The FLOW.NRW project’s new www.urbanana.de website is a showcase for North Rhine-Westphalia’s urban centres, bringing together travellers, start-up founders, creatives and digital nomads.
The centrepiece of the site is a magazine-style blog entitled “urbanana mag”. It takes readers on a behind-the-scenes tour of digital and architectural works of art, district transformation projects, culinary must-tries and innovative start-up ideas. With its special features and authentic feel, “urbanana mag” sets out to inspire people to experience all these things for themselves (digitally).
The blog posts focus on North Rhine-Westphalia’s creative and digital sectors and the people behind them. Ten freelance content creators regularly report on local (popular) culture, the digital scene and contemporary culture through their own eyes. They talk to creative natives and find out about their lives and work in Cologne, Düsseldorf and the cities of the Ruhr area. The authors come from a variety of professional backgrounds and include film makers, journalists, illustrators and sound creators.
The Cologne contingent consists of Ole Löding, Friedemann Dupelius and duo Verena Maas and Sebastian Züger. Ole Löding is a music expert and pop thinker from Cologne. He had already worked on the “Sound of #urbanana” project, having been invited to take part on the basis of his book “Sound of the Cities”. Friedemann Dupelius is a music journalist and producer of genre-fluid music and audio plays. He is also a curator for music label SPA and the “Brückenmusik” sound art events. Verena Maas and Sebastian Züger are the founders of tvist, an agency that was spawned by their blog project fff.cologne and aims to bring about change in society.
“The authors we’ve chosen are experts from Cologne’s creative scene, particularly music, culture and film. We’ll be sharing their valuable input on the visitkoeln channels too, providing an ideal tie-in with our urbanana partner project,” said Dr. Jürgen Amann, CEO of the Cologne Tourist Board.
“It’s really wonderful, especially in these times of having to stay at home, to be able to bring the region to people’s screens – irrespective of whether they’re already here or planning to come. ‘urbanana mag’ is an attractive digital guide for anyone looking to explore the creative scenes and lifestyle in North Rhine-Westphalia. Alert to trends, fascinating people and the yet-to-be-discovered, the authors deliver great content that is multi-faceted and warm in tone and provides inspiration for future trips,” explained Dr. Heike Döll-König, Managing Director of Tourismus NRW (the North Rhine-Westphalia Tourism Board).
In the “FLOW.NRW – Integrated tourism and location marketing for the creative and digital industries in North Rhine Westphalia” project, Tourismus NRW has joined forces with Cologne Tourist Board, Düsseldorf Tourismus and Ruhr Tourismus to put the spotlight on the region’s districts and their creative potential – in addition to traditional tourist attractions. The blog posts, a mixture of text and photos, audio/video and illustrations, are available in English and German. As well as being geared to locals and guests, they are especially aimed at international students, expats and digital nomads.
The blog and more details can be found at www.urbanana.de.
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