EventmanagementSteinbeis Europa Zentrum organized FUSILLI Final Conference

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum was a project partner of the EU project FUSILLI – Fostering the Food System Transformation through Innovative Living Lab Implementations, which ran from January 2021 to December 2024. During the project period, we were responsible for the communication and exploitation activities of the project, most recently taking the lead in the organisation of the FUSILLI Final Conference that took place in Nilüfer-Bursa, Turkey on the 19^th-20^th November.

The final conference was organised as a hybrid event, taking place at Nilüfer’s Pancar Deposu, meaning ‘Beet warehouse’. The venue with its large open space event venue with wide windows proved to be conducive to the event, fostering a relaxed atmosphere that allowed interaction and discussion.

The first day started with a welcome by the representative from the European Commission, Daniela Lueth, and Şadi Özdemir, the mayor of Nilüfer. Julia Pinedo Gil from Fundacion CARTIF and the project’s coordinator presented the project results and gave an overview of the leanings and findings. The rest of the day was lined up with a series of inspiring and insightful panel discussions on the role of Food2030 Living Labs in policy development, citizen engagement for food system transformation, and a vision session with students from Izmir Democracy University. During the FUSILLI Cities Bazaar in the afternoon, participants got the chance to get familiar with the cities, learn about their work and exchange ideas.

More than 130 participants joined the event on-site on the first day and more people joined online. The second day, our hosts from Nilüfer Municipality took the participants on a wide-ranging visit across the city’s different sites where they implement FUSILLI’s innovation actions across the different stages of the food system. From the city garden and seed library, the Hasanaga Food Hub, the neighborhood urban garden, the city’s newest compost facility and some cultural sites in between – there was plenty to see and be inspired from Nilüfer’s food transformation activities.