Intro
For three days (5-7 June 2023), 25,000 visitors had the opportunity to get to know many new and innovative projects at the festival for the digital society re:publica, which took place in the Arena Berlin. At such an event, the EU project “Dialog City” could not be missing.
The Digitalladen, the AMT for IT and Digital Strategy and the Stadt- und Stiftsarchiv from Aschaffenburg together with partners from Italy, France and Hungary were represented with a small but very interesting and smartly designed stand. The fact that the “Dialog City” stand was directly opposite the ZDF stand was certainly no disadvantage!
Employees of the city of Aschaffenburg and partners of the EU project “Dialog City” presented current projects such as “Dialog City”, “Heimathub”, “Digitale Manufaktur” as well as “DialogRomantik” and “Zeitraum Brentano”. The “Dialog City” stand was very well attended when Marlon Brand (ComKom) took a virtual journey into the Romantic era with “Zeitraum Brentano”. The presentation by Carolina Reis (Office for IT and Digital Strategy) on “Digital Manufacture” attracted lively interest, and a lively discussion followed the talk by Joachim Kemper (City Archives of Aschaffenburg) and Antje Diener-Staeckling (Archive Office of Westphalia) on the possibilities of open archives. For their part, Anna Hein-Schwesinger and Vaios Kalogrias from the City Archives of Aschaffenburg explained to the audience the function of the online platform of the “Heimathub für den Bayerischen Untermain” and the importance of digital participatory projects for local and regional history. The use of digital technologies for the conception and implementation of projects around the topics of history, memory, culture and participation was very well received by the visitors, many of whom had not expected such a cultural-digital offer at the fair.
At the center of this digital offering was the “Dialog City” project. The partners of this project from Germany (Peter Panes), Italy (Irene Cornaglia, Federico Fazari) and France (Zofia Basista) as well as Hannah Bartel and Jens Best (both staff member of the EU project in Aschaffenburg) and Frank Tentler (consultant, developer and lecturer of “Smart City Designe”) held many – and also long! – conversations about the future design of cities with the help of digital and sustainable technologies and drew attention to the upcoming “Game Jam” event, which will take place in Aschaffenburg and Mondoví (Italy) in parallel.
But not only the projects and flyers were positively received and taken along. Also the Aschaffenburger beer met the taste particularly of the Berlin visitors and provided for a cheerful tendency with the Bavarian conditions!