Capital of Culture means setting out together and building bridges, including between culture and business. In line with this motto, the "Local Hero for Europe" event took place on 11 January 2024 at the Carlowitz Congress Centre, a joint initiative of the City of Chemnitz, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the CWE, the Industrieverein Sachsen, C3 Chemnitzer Veranstaltungszentren and Chemnitz 2025 gGmbH. Inspiring key notes and short presentations made the diverse projects of Chemnitz 2025 tangible and tangible for the numerous representatives from the local economy, the local heroes.
The event kicked off with a rousing speech by Lord Mayor Sven Schulze. He promised: "We will make this a joint event".
Andrea Pier, Commercial Director of Chemnitz 2025 gGmbH, and Sybille Sonntag, Head of the Marketing and Sponsoring Department of Chemnitz 2025 gGmbH, together with Silvana Bergk, Head of the City of Chemnitz's Business Division, also introduced the topic.
The evening was characterised by concise brief presentations of the Chemnitz 2025 projects, which highlighted a wide range of participation opportunities for companies:
- Creative tourism and maker culture by Makers, Business & Arts | represented by Josephine Hage, curator of the main project of Chemnitz 2025 gGmbH
- the exhibitions planned for 2025 (e.g. Edvard Munch "Angst" by the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz)
- the art and sculpture trail PURPLE PATH | presented by Silke Franzl, Mayor of the town of Ehrenfriedersdorf and member of the supervisory board of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 gGmbH
- #3000Garages | explained by Agnieszka Kubicka-Dzieduszycka, curator of the main project of Chemnitz 2025 gGmbH
- the volunteer programme | explained by Dirk Zinner, head of the volunteer programme at Chemnitz 2025 gGmbH
- the planting and participation project Gelebte Nachbarschaft | represented by Stefan Schmidtke, Programme Managing Director of Chemnitz 2025 gGmbH
- the Generation team | presented by Christian Knaack, project manager
- kOSMOS | represented by Frank Schönfeld, Head of the Programme Department of Chemnitz 2025 gGmbH and Susann Endler, CWE
- the intervention areas | explained by Jana Strohbach, staff unit of the City of Chemnitz.
Following the brief presentations, there was plenty of room for dialogue and networking.
Prof Dr Julia Frohne is Professor of Communication Management at the Westfälische Hochschule in Gelsenkirchen. From 2021 to 2023, she was also Managing Director of the regional economic development agency for the Ruhr region, Business Metropole Ruhr. Prior to this, Ms Frohne was Director of Communications and Marketing for the European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010 from 2007 to 2010, where she was responsible for the strategic planning and direction of marketing campaigns as well as the organisation of cooperation activities with municipal, artistic and private sector partners and sponsors.
She reported from her experience of Ruhr2010 that a sense of community and pride in the region developed at the time, particularly during the Capital of Culture year, which can still be felt today. This can be seen, for example, in networks that still exist today and institutions that continue to work together, such as Urbane Künste Ruhr or the Ruhr art museums.
Many of the infrastructure measures are also still visible today and have established themselves as important locations in the region. With regard to Chemnitz, she stated that it must be possible to turn 2025 into a major joint event in order to achieve sustainable success. Julia Frohne also made a very clear appeal to the participants: "Visibility needs funding" and cited many examples of successful collaborations for Ruhr 2010, where a total of 20 million in sponsorship funds were raised. She ended her keynote speech with the invitation: "Please be as cooperative as possible (- but don't interfere with the dramaturgy)."
