At the beginning, three short presentations provided impulses for discussion: Robin Ehrhardt from the Bavarian Competence Centre for Nutrition (KErn) presented the gastronomy platform Wirt sucht Bauer and Philipp Kögler spoke about the initial successes with the digital marketplace lefoodie for regional producers and restaurateurs in the Leipzig region. In addition to the two marketing platforms, Stefan Mansfeld from the Saxon State Office for Agriculture and Geology presented the consumer portal regionales.sachsen.de. The event was moderated by Julia Leuterer from the Lokale Agenda Dresden.

After the keynote speeches, there was a lively discussion: The willingness to pay for regional products can be very high among guests as end customers. The prerequisite for this, however, is convincing 'storytelling', the telling of an authentic story about the producer and the origin of the products at close quarters. The need for a regional marketing platform is definitely there, but the challenges are logistics, a sufficient product range and quantities that meet demand. Personal contact between producers and restaurateurs should not be underestimated as the basis for a good business relationship. In the usually stressful everyday business with few time resources, an order must also be completed with just a few clicks. 

After the event, there was a high demand on the part of the gastronomy for contacts to producers and for the further development of regional sources of supply. These and other topics in the area of regional added value will be addressed by the OLGA project in the upcoming months. 

In a comprehensive analysis of the landscape conditions in Dresden and the surrounding area, we look at the region from a variety of perspectives. In this way, we want to explore and visualise the status quo of the landscape, its characteristics, potentials and natural features, in order to identify and implement possibilities for sustainable land use and management. The landscape in a 50 km radius around Dresden is being examined, e.g. with regard to its soil fertility, existing protected areas, natural structure and water body types. The current landscape structure is visualised by means of various thematic maps.  

The focus of the analysis has so far been on the natural landscape conditions. Namely, we want to find out how the region has "naturally grown". Currently, the focus is more on the cultural-spatial characteristics and preconditions in relation to the areas of agriculture and food economy as well as nature conservation and biodiversity. What (social) function can orchards or hedgerows, for example, take on in this respect, e.g. as a source of food or as places of recreation? How resilient are agriculturally used areas to climatic changes? And what about land use for (human) food purposes in the Dresden region? We will find answers to these and other questions. So stay tuned.

Money and finance play an important role in shaping the transformation of society as a whole, including in the agricultural and food sector. The current market economy system, including European, national and regional support measures, is still aimed at maximising profits and growth instead of promoting efficient enterprises with sustainable management strategies. The direct participation of social actors such as citizens, associations, initiatives, federations or the public sector in enterprises of the regional and local agricultural and food sector has so far been implemented only to a limited extent.  

The urgent need for social change to bring existing resources and economic activities into balance can only be realised by adapting human needs and the associated value creation processes to the resources that are still available. In this respect, transformation in the sense of this observation is not an exclusively technical, material or business process, but a transformation of society as a whole, including individual and collective consciousness. The design of sustainable forms of participation and financing can make a valuable contribution to this. 

The OLGA project creates and supports sustainable forms of participation and financing for start-ups and existing companies that are disadvantaged in traditional bank financing due to their strong value orientation compared to typical business models. Based on a model of social participation and regionally financed value chains developed within the project, young agricultural businesses and start-ups in the food sector in the Dresden region in particular are supported. The main focus is on establishing a value-added corporate purpose, i.e. expanding the company's purpose to include ecological, social and community-building aspects.   

In order to generate more knowledge transfer and exchange in this area, we are part of the Leipzig Finance Forum with OLGA. This sees itself as a platform  

• to think about sustainable financing from a bottom-up approach, from the smallest economic unit of a founder that:attracts venture capital, to alternative forms of financing, to new risk-sharing models, 
• to discuss and find out which building blocks are needed to shape a corporate culture and which concepts, solutions and, above all, financing tools are needed to operate successfully with all stakeholders on an equal footing and 
• to describe optimal start-up and development conditions for start-ups and existing companies and to test and implement them using exemplary solutions for a forward-looking business environment.