The NET4Age-Friendly Training School in Skopje, North Macedonia, gathered 32 trainers and 8 trainees between the 26 and 28 September 2023.
Lectures and group work, hands-on brainstorming, and innovation pitches to advance SHAFE communities everywhere were the basis of this Training School under the topic: Policies, Technologies, and Entrepreneurship for Digitalization of Society.
After the warm welcome by Ivan Chorbev, Carina Dantas provided a lecture on "Empowered communities leading the way to trusting ecosystems and policy change: from SHAFE to NET4 and SIRENE".
All trainees selected a SHAFE persona and worked around their challenges, needs and key messages for the future in a rich and engaged teamwork.
Mara Diaconu followed guiding the group through "Innovation mission thinking" and pushed the trainees to innovate further!
The first day closed with Hrvoje Belani lecturing on Cyber Security in e-Health, with a comprehensive analysis of needs for emerging digital health solutions to function and prosper in real life environments.
The second day started with Willeke Van Staalduinen "Defining impacts of social innovation", revisiting the SEE-IT model applied to SHAFE, a tool to perform ex-ante and ex-post evaluations and to define social, economic and environmental impacts.
Then Vladimir Trajkovikj lectured on "Crafting Values Using MVP and Pivoting: Lean Canvas Approach" with several hands-on tips for the trainees.
The same approach was followed by Mara Diaconu, who explained how to pitch for your innovation.
Milica Solarevic closed the afternoon with "Socio-demographic framework and implications of ageing, intergenerational solidarity and ageism" which was well appreciated by the audience.
The second day ended with a cultural visit through Skopje guided by the host, Ivan Chorbev.
Tatjana Loncar Turukalo started the third day brightly with a lecture on "Towards advanced AI supported diagnostic - experiences from INCISIVE and BigSleep projects".
Ivan Chorbev followed up with “Next steps on ethics, data and citizen empowerment for the digital EuroCC2 / EuroHPC High Performance Computing project” and the Training School closed with Daniel Pavlovski lecturing on Digitalization of social services for older adults.
All of the knowledge sessions were wonderfully seasoned with a great group spirit and the beautiful Skopje environment.