Sixth trans-national partner meeting in the capital of space

The City of Seinäjoki has launched itself recently as a capital of space. As inhabitants of the capital of space, we wanted to show to our MAMBA guests where this idea came from and took on our first day of project meeting a bus to Ilmajoki municipality, about 20 km from Seinäjoki. When admiring the wide plains from the bus window everyone understood that space does not only stand for outer space – but there is lot of space everywhere in South Ostrobothnia. Lot of space for dreams and possibilities – but all this space sets also its challenges for the rural mobility.

The challenges and possibilities of rural mobility, the key elements of the MAMBA project, awakened once again lively discussions during the project meeting. As the MAMBA project partners are now in the process of planning and creating the regional Mobility Centres in close cooperation with the stakeholders, the meeting was a good opportunity to clarify different Mobility Centre concepts and get valuable feedback on own plans from the other project partners. At these phase of the MAMBA project the pilot actions are also either actively running or to be launched in the near future in different regions. Sharing experiences, feedback, and discussing challenges or problems regarding pilot actions were a crucial part of the meeting, since it is important that we all learn from each other. Sharing knowledge and working together towards common goals is what the whole MAMBA project is about and it is great to see how we are moving forward sometimes slowly but always firmly.