Last week we attended the PEOPLE conference in Brussels held at the Committee of the Regions, where we were invited as project partners representing the Blogging School. Our initiative was recommended as a good practice within the ShareIT subproject, due to its potential of providing digital literacy training to various social groups.

While ShareIT was just one of 7 subprojects under PEOPLE, the conference was a great opportunity to perceive the complexity of the project to its full extent and the implication it will have on policies to be implemented in the EU during the following years. Delegates from Andalusia (Spain), South-East England (the UK), Stockholm (Sweden), Noord-Brabant (the Netherlands), Malopolska (Poland), Venice (Italy), and Timis (Romania) shared insight in the way they implemented the subprojects in their regions. We also took advantage of having a networking session in the conference’s agenda to establish new connections with peers across Europe.

In addition to the training experience in online communication we had with the Blogging School, our technical achievements also proved to be of interest for the representatives of public institutions, companies and NGOs we had the chance to talk to during the event. Given the growing importance regions will have in the EU in the upcoming years, communities in Western Europe are already striving to implement local self-reliant solutions that follow a glocal trend.

Furthermore, online communication and the correct use of online communication channels plays a key role in the current social and economical context. No wonder WordPress-based solutions such as custom blogging platforms and corporate online communication solutions or Drupal-based online communication platforms are now sought-after more than ever. In the right hands, they can be tailored and implemented to suit and serve the online communication needs of various target groups consisting of both individuals and institutions, regardless of the Euro-region they’re based in.

What started out as a very rewarding invitation to join the PEOPLE conference developed into a very interesting exchange of ideas and information, and to top it all, we discovered a market of potential beneficiaries our experience can be of use to. Not bad for a day in Brussels!