, monthly family workshops of Prirodoslovni muzej Slovenije with green topics, workshops for adults such as collecting data on sound environment in Ljubljana via mobile phones .
• Consulting hours such as energy counselling by the representatives of Energetika Ljubljana and the ENSVET advisory network; Awareness raising events such as VO-KA’s events for promoting drinking of tap water.
• Outdoor events in front of infopoint in summer to educate citizens of Ljubljana and visitors about topics of sustainable tourism
• Social events such as collecting used computers or exchange of children toys and clothes.
• Fairs such as local food products and high-quality honey bee products.
• Exhibitions such as exhibition on biodiversity in Ljubljana titled »Their home does not have a house number – wild plants and animals in the Ljubljana region«
• Sustainable services such as mobile bike service “Pravi kolesar”
• Education programmes such as GCDC – Rad soustvarjam zeleno mesto 2016!…

Ljubljana is taking big steps in creating a sustainable living space for its citizens.

The perfect examples are:

• two wooden and sustainable pavilions connected by a green roof housing the Point.For you. were built for Ljubljana, European Green Capital 2016, by the company Riko and its partners
• Knauf Insulation d.o.o., Leopold Fenster, Ključavničarstvo Marinčič, Esprit d.o.o. Škofja loka and 3biro.
• the Visionect-powered notice boards installed promoting the city’s green events on Point.For you.

Info point Point. For You. has been opened every day (except holidays) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in winter months and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. in summer months. Every month had its coordinator who was an expert in the given field and who gathered the proposals of numerous stakeholders and partners and design everyday programme.

Each coordinator was in touch with the programme manager of the info point on a daily basis. The programme manager is a member of eight-member European Green Capital 2016 team (EGC team), which also held meetings with potential partners every week, supervised the programme, implemented alternations, adjustments and modifications to follow and achieve set goals.

All the work was supervised by Deputy Mayor Tjaša Ficko, who also reported to Mayor Zoran Janković. In the info point worked students that were trained by monthly coordinators and the EGC team. Technical supervision of the info point was deliberately entrusted to a member of EGC team since we followed principles of energy efficiency and sustainable waste management. In this way, we fulfilled sustainable principles.

Before we list the measurable results, we should point out that Info point comprises two wooden pavilions both around 25 m2. In these pavilions:

• more than 600 events took place;
• more than 32.000 visitors participated from Ljubljana, Slovenia, Europe and all the world, even from the most remote countries and cities, such as Reykjavík in Iceland; Cold Bay in Alaska; Punta Arenas in Chile; Reunion; Indonesia; Malaysia; Papua New Guinea; Philippines; Australia; New Zealand, etc.
• we shot almost 7000 photos.

Strong communication campaign and public relations with the general public was ongoing through the whole year. Journalists conducted interviews with monthly coordinators and the Head of EGC team.

Furthermore, every stakeholder that implemented the event, communicated with its target groups, some of them also gave interviews to journalists (monthly interviews in the show “Live Green” on Radio Si.).

Every month we sent press releases about the events on the Point.For you. to domestic and foreign media all over the world. We also held many press conferences in the info point. Every event was published on the Ljubljana – European Green Capital web page and Facebook, on the Facebook of the City of Ljubljana, and among others on the most widely read Slovenian web information service that announces forthcoming events called napovednik.com. We also communicated about the events that took place at the info point in the Ljubljana newspaper that is distributed to all Ljubljana households every two months.

• we have been separating waste at the Point. For you.,
• wooden pavilions have green roofs, green walls, infrared radiant ceiling panels, wooden modular furniture that can be adjusted according to the needs of variety events (chairs can be changed into tables or shelves),
• we used innovative wooden lights of Slovenian producers for ambiental illumination

• we are promoting best sustainable local products, so the pavilions and furniture are products of Slovenian manufactures.
• to enter the pavilions, we implemented ramps that are suitable for people with disabilities,
• since the info point is located in the city centre – ecological zone that is closed to all motorised vehicles and opened to pedestrians and cyclists, we encouraged our partners to use electric vehicles named Kavalirs for delivery of materials. Kavalirs are available free of charge.
• we used special “wall paper panels – Visionact” to promote monthly programme
• the pavilions were inside and outside (green wall) decorated with typical Slovenian plants provided by Botanical Garden in ceramic pots
• we rent natural Christmas trees that will be returned to nature after season holidays