1

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

DELIVERABLE 7.14

Final Conference

European Commission

DG Research and Innovation

SP1 - Cooperation

Collaborative project

Large-scale integrating project

FP7-2013-NMP-ENV-EeB

GRANT AGREEMENT No. 608678

CommONEnergy

Re-conceptualize shopping malls from consumerism to energy

conservation

2

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

Technical References

This document has been produced in the context of the CommONEnergy Project.

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework

Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 608678. All information in this document is provided “as is”

and no guarantee or warranty is given that the information is fit for any particular purpose. The user thereof uses the

information at its sole risk and liability. For the avoidance of all doubts, the European Commission has no liability in

respect of this document, which is merely representing the authors view.

Deliverable No. 7.14

Dissemination Level PU

Work Package WP7

Lead beneficiary BPIE

Contributing beneficiary(ies) N/A

Author(s) Marine Faber

Co-author(s) N/A

Reviewed by N/A

Date September 28, 2017

File Name D7.14 Final Conference

Project Acronym CommONEnergy

Project Title Re-conceptualize shopping malls from consumerism to energy conservation

Project Coordinator Roberto Lollini Accademia Europea Bolzano, Viale Druso 1, 39100 Bolzano/Italy roberto.lollini@eurac.edu

Project Duration 1 October 2013 – 30 September 2017 (48 Months)

3

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

Contents

Executive Summary .................................................................................................... 4

Introduction ................................................................................................................. 5

1. Before the event .................................................................................................. 6

1.1 Defining the event concept and format .......................................................... 6

1.2 Finding the location ....................................................................................... 7

1.3 Getting high-level speakers ........................................................................... 7

1.4 Targeting the right participants ...................................................................... 8

1.5 Promoting the event in several places ........................................................... 8

2. During the event ................................................................................................ 11

2.1 Organizing a dynamic event ........................................................................ 11

2.2 Making the event live on Social Media ........................................................ 12

2.3 Having a dynamic agenda ........................................................................... 23

2.4 Events results .............................................................................................. 23

3. After the event ................................................................................................... 24

3.1 Sending material to participants .................................................................. 24

3.2 Uploading material on the website .............................................................. 24

3.3 Contacting media......................................................................................... 25

Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 27

4

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

Executive Summary

CommONEnergy closed with a final conference held September 7, 2017 in Brussels.

The conference gathered 90 participants, coming from all over Europe and sectors: research

centres and universities, retail and construction industry, European Institutions, associations

and federations, and more.

The conference was planned from the early ages of the project, as a summarising event of

the work done in 4 years: the research and development, the implementation of the

solutions, the evaluation of the results and more. It was always foreseen as a high-level

dynamic event that should gather a wide range of stakeholders, but also involve policy-

makers to demonstrate the work done and especially the replication potential to other

countries, other shopping centres, and other kinds of buildings.

A brainstorm between all partners allowed define the agenda and potential speakers as early

as beginning of 2017, so that the conference could be promoted from very early. The

conference was largely promoted during the months before the event, by the project, the

partners, and leveraging networking platforms.

One of the ideas was to have the project landmark publication, the guidelines, ready by then

and distributed to all participants. Another idea was to take this opportunity to gather the

event with the Sustainable Building Challenge ceremony.

All these allowed to draft a dynamic and inclusive agenda, going deep in the project without

being too long or too technical. There were breakout moments when people could exchange.

The location was also chosen with the idea in mind to allow people to mingle and exchange:

the room setting was therefore cabaret with 8 people per table, and 18 posters were installed

in the networking area to show the results and be a point of discussion. The room chosen

had also a big screen, allowing people to follow well the presentations, and to screen the

project video to start the conference. People commented very positively on this location, not

yet so well-known in Brussels.

During the event, the BPIE team, supported by some project partners, was very active on

social media, each presentation was supported by a tweet, and livestreams were done for

Facebook.

After the event, presentations and photos were shared with participants and added to the

website. A press release was sent to media.

5

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

Introduction

CommONEnergy lasted four years, during which many interesting outputs were developed:

solutions (technology and tools), reports, etc. But maybe one of the most important aspect

are the leassons-learned from the project implementation, that could benefit other

stakeholders. These needed to be shared in an interesting format.

Organising a project final conference was therefore very important, in order to summarise all

project developements and findings, present them to interested stakeholders, but also learn

from them by having networking moments and Q&A opportunities.

The final conference of CommONEnergy was therefore planned for September 7, 2017, the

closing month of the project. Most results could then be presented with printed material and

with speaking slots, involving most partners to showcase the work done in 4 years.

It was also the occasion to launch our tool-box landmark publication, the guidelines on how

to approach the energy efficient retrofit of shopping centres, and to reward the winners of the

Sustainable Building Challenge Competition.

This document summarises all key steps from the event organisation, from the idea and

planning to the day and after event.

6

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

1. Before the event

The event planning started as early as the beginning of 2017, with first ideas exchanged

between partners about the event concept, format and potential date. A first idea was

therefore to host the event during the EU Sustainable Energy Week, but considering the

specificity of the topic and the crowded agenda of EUSEW, it was decided to wait for

September to host it as a stand-alone event, also in order to have all results ready to be

shared.

1.1 Defining the event concept and format

The event concept and format appeard very important from the early stages, deciding quickly

to gather the final conference with a morning training workshop (task 7.9), the launch of the

guidelines and the Sustainable Building Challenge ceremony.

The agenda needed to be appealing to a variety of stakeholders with a mix of technical and

non-technical aspects, that is why it was also decided to produce one poster per technology

to allow those who wished to go deeper into each solution.

We also chose to mix single oral intervention with a panel and the projection of our project

video.

7

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

1.2 Finding the location

After a first selection made on reputation, size and availability, we visited three hotels where to host the final conference and award competition ceremony, in Brussels. After careful examination of the offers received and the visits onsite, we chose the Hotel Bloom. The hotel conference room size and equipment (big screen able to be divided in 3 and

project videos in very high quality, possibility to pin posters on the wall, possibility to adapt

the lighting with our logo’s colours, and more), as well as the good networking

facilities/atmosphere and the location made us choose this location.

We agreed with the hotel to be as sustainable as possible, having glass bottles rather than

single use plastic ones.

The cocktail was adapted to our three demo cases countries’ food (Italian, Norwegian and

Spanish).

1.3 Getting high-level speakers

We considered many potential speakers to join our final event: of course the project partners

were the first choice, as it was important that they could present the work done the past

years. We also wanted to have a representation from the European Commission, and chose

that our project officer, who followed the project during the 4 years, was the best choice. He

kindly accepted to join us and introduce the event.

The conference was moderated by Oliver Rapf, Executive Director of BPIE, who is used to

this exercise.

Finally, we invited an advisory board member from the project, Veronika Schropfer, from the

Architects Council of Europe, and another Commission representative, Andreea

Strachinescu, (Head of Unit C.2 – New energy technologies, innovation and clean coal, DG

Energy, European Commission) to join Wilmer Pasut from EURAC in a panel discussion on

the importance of having innovative technologies, better & smarter retail buildings and

include them into policymaking.

We invited an International Council of Shopping Centres’ representative, also a board

member of the project, to additionally join the panel, but she was unfortunately not available.

8

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

1.4 Targeting the right participants

Targeting the right participants was facilitated by our agenda, which was a mix of technology-

focused presentations, policy-oriented ones and more research-based ones. We therefore

sent the event invitation and agenda to a broad database of contacts (over 4000 people),

and most partners shared the invite in their networks to support gathering attendees.

1.5 Promoting the event in several places

The event was promoted in several places, with flyers and printed invitations, online on the

project and partners’ websites, as well as through many networks and on social media.

- Physical promotion

Several other events were used as leverage to promote our final conference, such as a

MAPIC networking event in Brussels early June 2017, the EU Sustainable Energy Week in

Brussels in June 2017, the eceee Summer Study in the South of France, June 2017, or

events organised by BPIE.

9

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

- Online promotion – Project website

The project website was used several times to announce and remind the event, with a

dedicated page, an editorial on February 23, a news item on March 17 and an editorial on

May 16.

- Online promotion – Social Media

Social media was used a lot to promote and remind about the final conference. Some screenshots of tweets and posts on Facebook and LinkedIN are included below.

- Online promotion – Other networks

Many networks supported us in promoting the final conference, such as Construction

Products Europe, the European Commission, the EU Utility Week, Build UP, the EC website,

Fleishman Hillard, Construction21, BPIE’s website, the EU agenda, eceee, CASADOMO,

10

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

Cordis, CEPS, Cambre, Across Magazine, DODs, the Institute for Market Transformation

(IMT, US partner of BPIE) promoted the event to the Landlord Tenant Partnership

programme.

A post about the project final conference was made on the website Prof-trac, following

BPIE's newsletter.

11

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

2. During the event

The event was therefore organized on September 7, 2017 in Brussels.

2.1 Organizing a dynamic event

Organising a dynamic event was possible thanks to the room setting, the agenda screening

the project video, and mixing the speaking slots with networking moments.

- Setting of the room

The room was set as cabaret, with about 8 people per table. We allocated partners to be

present in all tables to allow an exchange with the participants. All tables faced the big

screen, divided in 3 with the presentation repeated on 2 sides.

The common spaces were used to pin our 16 technology posters and the project

summarising poster, and share all the printed material we had to present the project.

12

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

- Using all project material to decorate the room and the networking areas

All project technology posters were printed for the event (and then distributed to each

technology partner), so as to promote and explain each technology and showcase the range

of solutions developed during the project lifetime.

- Projecting the video

The 6-min video developed at the end of the project, presenting the solutions installed in the

demo cases and developed / tested during the project, was screened to open the event.

- Having networking moments

Networking moments, eased by the breaks, cocktail and dinner, allowed participants to

exchange ideas, solutions and partners to present their solutions.

2.2 Making the event live on Social Media

The event was also accessible for people outside the room, thanks to a live-tweeting and

streaming about some presentations.

Below are included screenshots about Facebook livestreaming and Twitter “conversations”.

13

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

14

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

15

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

16

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

17

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

18

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

19

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

20

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

21

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

22

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

23

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

2.3 Having a dynamic agenda

The final event was also the opportunity to organise two other events: a morning training

workshop, focusing specifically on the tools, and the Sustainable Building Challenge Award

ceremony.

Three shopping centres were rewarded by iiSBE Italia

2.4 Events results

The event resulted in the participation of 90 people, from diverse sectors: construction

industry, hotel and retail industry, International associations, research centres and

universities, cities, clusters and federations, investors and financers, owners of shopping

centres, energy agencies, European Institutions, and finally, media.

24

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

144 had registered.

Additional people also viewed the livestreaming on Facebook: 60 views on average for each

3 videos.

3. After the event

After the event, we maintained the attention of stakeholders by sending out a press release,

the presentations and photos to participants and uploading everything on the website.

3.1 Sending material to participants

A thank you email was sent to participants, allowing to share the presentations and photos

taken during the event.

People who could not attend also asked to receive the event material.

3.2 Uploading material on the website

After the event, photos and presentations were uploaded as pdfs and a news was written to

announce the award winners.

25

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

3.3 Contacting media

A press release was sent to nearly 300 journalists, resulting in some articles.

IGD, winner of one of the award categories, also issued a press release.

26

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

27

Deliverable D7.14 Final Conference

Conclusions

The project concluding event can be considered a success, gathering many participants and

generating attention online before, during and after. It was a positive conclusion of the

project.

We should raise the point that this success demonstrates once again that relying on network

partners is very important and helps increase outreach.

Having a dynamic event proved to be very efficient, speakers were challenged to be concise

and precise and did well, the moderator managed to be a good “entertainer” as well as

challenger, asking thoughtful questions.

The event participation dropout (90/144 registered) demonstrates however that it can be very

tough to foresee the real participation, and that a constant effort is needed to ensure

participation on the due day.