The CONCERTO Plus project started in January 2006. Over the past 6 months, the objective of CONCERTO Plus was to better understand the communities’ activities and to make all the actors of CONCERTO aware of the existence and mission of CONCERTO Plus. This phase wasextremely important for collecting the essential information for the elaboration of the dissemination tools, analysis and networking.

In this respect during the first months special emphasis was placed on contacting the communities and projects in order to collect all material such as pictures, project descriptions, contact details, copyright agreements etc... Consequently this resulted in a great deal of constructive andhighly collaborative exchanges between CONCERTO Plus and the communities. Different visits were organised by experts from CONCERTO Plusto the communities.

With all the material and information gathered, CONCERTO Plus started to develop the Website, brochure, stand and PowerPoint Slides as detailed above, in addition to the overall dissemination plan. Moreover, one of the most interactive tasks for CONCERTO Plus was to bring all the actors of CONCERTO (communities, projects, politicians, scientists etc…) to work efficiently together by creating a network. For this reason it was important to organise a large meeting for all the participants which was provided at the CONCERTO Opening event last July.

The brochure was specially scheduled to be produced for the CONCERTO Opening in order to provide everybody with an identity card for each ofthe projects (contact details of the partners, presentation of the communities and a wealth of other information on the entire activities and the overall initiative). The Website was also launched for the event as an interactive tool to establish a steady information flow between all the partners:the Website, as well as the database to ease the interaction via the discussion forum, the exchange of documents and helpdesk.

The latest tool produced by CONCERTO Plus is the newsletter that constitutes an important step in the strategy to build closer relationships and networks. It is important to communicate efficiently between all the partners using all the possible tools. The newsletter is dedicated to be an interactive tool highlighting the key messages and key evolutions of CONCERTO projects and partners. The bi-annual newsletter will be another connection between all involved and those of whom would like and need to be involved.

The objectives for the coming 6 months are to use the communication modes developed to-date and to build further tools useful for the CONCERTO partners. The brochure will be translated into 4 additional languages (French, German, Spanish and Italian) and will be available onthe Website for electronic download and printing.

Currently CONCERTO Plus is creating a DVD which is scheduled to be available in December 2006. It will present the CONCERTO activities, promote the work of CONCERTO and highlight and support the evolution of the projects. The first CONCERTO DVD will be used as a basis to support the presence of CONCERTO at fairs, conferences and events. It will include movies (e.g. the movie realised during the CONCERTO Opening), images (e.g. pictures of each community) and documents from CONCERTO Plus and from all the actors involved in the project.Through a selection of different menus, the DVD will give the users the possibility to use only the material they need for their own communication.

The second issue of the newsletter is foreseen for December 2006. It will be used to continue to inform and exchange between all the stakeholders,and to focus on the different achievements made by the CONCERTO team. The newsletter will mainly consist of the information received from all the partners and collected by contacting them directly, by screening their brochures and websites, and directly sent by the CONCERTO communities. It is very important that the newsletter is not directed from CONCERTO Plus towards the communities, but from the communities to the other communities.

In the meantime and in response to the needs as requested by a number of participants during the CONCERTO Opening, a monthly email will be sent out. The objective of this monthly email is to briefly present information on the CONCERTO initiative, on the projects, on the communities and on the energy world in general. This will enhance the communication between the partners by maintaining a continuous flow of information.In fact, the newsletter and the monthly email will be developed with the information received from the communities.

The Website and the database will be regularly updated with the information received from all the CONCERTO partners. The objective of these two tools during the coming 6 months is to make them as interactive as possible and in continuous link with all the partners. An important feedback concerning all the parts of these interactive tools will be requested from the CONCERTO members.

The production of new posters will be launched. It was an important point of discussion during the Opening. Eventually it was decided not toproduce one poster per project as initially foreseen, but to produce thematic posters covering important topics such as research and innovation forinstance. CONCERTO Plus will work with the CONCERTO partners to prepare a list of topics and themes that could be developed. This decision was taken because most of the partners of CONCERTO agreed that it was easier to produce local posters and receive from CONCERTO Plus generic posters.

In order to build a consistent corporate identity for CONCERTO, it was discussed to elaborate a series of guidelines both for the posters and for the PowerPoint slides. This will give the possibility at the same time to be flexible at the local level and create local posters and PowerPoint slides,and on the other hand it gives a clear and immediate recognition of the CONCERTO initiative. CONCERTO Plus will work on some general ideasfor this two tools and propose them to the communities and partners to check the feasibility and worthiness of them. The exchange and collaboration will be done through the existing tools (Website and database) and direct contacts.

Last, it is important to stress that the coming steps are reliant on the desires and requests of the different stakeholders. The work realised so farwas focused on getting to know better the projects and the people. From now on, the communication between all the partners is the main point andtherefore, the suggestions, and ideas will be taken into account and debated to elaborate the coming strategy and tools. We need the collaboration of all CONCERTO actors to send suggestions and information: we count on you!