Project title: Innovative Location

Project type: cross-border

Project duration: July 2018 - June 2021

Financing: The project is implemented under the Operational Program for Cross-border Cooperation Interreg V-A Slovenia-Austria 2014-2020 and is co-financed by the EU under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Partners:

• Regions Entwicklungs- und Management Oststeiermark GmbH (Austria) - Lead Partner,
• Scientific Research Centre Bistra Ptuj (Slovenia),
• BSC, business support center, doo, Kranj (Slovenia),
• AREA m styria GmbH (Austria)

Project goal

The goal of the Innovative Location project is therefore to support cities and municipalities on both sides of the border in order to build professional management of locations according to the latest standards. In the future, location management will become the central service of municipalities, and with this assistance, it will preserve jobs and create new ones.

The Innovative Location project supports cities and municipalities in regions outside metropolitan areas to set up professional site management. Only when cities and municipalities take this task into their own hands will they succeed. Through the Innovative Location project, expert location management will be developed and implemented, which is based on three elements: development, organization and marketing of the location, areas.

In the context of site development, municipalities are professionally analyzed as a business location, compared to other places, and measures are being put in place to improve the quality of the sites, which are required for this purpose.

The goal of the organization is to develop the appropriate organizational form of municipal and regional governance and to establish cooperation and networks with other municipalities, regions and neighboring countries.

Last but not least, it is the task of site marketing to actively communicate the advantages of the location, attracting investors to their community and the region, and to support as much as possible the creation of new jobs through integrated on-the-spot services.

With innovative location management, the existing experience of participating Slovene and Austrian municipalities and regions will be combined and upgraded in the areas of site development, organization of the city and location marketing. With the help of external experts, common bilateral standards and tools for professional site management are being developed and tested for the first time.

Results

The project of innovative spatial development can achieve much better results at the cross-border level than at national or regional level.

The results of the Innovative Location project will be mainly:

• Standardized cross-border management of locations;
• Location academy with seminars and study tours;
• information events in all participating regions;
• standardized bilateral instruments for site analysis, environmental analysis and a map of competencies;
• development strategies for locations for 12 municipalities;
• modeling the implementation of site management in 4 pilot regions and the implementation of 4 site presentations and 4 workshops for cooperation with companies.

Benefits for the local environment:

Municipalities, which have already developed business zones (Ptuj, Kidričevo, Markovci, Lenart, Ormož), will also be invited to the project, and we would like to continue to develop a successful model for managing locations according to the latest standards.

The municipalities involved will get thus:

• Knowledge and content necessary for successful management (management) of locations,
• A handbook for managing locations in regions outside urban areas (agglomerations), prepared on the basis of requests from municipalities and cities participating in the project,
• An Academy will be composed of three expert seminars on the development, organization and marketing of locations,
• information events in municipalities (Road Show),
• developed tools for site analysis (high quality analysis instruments, which will help to analyze all relevant data in detail, and the locations will be mutually comparable),
• developed instruments for environmental analysis (a developed bilateral standardized instrument for analyzing surrounding regions and regions from the neighboring country),
• developed instruments - competency maps (develop a standardized instrument that will enhance the competencies of each location, increased site comparability and outward presentation);
• Comparative analysis of locations (through the already developed three instruments, the quality, weaknesses and advantages of the regional environment and the available competences will be worked out and evaluated accurately),
• a prepared local location strategy (precise strategies and measures for the development, organization and marketing of the site),
• a prepared regional strategy for locations (based on a local strategy, a regional strategy);
• a common cross-border bilateral cross-border strategy,
• Pilot development of TOP sites (within the framework of the TOP location model, together they acquire concrete procedures for the development of TOP sites and try them out in the municipality; the content of TOP sites development will be central plans - Masterplan and feasibility study for concrete TOP sites in municipalities);
• model of organization of TOP sites (developed and realized joint model for organization of location management at local and regional level. At the heart of the pilot model is the construction and further development of municipal and organizational forms for the implementation of successful and sustainable management of locations, through which they will be planned, financed and implemented individual activities for providing existing and obtaining new jobs),
• TOP marketing model marketing (acquisition of different investors for such economic locations; potential investors will be sought, identified and contacted, their wishes and needs will be taken into account, and persuasive offer of locations prepared);
• bilateral economic presentations (a concrete location profile with appropriate competence accents and regional specificities that make it different from other municipalities),
• Bilateral thematic workshops.