Authors: Monika Göttler & Matthias Ripp, City of Regensburg World Heritage Coordination and Northwest Europe and North America Regional Secretariat of the OWHC
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Category: Regional Conferences
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City: Stralsund (Germany)
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Year: 2016
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Language: English

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^{Summary: On occasion of the 2015 OWHC World Congress in Arequipa/Peru, the Regional Secretariats with their member cities were asked to submit their suggestions for the topic of the next World Congress, which will be held November 2017 in the City of Gyeongju/Korea. In a bottom-up process, the represented member cities discussed in their respective Regional Meetings and voted for their favourite topic. From our region, the theme “Heritage
and Community Involvement” was handed in for decision and voted for in the later General Assembly of the World Congress.}

^{In order to prepare the members of our Regional Secretariat for the chosen topic of the Gyeongju World Congress, it was agreed to focus already in our 2016 Regional Conference with the development of a Scientific Day concept on “Community Involvement” aspects. The concept was accepted amongst the General Secretariat’s 5%-Reimbursement programme and granted extra support. This money granted, we were able to assign (after a bidding procedure) an external expert, Mr. Nils Scheffler, with the development of the content of our Scientific Day on “Community Involvement”.}

^{It was the goal to inform thoroughly, to strengthen capacity, to work interactively and focus on the participants in all aspects so that a practical and direct benefit is granted for our member cities of OWHC. The very positive feedback was indeed a proof that the concept was successful: various aspects of community integration work were tackled and challenges discussed. But most of all, learning from examples and experiences from other World Heritage cities was enabled through modern communication tools which can be applied directly in the management of our World Heritage sites.}

^{The content of the external input as well as outcome of the workshops and knowledge market sessions brought a various collection of ideas and methods that can be useful for other World Heritage Cities. That is why the report on the Thematic Day as follows below is very detailed.}

^{Another aspect of our conference was to give a stage for our members to present already implemented practice methods and experience with community involvement in their respective cities. The examples are to be found under the chapter “Kaleidoscope” and are linked to the presentations. All colleagues and experts are willing to answer questions. For contact details, please get into touch with the Regional Secretariat.}

^{A last chapter offers a selection of literature as well as information on the COMUS project cooperation with Council of Europe/EU and an insight on the COBA model.}