The 2nd meeting of the Inter-Regional Steering Committee of the CultMark operation took place at the Amathous Beach Hotel in Pafos, Cyprus, on 21-23 November 2004, with the participation of the Mayor of Nea Ionia of Magnesia, Mr Stefanos Fouskis and representatives from all partner places.

Before the meeting, the CultMark partner delegations had the opportunity to visit a number of the cultural sites in the Pafos area on Sunday, 21 November, such as: Geroskipou old church and traditional delights workshop, Pafos Town architecture, the Tomb of the Kings, St Pauls column (linked to the demonstration actions in CultMark), Pafos Archaeological site (UNESCO World Heritage Sire), Pafos Medieval Castle at old Port (site of the annual Aphrodite festival - linked to the demonstration actions in the operation) and the Info Point at old Port (also linked to the demonstration actions).

In the evening of Sunday, 21 November, an official dinner was hosted by the Pafos Tourism Committee – Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in honour of the visiting partners’ delegations, with the participation of Deputy Mayors of Pafos and Geroskipou Municipalities.

At the meeting proper on Monday 22 November, the President of the Pafos Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Tourism Committee, Mr Kyriakos Drousiotis, welcomed the participants and stated that the timing of this meeting is very important for Cyprus as it has just joined the EU; the CultMark project is also important to the development of the Pafos region and the Chamber of Commerce is one of the first bodies in Pafos that benefits from EU inter-regional co-operation. The Mayor of Nea Ionia, Mr Stefanos Fouskis opened the meeting and expressed his satisfaction that DEMKA Nea Ionia is leading this project, which is important for all partners. He stated that he was pleased to welcome the senior representatives from Chester and Kainuu-Kajaani in Nea Ionia for the Olympic Games last August, as the post-Olympic use of the facilities is a high priority for the Municipality and within the scope of CultMark (Olympic city image and legacy demonstration action). He thanked the Pafos hosts for the cultural tour that they had organised on the previous day and he wished success to the meeting. Mr George Tamias, President of DEMKA stated that the project has already several achievements which have been shown in Nea Ionia during the Olympics and there will be more interesting results in the other cities in the coming months.

Each of the partners presented their progress to date as follows:
 • Nea Ionia (Apostolos Alpus)
 • Chester (Mike O’Kell)
 • Kainuu (Helena Aaltonen)
 • Rostock and TLM-Wismar (Dr Andreas Schubert and Dr Kathrin Moller)
 • Pafos (Nasos Chadjigeorgiou).

The scientific co-ordinator (Dr Alex Deffner of the University of Thessaly) from the Management and Co-ordination Unit (MCU) presented the Work Programme by Component, the Time Schedule and the Deliverables. In particular the 3 papers produced were presented, viz:
The Final Provided Good
Questionnaire No1 on secondary research: Shaping the Vision, the Identity and the Image of cities
Promotional And Distributional “Maps”

Each Working Group co-ordinator gave a report of its priorities and actions, as follows:
 • Identification and Development of Cultural Assets and
Local Identity (co-ordination by Chester CC) – Steve Woolfall
 • Development and Implementation of innovative Place
Marketing Strategies (co-ordination by Pafos CCI) – Nasos Chadjigeorgiou
 • Demonstration Actions (co-ordination by Kainuun Etu Oy) – Ninetta Chaniotou
 • Synthesis, Evaluation and Dissemination of the Results
(co-ordination by City of Rostock) – Dr Andreas Schubert.
The membership of each Working Group was established involving staff and experts from all partner places.

Each partner area presented its local actions in detail, as follows:
 • Nea Ionia, DEMKA – Apostolos Alpus
 • Chester, Dee Estuary – Mike O’Kell
 • Kainuu, Kajaani – Anti Makinen
 • Vaala – Sinnikka Kaltiainen
 • Rostock – Martina Bade
 • State Technical Museum M-V, Wismar – Kathrin Moller

At the end of the first day the partners attended a dinner at a traditional taverna hosted by the MCU where gifts were exchanged between the visiting delegations and Pafos.

At the start of the second day, Tuesday 23 November, the project co-ordinator Manos Vougioukas presented the current status of management and co-ordination matters. He reported that the 1st Progress Report had been approved by the JTS East subject to the signing of the Partnership Agreement.

The Inter-Regional Partnership Agreement was then signed by the partners. Chester City Council signed on behalf of the UK local partnership.

The meeting concluded with discussion on administrative and financial management matters as well as publicity and dissemination actions. Of particular importance was the participation of CultMark at the London World Travel Market tourism fair, through the stand of the Pafos Region, earlier in November 2004. This will continue with participation at the ITB fair in Berlin in March 2005.

The dates / months of the next meeting (No 3), to be held in Rostock and TLM-Wismar, were proposed by the German partners as: 30-31 May 2005 and agreed.

At the end of the meeting on Tuesday afternoon, a press conference was held for local media. The representatives of the partner regions made statements to the local media (TV and press) about CultMark and the outcome of the meeting. A report on the meeting was broadcast in the evening news of local TV stations and was published on the local newspapers on 27 November 2004.

The Mayor of Nea Ionia accompanied by the President of DEMKA visited the Mayor of Pafos at the Pafos Town Hall and had talks about the local identity and sustainable development matters within the frame of the CultMark operation. The Municipality of Pafos participates in Pafos Tourism Committee of the Pafos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (the Cyprus partner in CultMark) and is therefore involved in the CultMark operation as a stakeholder.

The Mayor of Pafos, Mr Fidias Sarikas, hosted a dinner in the honour of the Mayor of Nea Ionia with the participation of the leadership of the Pafos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Lead Partner and the co-ordinator on Tuesday evening at which further inter-regional co-operation opportunities were discussed.