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In this session, a panel of speakers discussed the urbanana project, for which we were joined by Laura Vennes, from Tourismus NRW; Tobias Hartmann, from Cylvester; Ines Rainer, from Creative.NRW; Sabine Rottman, from Ruhr:HUB; Max Schweder, from Cylvester; and Nora Will, from Visit Düsseldorf.

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The session began with an explanation of what urbanana is, which we learnt is the banana-shaped urban jungle that extends from the Ruhr Area and Düsseldorf to Cologne, in the western region of Germany. The project calls for bridging the gap between the creative, digital and tourism industries in order to present the destinations as attractive through its actors and to create new experience formats, and it addresses the topics of the urban (pop) culture, the start-up milieu and expat community, and design, craftsmanship and contemporary arts.

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Before leading the panel, Laura Vennes explained that they understand atmospheric design as space and people-related sustainable design. She highlighted that for a long time, the understanding of design and sustainability were object-focused, and the same happened within tourism where the focus was on the product. Nonetheless, urbanana has changed that by talking through, and with, the places instead of about them.

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How would you describe the atmosphere and what does it have to do with your daily work?

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Sabine explained that its atmosphere is an extremely abstract concept but highlighted that the atmosphere in the urbanana regions is very open, pragmatic and the people in it are nice and open to new ideas. She mentioned that this is why Ruhr:HUB exists, to support the entrepreneurial spirit in the region.

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Ines, on the other hand, explained that she works with creative networks and that Creative.NRW works with 20 different ones by means of bringing creative people together through events in small and big cities, which led her to describe the atmosphere of the region as being very diverse.

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Lastly, Nora expressed her appreciation for the expert communities in the region, as they are very strong, vibrant and active, but also for the cosmopolitan atmosphere of all the cities that are interconnected. Furthermore, she highlighted the hidden creative spaces in the region, such as the Media Harbour in Düsseldorf, where international architectures have left traces. She also talked about the region having a multitude of cultural institutions and agencies for start-ups.

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Why do you think the digital entrepreneurial atmosphere and spirit is important for tourists or people who are looking for a new place to stay?

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Most importantly, Sabine thinks it's relevant for start-ups that are looking for international employees to have a worldwide perspective and spirit. She highlighted that this 'international spirit' also tends to go hand in hand with digitalisation, which nowadays is essential. She also added that the entrepreneurial spirit the region possesses has allowed co-working places to emerge, which allows people to meet others and to work from different places while discovering new cities.

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What project have you developed and how has it contributed to the atmosphere?

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Max explained a bit about Cylvester's AudioBase project, which is a digital creation tool to take to the real world. The idea was born during the pandemic, during which social digital art was limited to social media, so they wanted to provide a way in which people could share interactive digital art pieces. He explained AudioBase is a cart toolset containing a projector and a generator, with a computer and a 3D camera attached to it, so artists could place it wherever they wanted and share their art pieces in urban spaces.

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Nora explained that their project has at its core the quality of life, assuming that creative companies in the regions should attract international talent. They understand that for them to be able to do that they need a certain atmosphere, which is what creative projects provide for the region, in addition to talent-attraction enhancing its creative potential. To this, Laura added that she was talking about the holistic approach to tourism to include different branches, which is what urbanana does.

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What are the challenges and communication potentials of including different branches to create a holistic tourism approach?

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Ines expressed her thoughts on the need for laboratories and places to bring people and creative industries together by means of developing a holistic approach. Nonetheless, she highlighted that this requires the support of the administration and politics.

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What role do you think the participatory shaping of destinations will play in your field of action?

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Tobias spoke from an art perspective, which doesn't only depend on the atmosphere and enjoying it, but also on filling spaces with interactive installations and building participation and creating a network upon that. He stressed that this requires a growing system of people which is sustainable, in addition to ongoing contributions to the space.

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Nora explained that from the tourism perspective, the co-existence of visitors and residents is of utmost importance. That is why it's interesting to see the growing number of places where tourists can visit and residents are also a part of it, for example in museums of the federal space, there are open spaces for talks and workshops, which also serves as a space in which residents can engage with visitors.

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Sabine talked about the multi-networking communication space. She explained that there is an advantage in it but highlighted the benefits of also having a dedicated space for specific activities, with multidimensional spaces for different delegations where different people can go in for different reasons.

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Nora expressed that what you remember from visiting a place is the experience, which means the place does not have to be necessarily polished and beautiful, which she exemplified with the city of Linz. She said:

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It’s not for everyone but only for those who appreciate our free mindedness and difference.

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She explained that edgy and different destinations can attract certain types of visitors, so the importance is in having people in your destination that appeal to kinds of visitors.

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To wrap up the session, Nora stressed the importance of funding for creatives to be able to develop projects and to plan for the long-term. She mentioned though, that people visit the region for workations and to work in the area, as there is a sense of evolution due to many startups growing into businesses.

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