The DANUrB+ Regional Conference “Development Potentials of the Danube and the Small Danube'' was held on June 14 in Kolárovo, Slovakia. The conference was a bi-lingual event welcoming guests from both sides of the Danube, from Slovakia and Hungary. Representatives of project partners, associated partners, stakeholders, as well as professionals and students were present.

The regional conference was hosted by the city of Kolárovo, a town lying on the banks of the Small Danube, in the municipal cultural center. It has started with the greetings of the Mayor of Kolárovo Mr. Árpád Horváth. He was followed by the representatives of the Lead Partner, the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), Mr. Árpád Szabó and Mr. Dániel Balizs. The BME together with Ms. Mónika Simon and Mr. Zoltán Bara from Pons Danubii EGTC introduced the project and its possibilities, as well as its recent outcomes and the Pons Danubii Action Plan.

In the first part of the main program examples of good practice projects from the Danube region were presented, such as the interregional Slovak-Hungarian Danube Bike & Boat Project of the Bratislava Municipal Region as the project lead. The Kúšik Family Foundation is an NGO focusing on the Small Danube region, with the aim to improve the local boating and cycling infrastructure. The priorities of the Kukkonia Civic Association are promoting the Danube region as a tourism destination, supporting local production, culture, sport, and environmental activities. Community building with the aim to improve awareness about local values is also an important pillar of the NGOs practice. The last presentation of the program was about Korzo Zálesie, that is familiar to the DANUrB+ partnership from the study trip in Slovakia but is not as well known in the peripheries of the Slovak Danube region and in Hungary.

Students of the Faculty of Architecture and Design of the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava (STU) presented their proposals for revitalization of river areas in Kolárovo and Komárno. In both localities there is a need for a cultivated and multifunctional cycling and boating facility that would support local, ecological, and sustainable international tourism. The conference was also attended by a group of students hosted by the STU at that time in an international building camp working on exterior furniture out of concrete for river areas made by a 3D-printing method. All students also had the opportunity to discuss local needs and priorities with local stakeholders and authorities, mostly municipalities. The students' works are now exhibited in public spaces in Kolárovo and Komárno.

During lunch the guests had the opportunity to taste local specialties, especially a kind of a pastry with red pepper. The lunch break was followed by a vocational lecture given by Prof. Ľubica Vítkova on the importance of strategic planning in the Danube area with the focus on spatial planning connected to the DANUrB Action Plans. Finally, Mr. Bruno Konečný, as one of the experts working with the Danube Fund of the Central European Foundation, presented the work in progress of a pilot proposal for integrated river management of the Small Danube region.

The participants of the conference expressed their appreciation of the rich program of the event, plus the opportunity to have valuable personal encounters and discussions on the development opportunities of the region after two years marked by the pandemic.

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Project co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF and IPA).