One of the CINEMA project's first and major milestones is done! All partners organised and completed regional hackathons in order to develop ideas on how to deal with the rising challenges our inner cities face these days. Actually a hackathon is a participatory activity of 1-3 days or even shorter, where people come together in small teams to solve problems or challenges and learn from each other on specific topics. This mostly happens in a friendly competition and provides a space to make progress on problems the participants are interested in. In the context of CINEMA the results of the hackathons will help to develop solutions to start and strengthen the innovation process in urban surroundings. They will help to fight the effects of the COVID-19 crisis and foster the collaboration between the creative industries and urban economies. The hackathons are also an important contribution to develop regional networks to support activities between CIs, SMEs, politics and citizens. Of course, due to the circumstances the hackathons were taking place mostly in virtual formats and were therefore an innovative challenge within themselves, both for organisers and participants. But nevertheless they were a great success and the main concepts and ideas as well as first steps towards their realisation will be presented in our next newsletter in April.

Photo: Hackathon Bulgaria, Gabrovo Municipality