Examples of NRN events

LeaderFEST (Meeting of European Local Action Groups)

A meeting of the European Local Action Groups, using the LEADER approach, is held on a rota basis in the Czech Republic and in the neighbouring countries. In 2012, the meeting was held in a royal historical town of Levoča in Northeast Slovakia at the end of May. The organisers of all the meetings have always prepared for

LeaderFEST participants an extensive working agenda as well as accompanying programme, enriched by a craft fair of traditional crafts offering local as well as regional products, folk and theatre group performances and free entries to the cultural monuments or museums in the town.

LeaderFEST is designed as a working meeting divided into workshops at which the participants zero in on topical issues. During the day one selected topics are debated in groups, while during the day two all the participants attend the conference.

Bread Basket (International agricultural fair)

The end of summer holidays is in the diaries of many rural development stakeholders booked for the presentation at Bread Basket (Země živitelka) in České Budějovice. One of the principal topics of the exhibition was the rural renewal and development under the main motto “Future of the Czech agriculture and Czech rural areas” covering the activities of Local Action Groups, landscaping and landscape protection or agrotourism.

The tradition of a joint presentation of NRN and its partners (LAGs in particular) dates back to 2008. The LAGs as organisations have presented themselves since 2006. The year 2012 was marked by a major change – the Z exhibition hall was chosen to present the NRN and its partners enabling the creation of an appropriate setting to present 90 LAGs and other NRN partners. The Rural Areas Exhibition Hall as it was called became a great attraction for trade fair visitors.

A component part of the display was the presentation of regional brands through a rural market place. The traditional market stalls offered products and food bearing some of the regional brands. The outdoor stage was the venue of cultural programme organised by the Association for rehabilitation of countryside. Thanks to the financial support by the Ministry for Regional Development of the CR (MRD CR) two ensembles or music bands with traditional rural show gave performances every day.

National Conference RURAL AREAS

Ranking among important activities of NRN and its partners held in autumn is also the organisation of the National Conference RURAL AREAS. Essential for the evaluation of support for rural areas are particularly the speeches given by the representatives of three crucial ministries which in the future programming period will be relevant for rural development –the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry for Regional Development and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

The working agenda of the conference is usually divided into three days. Day one is devoted to introducing the respective problems and outlining the topics for discussions. During day two the proposed topics are addressed at workshops and the participants can take part in field trips related to the discussed topics. Day three is topped off with a plenary meeting presenting the conclusions from the previous discussions.