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it’s been playing on my mind since i got back from ghent as to what it was we actually i felt an affinity with while we were on the ground.

at first i thought it was just the structured way our train journey and route seemed effortless as we boared the eurostar and headed through the channel tunnel delivering us into europe.

i then thought it was the welcoming team at the other side having a focused tech crew pulling together the venue and equipment effortlessly, but it was not either – after all we have teams exactly the same in the uk.

maybe then, it was the brown bag of gifts in the hotel room with 3d glasses, chocolate bunny and a card detailing where the venues were for the next few days – nah, not that.. nice touch thou.

ok, i know it has to be the bandwidth then – a venue with 100 mbit screaming fast connectivity enclosed in a 364 room building that has an incredible history attached to it. well, that did start to perk my interest in the building i guess.

wait, i’ve got it. it was the moment on the tour of the building that segments of the story of the building and how it makes money and builds community and sells a shit ton of amazing beer in the process. well, yeah that was all good too.

but that was not why it left an impression on me so much that i took a part of it home with me. no, it was something more — something that i needed to reflect on.

so it seems fitting as i’m heading at velocity towards birmingham that i start to think about travel, journeys and presence again. and of course it’s in this moment that it hits me.

it left an impression because that structure was built on an openness of the people of ghent to put on a show, to expose the beauty of how they live and what they care about, that they embrace communication, stories and history with passion.

so.

i look back on nottingham and wonder how a city such as it can be twinned with ghent, where are the similarities and what have i learned as an outsider dropping in from a digital community tool provider?

it makes perfect sense why graduates and students leave places like nottingham after they have trained, the lure of the city life is not enough because the future planning of the digital city is restrained.

where as the city of ghent is heading full steam to make their city centre spot a digital hotbed building on existing library people traffic figures in 2015.

the frank and open nature of the management company regarding the venue was refreshing and a massive departure from the closed loop and seemingly stilted approach of the nottingham city council.

we have fibre in ducts around notts, some rented to bt and connectivity to do some amazing things but until the right money finds the right places nottingham is always going to stagnate in the startup culture stakes.

ghent however, well. that’s a different story – i see an explosive of creativity, digital culture and historic storytelling as they transition into the digital frontier.

and i’m gonna be there to watch.