The fourth network meeting as part of the CityMood project recently took place at the Parkhotel. At the well-attended event, tradespeople and interested parties were able to talk to each other and the city of Idar-Oberstein's business development department about issues relevant to the city center.
The economic development department had invited Gunnar Venter, the first chairman of the advertising association KLAR (Kirner Land Aktive Region), who gave a keynote speech about his voluntary work for the advertising association in Kirn. In his talk, he presented various inner-city events, such as the Kirner Autofrühling, which are organized and implemented by KLAR. The tenor here was that many stakeholders, especially volunteers, are needed to organize activities and events together. These could be craft businesses, retailers, restaurateurs, banks or simply interested citizens. After all, many events in Kirn would not exist without volunteers.
Following the interesting and packed presentation, the business development team summed up the 2024 events that were organized as part of CityMood. These include three after-work events and the CityMaad in September. The next and final event for 2024 is the Idar-Oberstein Advent Glow, which will take place from December 12 to 14 on Schleiferplatz in Idar. This event will also be organized by the city's business development department. In the long term, however, such an event is not possible in this form for organizational reasons, especially as the inner city funding through the federal programme for sustainable inner cities and centers ends in November 2025. It would therefore be desirable, the two city employees emphasize, if these events could be run by the Idar-Oberstein City Marketing Association, for example, in order to ensure continuity and sustainability for the events.
For 2025, the last year of funding, the task now is to find committed people who will continue to support these projects, as in Kirn. A foundation stone has already been laid with the Idar-Oberstein city marketing association. It offers interested parties the opportunity to contribute their ideas and support one or two events, or even take the lead in organizing them. Of course, the city's economic development department will continue to be the point of contact and supporter of these city center events, but is urging people to get involved on a voluntary basis.
Are you a manager yourself or would you like to get involved in the design of your city center as a private individual? The city management is looking forward to supporters at citymood-io@stadtberatung.de.