Winner takes all

EGC Award Ceremony

The summer of 2016 marked the 9th ceremony of the European Green Capital Award, Europe’s prize for cities leading in sustainable urban planning. Joanna Drake, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission’s DG Environment, handed over awards to the cities of Nijmegen (the Netherlands) and Galway (Ireland) for their accomplishments in becoming sustainable.For PRACSIS, the ceremony was the grand finale of the competition cycle, which it ran as the European Green Capital’s secretariat. In this role PRACSIS managed the application procedure, organised three assessment rounds involving an expert panel of 12, and ultimately the jury meeting on the evening before the ceremony.During its year as Green Capital secretariat, PRACSIS showed its skill in organising Europe-wide campaigns, promoting the European Green Capital Award among thousands of cities through stakeholder management, online communication and presentations at conferences. It also increased exposure of the initiative’s smaller prize, the European Green Leaf, a competition for small-sized cities.This culminated in a prestigious ceremony held in the historical centre of Europe’s 2016 Green Capital, Ljubljana. Delegations from six nominated cities went to the Slovenian capital, hopeful to be awarded for their pioneering role in urban sustainability policies. On the eve of the ceremony they presented their accomplishments to the jury, a panel of high-level representatives from the European Commission’s DG Environment, European Environment Agency, European Parliament, Committee of the Regions, ICLEI, European Environmental Bureau and Covenant of Mayors.PRACSIS set the scene for an awe-inspiring ceremony, wrote a smooth ceremony script, and took care of lavish decorations. Behind the scenes, PRACSIS delivered flawless event logistics including room management, registrations, and accommodation and travel arrangements.The ceremony was an unforgettable event, with the announcement of the two winners delivered with true suspense, followed live in the town halls of the participating cities and elsewhere in Europe. Winning cities gave testimonials of commitment, trial and error and success, and participants—winners and runners-up both—danced the night away to uplifting Balkan music.PRACSIS secured maximum coverage of the event across Europe by inviting journalists, live commentary on Twitter, and live web streaming (in English and Slovenian) that reached viewers in 14 countries. PRACSIS’ media monitoring services recorded coverage in Europe’s leading media, placing sustainable policies in cities high on the EU’s agenda