Deliverable D2.3.3 – Final Workshop
Final dissemination activities
The realization of a workshop as a final dissemination event, aimed at reporting on the results achieved during the implementation of the project and to discuss future directions in the AAL context, is one of the project outputs foreseen in the application form (O2.6).
In the initial ideas, the event should have taken place in Catania, at the end of the project and would have involved, in addition to the project partners, the entities that joined the NATIFLife Network, the main key stakeholders from the two regions and international players in the addressed field.
The health emergency linked to COVID-19 and the consequent limitations to the movement and aggregation of people, forced the partnership to review the methods of carrying out project activities that provided for the presence of large groups of people, including demonstrations of assistive technology aimed at users, networking, training and hands-on activities, dissemination activities and, among these, the final workshop.
The Project Management Committee, which met remotely on 24 April 2020, discussed and approved a contingency plan in which alternative implementation methods to activities that should have been carried out in person were developed.
In particular, the Contingency plan due to the COVID19 emergency foresees the following contingency actions:
Demonstration activities of Assistive Technologies
In case, as a consequence of the current COVID19 related emergency, end-users (elderly) cannot be involved in the demonstration actions, remaining demonstrations will be performed remotely through Video and other form of demos.
Hands On and Networking
In case, as a consequence of the current COVID19 related emergency, remaining Networking and Hands On activities cannot be performed in live form, these activities will be implemented by using other media of communication (tele-conference, Video, live-demos).
With reference to the above points, a Dissemination Pack has been arranged and made available to all partners in the common area on Google Drive. It includes: Brochures, Press Review, Streaming TV interviews, Technical Videos, NATIFLife Newsletters, PPT presentations. Moreover, a dissemination VIDEO has been realized.
Final Dissemination
In case, as a consequence of the current COVID19 related emergency, the final workshop will not be held, alternative dissemination forms will be implemented, such as through the NATIFLife Newsletter, the NATIFLife Web Site and Portal, publication in open access journals, articles in Newspapers, participation to streaming TV programs.
The point on Final dissemination activities has also been discussed in more detail during the PMC meeting held remotely on October 8th, 2020:
With reference to the final dissemination activities, the evolution of the current health emergency situation linked to COVID-19 advises against carrying out the final Workshop and other events in the presence, as initially envisaged in the Application Form.
As an alternative activity, the Project Coordinator suggested to organize an online dissemination event, aimed at partners and also open to students at the Universities of Catania and Malta.
Among the other contingency actions for the final dissemination, the Project Coordinator also suggested to make use of newspapers and other communication channels and cited, as an example, the publication, by UniCT, of a popular article entitled “NATIFLife, technological solutions to improve life” in the local newspaper “La Sicilia” of 27 September 2020.
Members of the NATIFLife Network have been involved in a dedicated event, the 2nd Network Meeting, held online on Sep. 30th, 2020. In addition to the project partners, the event saw the participation of 12 companies belonging to the NATIFLife Network and three other entities invited by the partner Paragon.
The First NATIFLife Network Meeting took place on January 29th, 2020 at University of Catania, Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering.
Final Workshop
The Project’s Final Workshop has been organized as online event where students of the two Universities of Catania and Malta have been invited. Since the two Universities make use of different platforms for remote classes (MS Teams at UniCT, Zoom at UoM), two separate online sessions have been organized. The first session took place on October 20th, 2020 on MS Teams, h. 15.00 – 17.00, for students at UniCT. The second one was held on October 23rd, 2020 on Zoom, h. 15.00 – 17.00, for students at UoM.
The agenda of the final workshop is reported below:
- Overview of the project objectives, the platform architecture and functionalities, Bruno Andò, University of Catania.
- Summary of research activities developed by UNICT, Giovanni Muscato and Salvatore Castorina, University of Catania.
- Summary of activities developed by UoM, Carl J. Debono, University of Malta.
- The NATIFLife Platform, Luca Porcaro, Viteco.
- The PDS in Malta, Nadia Theuma, Paragon Europe.
- Q&A from the audience.