What happened at the General Assembly in Vienna ?

WIMBY second General Assembly took place in Vienna between the 24th and 26th of January 2024.

Last week, 44 participants from all over Europe attended the General Assembly of WIMBY in the Viennese University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Universität für Bodenkultur, BOKU) premises. Here is a short report of the 3-day event marking the completion of the first year of the project.

DAY 1

After the first greetings and a playful ice-breaking activity, we started with opening remarks from the Technical and Scientific coordinators. They addressed administrative details as well as recommendations and a timeline of the next project’ phases. It was followed with a comprehensive recap of the progress made within each work package, highlighting recent achievements, ongoing tasks, upcoming deadlines, and any requirements for additional support, whether in terms of data or expertise. The goal of these discussions was to identify topics requiring further discussions, explore possible synergies between tasks, enhance collaboration and structure future activities.

The day, marked by productive dialogue and a shared commitment to project success, ended with a refreshing and well-deserved dinner.

Ice-breaking activity at the second WIMBY GA in Vienna.

Sophie Béquet for WIMBY.

DAY 2

Day two was dedicated to four interactive workshops that demanded active dialogue and physical participation from attendees. The first workshop kicked off with the launch of a questionnaire focussing on citizens’ perception on impacts and project planning. All partners then presented their datasets and checked for compatibility in dimensionality, sparsity, and resolution and other variables. It was followed by the 3D environment workshop where participants engaged in hands-on activities to test the beta version of the serious game, providing valuable feedback for refinement. Finally, the last workshop nurtured discussions on WIMBY final tool, the interactive map. Various wireframes and functionalities were proposed and debated in order to optimize user experience and enhance the effectiveness of the WIMBY platform.

Rebecca Hueting for WIMBY.

DAY 3

Day 3 commenced with a code sprint session, where technical experts collaborated to harmonize datasets and address methodological and technical challenges. Concurrently, bilateral meetings were held to facilitate one-o-one discussions between WP members.