The project O-City (Orange: Creativity, Innovation and Technology) was presented in the new edition of Digital Jove 2019, an event organized by the Coordinating Team of Digital Jove and the Valencian Institute of Culture – Generalitat in conjunction with several collaborating bodies. The event was held on 9th, 10th and 11th May in three venues in the Barrio del Carmen neighborhood in the city of Valencia.
The director of the Innovation Chair at the Gandia Campus of the UPV and project manager of the Erasmus+ O-City Project, José Marín Roig, has assured that this forum dedicated to digital creation “is ideal to introduce our European project, to get people interested and involved in it, including town halls that want to form part of the multimedia platform to have their cultural and natural heritage represented”.
The O-City project is part of the Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliances programme. This programme finances cooperation projects between institutions and companies with the aim of stimulating their capacity for innovation. The duration of the initial funding of the project is three years, and can be extended if the objectives are achieved.
The aim of this initiative, as Marín Roig stressed, is to discover and promote the natural and cultural heritage of the cities associated with the project, while stimulating the growth of the orange economy. This objective is achieved through the production of multimedia elements that show off the heritage of our cities: monuments, folklore, natural spaces.
“Associated with these multimedia elements will also be a whole series of training plans aimed at facilitating the work of secondary and higher education teachers. The aim is to provide these teachers with tools so that they are able to transmit both technical and “soft” skills to their students (teamwork, creativity, communication…)”, added José Marín Roig.
The project will develop two platforms: an e-learning platform aimed at teachers, with training plans and support materials prepared for use in their classes, with their students. This platform will incorporate technical skills courses for the development of multimedia elements and professional skills courses for both soft and business skills.
And the other online platform (O-City World) where cities and towns can be visited, visualizing their cultural and environmental heritage through different multimedia applications. For example, in the simplest format, a photograph with background music and a narration that explains a natural or cultural element.
In this sense, and given that Digital Jove is a new, open and participative debate forum, dedicated to new digital creative narratives; José Marín Roig participated in the Digital B2B Forum, the pre-event B2B, which was held on 8th May with the aim of connecting, generating synergies and boosting professional networking between entrepreneurs and startups in the digital creative sectors, with the participation of investment groups and national and international institutions. “We presented the project in an 8-minute talk, in order to attract other partners who want to join, interested parties or professionals who want to collaborate”. It took place from 11 am to 6 pm in Convent Carmen.
Additionally, the O-City UPV Gandia Project shared a debate table with the Department of Accessible Technology and R&D of the ONCE Foundation with the aim of addressing ‘Cities of the future: sustainable and accessible cities’. The round table took place on Saturday, May 11th, at 7 pm at the UIMP Valencia – Palau de Pineda. According to Marín Roig, “a debate that mean the closing of this new edition of Digital Jove and a great opportunity to open the debate on cities of the future”.
The event was open to the public and was free of charge.