The PASCAL EUROPEAN NETWORK of LEARNING REGIONS (PENR3L) with the aid of the

EUROPEAN COMMISSION SOCRATES PROGRAMME

MEETING MINDS, SHARING EXPERIENCES, ON ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT IN LEARNING CITIES AND REGIONS

A KEY WORKSHOP FOR EUROPEAN LEARNING CITIES AND REGIONS

25/26 October, 2007 in Barcelona

The PASCAL Observatory at the University of Stirling and its partners in the PENR3L project look forward to welcoming you to Barcelona to take part in the above PENR3L invitation-only workshop and to meet with some 40 fellow experts and practitioners in learning city/region work from 21 other European countries.

Great changes and great challenges lie ahead for Local and Regional Government. Modern cities and regions recognise that continuing development depends upon effective management of a number of interlinked economic, financial, social, cultural, environmental and community issues. Some of these are outlined at the end of this programme.

You will know too that much will depend principally upon the quality of information, knowledge, intelligence and research, and on the development of the human, intellectual, economic and social capital that will drive the engine of success. In short the goal is the development of holistic ‘Learning Cities’ and ‘Learning Regions’ that can constantly adapt to accommodate new knowledge and new circumstances as well as create new solutions to older situations.

Many cities and regions have addressed this challenge by establishing alliances with centres of expertise that provide an observatory of changing times and changing needs. But now there is an excellent opportunity for learning cities and regions to profit from the intelligence available from a European and a global level. This is why the European Commission has funded the European partners of PASCAL, an existing global observatory, to bring together experts from each country to share their experience, knowledge and ideas with a view to setting an action agenda for the future.

We recognise that you are a busy person and that you have as much to contribute as you have to learn. This is why, in participating in this one and a half day workshop, you will be both teacher and learner. Formal presentations are kept to a minimum, and creative solutions predominate. You will share your hopes and needs for the future in an atmosphere of productive dialogue with others of like mind and purpose.

But this will be no talk shop. Insights and solutions will be gained. You will be instrumental in producing resourceful solutions for your own locality, and in creating a sustainable and dynamic European Network, with links to global expertise and practice, that can continue to provide an invaluable resource for us all for years to come.

So we look forward to meeting you in Barcelona, itself a vibrant and vigorous learning city. Local accommodation for the nights of 24 and 25 October, local transport and meals has been provided by the project, and travel costs of up to €400 based on economy tickets are reimbursable.

Professor Mike Osborne, Co-Director of PASCAL and

Professor Norman Longworth, Author, European Policy Paper on the Local and Regional Dimension of Lifelong Learning, and Adviser to the PENR3L project