The first, the last, my everything... Lien De Vos

Lien De Vos (38), a regional welfare coordinator and manager of non-profit ventures and employment opportunities at DVV Westhoek, regularly heads northwards for international congresses or meetings. To areas that aren't too densely populated, as that's the essence of her job: exchanging experiences about best practices for aspects of policy such as welfare, employment, mobility and the whole economic sector of non-profit ventures, specifically for more rural regions similar to Westhoek in Belgium. She once played host to a delegation herself at Hotel Pax in Diksmuide but when she heads further afield, it's to...

“One of my first trips was a study visit in 2018,” recollects Lien. “It was organised by Taxistop and Autodelen.net, who are both partners in the SHARE-North (Interreg North Sea Region) project. We were there to talk about the approach to partial mobility, which they use Mobilpunkt for in Bergen. Representatives from the Flemish authorities went along too. That trip yielded results, by the way, because it was one of the inspirations behind the Flemish Hoppin-punten (‘hop-in points’), which have been set up everywhere now. The meetings were held in Hotel Scandic Bergen City, but we had to try everything out for real, of course, and took a trip by bike using Bergen’s local shared bicycle system, visiting various Mobilpunkt sites. Two birds with one stone: it was educational as well as pleasant. in terms of the catering, we mostly had our lunches in the hotel but I do also remember one evening in the restaurant Flammeburger.”

After a three-year lull because of the coronavirus crisis, another interregional meeting was finally held in 2022 – a kind of round-up of ongoing projects. This time it was in a big city because it was largely about presenting results rather than anything to see or visit. For Lien, it was primarily about mobility hubs. “We stayed in the Comfort Hotel Göteborg,” says Lien, “but for the meetings we went to a studio set up specially for the purpose in the Lindholmen Science Park – which is architecturally a really special building. We mostly had our lunches in L's Resto, though we did head off into town occasionally to casual restaurants such as Zamenhof, a nice friendly bar where there was a lot more to the experience than just the food, or Dubbel Dubbel, which uses a sharing concept with a Chinese-style touch.” She then adds with a laugh, “We did everything by bike in Bergen, but in Gothenburg we went racing for an evening in nippy little electric indoor go-karts at GoKart Centralen – we’ve got to keep an eye on all forms of mobility!

“A meeting under special circumstances,” Lien recalls. “It was a meeting for getting to know each other, with partners such as the City of Genk being present too. What made it unusual was that the event was held in March 2019, when the coronavirus epidemic was really taking hold.” She explains it further. “We all know that Sweden took a different approach in terms of the measures adopted. The event simply went ahead, although voices were heard saying that it should be cancelled.” “In the end, I’m very glad we went,” concludes Lien, “because Karlstad is really a charming provincial capital that you wouldn’t be likely to visit otherwise. But now I’ve got to know a peaceful and pleasant town, staying at Hotel Good Morning Karlstad City and going to Clarion Collection Hotel Plaza for the meetings. Not so typically Swedish, but we also had a lovely Italian meal in the restaurant Fontana di Trevi.” And the main thing? “The best thing about the trip was that it gave us one last chance to move about freely, as Belgium went into lockdown after I got back.”