DISCO convenes successful General Assembly in Thessaloniki

On 22-23 April 2024, the Municipality of Thessaloniki opened its doors to the DISCO consortium for our latest General Assembly. Partners gathered for two intense days of fruitful discussions on the project’s progress, as we continue steadfast towards the Physical Internet transformation of urban logistics.

Day 1: Starring Living Labs take centre stage

The first day kicked off with a welcome speech from the City of Thessaloniki’s Deputy Mayor, Mr Athanasios Ziogas, setting a tone of mutual collaboration and progress and emphasizing the commitment of public authorities for more sustainable urban logistics.

The meeting then proceeded with discussions of various critical aspects, including a DISCO progress overview and brainstorming sessions within specific work packages. DISCO’s Starring Living Labs, composed of Copenhagen, Ghent, Thessaloniki, and Helsinki, provided exciting updates on their respective activities: in Ghent, efforts have been focused on optimizing data sharing between cities, logistics service providers, and green last-mile service providers. Copenhagen reported significant progress in partnership agreements and digital twin development, while Thessaloniki highlighted advancements in urban logistics real estate databases and citizen engagement through the hosting of a DISCO Citizens Bootcamp. Finally, Helsinki showcased developments in micro hub implementation and service design discussions.

Day 2: Ongoing collaborative initiatives and exciting site visits

The second day continued with further enriching discussions, featuring the presentation of the DISCO Knowledge Hub, an open-source digital platform designed to serve as a collaborative online space offering a range of resources, tools, and opportunities for knowledge sharing, capacity building, innovation, and collaboration. Updates were also provided on liaison efforts and the institution of the Impact Creation Board For Transformation (ICBT), which will feature planned expert involvement and collaborative initiatives for the project.

The meeting wrapped up with an exciting site visit to the Thessaloniki Living Lab, where partners got to visit the TIF-HELEXPO Exhibition Centre which is being optimised into a flexible logistics hub. The consortium also got to visit the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), where they learned more about the Mobility Living Lab being hosted within CERTH. 

The site visit was split into two parts:

• The first part was dedicated to the site visit at TIF-HELEXPO premises where ACS showed the consortium the installation of the lockers there and how to use them. ACS also showed the location of their new hub. The whole “migration” of the new ACS hub at TIF-HELEXPO premises was done utilizing the demand matching WareM&O by DISCOESTATE tool further developed during the DISCO project by CERTH. The tool allowed for negotiations between the real estate partner TIF-HELEXPO and the logistics service provider ACS until an agreement was reached on the terms between the two sides. This initiative facilitated the relocation of one of ACS’ most important, in terms of demand and operations, to a strategic location outside the historical centre (at TIF-HELEXPO underutilized spaces).
• The second part, led by CERTH, consisted of a visit at CERTH premises with a particular focus on the Mobility Living Lab hosted within CERTH.

Overall, the meeting highlighted the consortium’s ongoing commitment to work together for a new generation of sustainable urban logistics. Stay tuned as we reveal more of DISCO’s progress in the next months!