The European Commission is determined to push forward its learning regions agenda with as much speed as possible. It has therefore funded the development of two PENR3L expert workshops, which took place in the beautiful cities of Kaunas and Barcelona. These were attended by practitioners and academic experts from more than 30 European countries.

The PENR3L workshops were designed to stimulate a meeting of minds and a sharing of ideas and experiences between experts. Formal presentations were therefore kept to a minimum and creative discussion was strongly encouraged. A sample programme is shown here. Every delegate was a potential speaker and every effort was made to provide the opportunity for a free and open exchange of views, activities, knowledge and practice. Delegates were also encouraged to bring visual evidence for display at the workshops.

Preparation included the themes and subthemes that are of greatest interest to budding learning cities and regions and voluntary exercises to bring the delegates up to a common interpretation.  The opening presentation by Professor Norman Longworth, a history of  learning city developments, is shown here.

The outcomes included an agreed list of the most urgent actions needed, shown in the two presentations  produced by Professor Michael Osborne - Barcelona list and Kaunas list – and a written report on the workshops by Kate Miller shown as Barcelona report and Kaunas report

However the most important outcome is the establishment of a European network of expertise (The PASCAL European Network) that will

• form the basis for a continuing exchange of ideas and experiences,
• lead to the development of projects and programmes that promote a more rapid transformation of European cities and regions into learning cities and regions
• link to the PASCAL world-wide network of learning cities and regions

See the brochure on the PASCAL European network here and further information on PASCAL here.