Triumph of Turistica at the SmartDest Ideathon in Venice

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Triumph of Turistica at the SmartDest Ideathon in Venice

UP FTŠ Turistica employees and students participated in one of the concluding meetings of the research project SMARTDEST H2020 in Venice last week (6th July - 7th July 2023).

The first day of the event featured numerous interesting presentations and findings from the project. We are proud of many Slovenian representatives who presented various good practices taking place in Slovenia. Among them was Petra Stušek, the director of Tourism Ljubljana, who emphasized the development of tourism offerings that primarily cater to the needs of the local population. To this end, they have included craftsmen from Ljubljana in the tourist offerings and developed eight new experiences.

Maja Pegan from the Hiša! Association also took the stage, presenting the Rajzefiber Traveling Academy of Creative Tourism, which has extended mentorship and consultancy support for the development of tourism experiences and digitalization beyond urban centers to the eastern Slovenian periphery.

The first day of the conference concluded with a presentation by our master's student Rudi Medved and assistant lecturer at Turistica, Tadej Rogelja, MSc, who showcased the operating model of the cooperative Fairbnb.coop and their emerging new product fairUp, which grew out of the student startup LocalsFromZero.

The second day of the conference, which took place on the island of Giudecca, was dedicated to identifying practical solutions to the problems highlighted by the researchers throughout the activities of the SmartDest project. Groups of students, young researchers, and experts worked using the methodology of the MIT Design X program, which conducts its mentoring program in Venice. Among them were members of the UP FTŠ sTOUdio Turistica program: Tilen Nipič, Aram Vermishyan, Rudi Medved, and Jaka Godejša. Meanwhile, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dejan Križaj and Tadej Rogelja, MSc, served as mentors for one of the groups at the Ideathon.

In the afternoon session, the groups presented their ideas. The jury awarded the victory to group number 4 (in the photo), which tackled the challenge called "Data Democracy & Community Empowerment." Jaka Godejša (in a team with Rudi Medved) represented the winning group and presented a solution to ensure a sense of ownership and decision-making power over public funds to local residents through a platform operating on the principles of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

The two-day meeting took place at the premises of the partner organization SerenDPT, which operates with the mission of founding startups that would help re-populate the historic center of Venice by creating high-quality jobs. They have arranged their premises in a former church consecrated in 1583. During the industrial revolution, the church was sold to a private company owned by the Herion family. They converted the space into a factory for yarn and textile production (1887 - 1987). Restoration works were completed in 2008, and since then, it has served as an incubator for the development of new startups. The building, now known as H3 Factory, also hosts research and cultural events.

We extend our congratulations to and are very proud of all the representatives of Turistica for successfully representing the faculty abroad.

The goal of the SMARTDEST project is to generate new knowledge in the field of tourism mobility impact on urban inclusion and population connectivity and to research, design and test innovative solutions to reduce social exclusion. (learn more about the project).