There is no fee for the conference attendance; registration is required however (see http://elivinglab.org/CrossBordereRegion/DeRC2012/Registration.htm)

Cross-border eCollaboration in the Danube eRegion (http://eLivingLab.org/CrossBordereRegion/InterMunicipality) is the organizer of the 2nd Danube eRegion Conference – DeRC: Cross-border eSolutions & eServices Prototypes Development. The initiative was launched on February 10. 2011 as a response to the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/cooperation/danube/index_en.htm. In the initiative there are the representatives of the municipalities, ministries, government agencies, National Assembly, companies, ICT providers, tourist organizations, chambers of commerce and craft, development centers, organizers of major international events, accounting services, institutes, universities. The initiative has been created in a spirit of the Innovation for Life Quality - Slovenia Living Lab (http://SloveniaLivingLab.org) announced in June 2007.

The initiative is based on an expectation that experimenting (prototyping) in innovative ways of cross-border eCollaboration will accelerate new eSolutions & eServices to be of a higher level of acceptance, and developed and implemented sooner. They will contribute to the competitiveness of the participating organizations, the countries, and the region as a whole, as well as to a better life of their citizens. It is assumed that by using the state-of-the-art Information and Communication Technology - ICT (eTechnologies) the cross--border macro eRegions can become ready for innovative and holistic inter-regions eCollaboration. Objectivesof the prototypes development and testingare: innovativeness, user-centricity, simplicity, low-cost accessibility, web sites connectivity, multi lingual options, experimenting with eSolutions and eServices in the Living Lab environment. Purposesof the prototypes are: support to major cultural and sport events, support to cross-border eBusiness of SMEs, openness to the organizations in the countries of the region, experience and best practice exchange with the organizations in the Danube Region, and between the regions. For example, the Baltic Region of nine, and the Constance Lake Region of four countries.

 The second conference is organized as a follow-up event of the Danube eRegion Conference - DeRC (http://eLivingLab.org/CrossBordereRegion/DeRC/Program.htm) taking place in Ljubljana on September 20, 2011. Working language of the conference is English. Components of a current program are the following panels and meetings: 

·         Institutions Collaborating in the Danube eRegion Development
·         Mayors’ Perspective on the Danube eRegion Development
·         eSolutions & eServices Supporting Priority Areas of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region
·         Creating National & Local Government Platforms for Cross-border eSolutions & eServices in the Danube Region
·         Smart City Creation: eCollaboration Opportunities in the Danube Region
·         Accounting Services Support to SMEs in Doing Cross-border Business in the Danube eRegion
·         eSociety Bodensee 2020: Cross-border Cooperation in the Lake Constance Greater Region
·         Danube eRegion Business-to-Business Meeting
·         Universities and Technology Providers Meeting: Opportunities for eCollaboration in the Danube eRegion
·         Meeting of ALADIN - ALpe Adria Danube universities INitiative

Opportunities for cross-border eCollaboration of numerous stakeholders engaging in open innovation will be discussed in the conference. Panel presentations are expected to be short and action oriented proposing "what will be our prototype/pilot developed in next 12 months". Ideas on possible and needed joint research and development projects in the region are welcome. The participants will be encourage to engage in prototypes development in order to be able to respond in-time to the related national and/or EU calls for project proposals.

An example of the cross-border eCollaboration is the Alpe Adria Danube universities INitiative – ALADIN created on October 22, 2002 (http://eALADIN.eu). Over the years the ALADIN group was growing and engaging in many aspects of eBusiness teaching and research, as well as joint EU projects. For several years, ALADIN has been initiating numerous workshops, conference’s panels and meetings recognizing a need and readiness for an accelerated cross-border eCollaboration in Central Europe. In April 2010,the group has published a Position Paper of the Alpe Adria Danube universities INitiative – ALADIN , (http://eLivingLab.org/CrossBordereRegion/EUDanubeRegionStrategy/ALADINPositionPaper) proposing open innovation approach in the Living Labs environment with a special attention to the SMEs. The signatories of the document were the representatives of the following universities: Bucharest, Romania; BW Munich, Germany; Corvinus, Hungary; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Graz, Austria; Košice, Slovakia; Maribor, Slovenia; Novi Sad, Serbia; Primorska, Slovenia; Rijeka, Croatia; Ruse, Bulgaria; Sofia, Bulgaria; Trento, Italy; Trieste, Italy. 

Numerous innovative eSolutions & eServices based on future Internet and cloud computing will be needed to support eleven Priority Areas of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. The coordinators of several priority areas are involved in a program of DeRC 2012. There are some good reasons for that. One, ICT is needed to efficiently support activities and management of any priority area. Two, ICT may help in sharing public data needed in cross-areas requirements. Three, ICT may support higher level of interoperability of all priority areas contributing to achievement of the common goals of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region.

Components of the conference are the Business-to-Business Meetings co-organized by the respective government agencies of the countries in the region. The agencies will invite IT providers (eSolutions & eServices developers) to meet with the potential customers. They may also attend the prearranged meetings with potential partners in other countries who are looking for opportunities of a joint cross-border prototypes development in order to timely prepare for the expected national and/or EU calls for projects.

For details on the programme: http://elivinglab.org/CrossBordereRegion/DeRC2012/Program.htm

Website: http://elivinglab.org/CrossBordereRegion/DeRC2012/default.htm