For the first time since the project kick-off meeting in January 2020, the iPRODUCE consortium reunited for a face to face plenary meeting, last 4-6 May 2022 in Rovereto, Italy.
The plenary meeting was an important opportunity to discuss past activities and progress, as well as establish foundations for the forthcoming months of the project that will see the release of the project’s OpIS platform.
The first day of the meeting focused primarily on the technical aspects of the project and ongoing developments, including updates and progress on the tools that will integrate the OpIS platform. The partners also split up into parallel discussions to discuss more specific aspects of the technical and non-technical tools. The day wrapped up with an initial discussion on the ongoing validation of the OpIS platform, as well as considerations about the user journey and user experience, which would be important for day 2 discussions.
The second day of the meeting started with a challenging yet fruitful session in the format of a world café. Divided into smaller groups, partners discussed the user journey and usage of the platform from the perspective of five potential users and scenarios: SMEs, start-ups, makers, hobbyists, and educational organisations. This session allowed for the identification of a set of new functionalities that may be relevant to include in upcoming releases to address new needs. The meeting continued with presentations and discussions related to the validation of the OpIS platform and respective tools, activities to ensure the establishment of a solid stakeholder ecosystem, and activities to promote results and generate impact.
The last day mainly focused on discussing project management and establishing conclusions and next steps for the forthcoming months.
In addition to the consortium meeting, the gathering of partners in Rovereto was useful to organise other sessions, including a business model workshop with the Italian cMDF representatives, as well as a workshop with the Italian cMDF partners on the tools and services being developed in the scope of the project. Both activities will be replicated in the future with other cMDFs.
More than two years after the last F2F meeting, this second physical plenary meeting was an important and fruitful impulse for the partners and iPRODUCE. Being a project with a strong social component, moving forward these plenary and other local meetings are expected to provide great value for the next stages of the project.
