What legacy will the Paris 2024 Games leave? With that question we kicked the event off on the 4th of September where we got together at the Bassin de la Villette, which is the largest artificial body of water in Paris, linking the Canal de l’Ourcq to the Canal Saint-Martin and developing river transport.
French and Dutch experts got together and collaborated to share knowledge of making urban swimmable rivers like the Seine in Paris, thus ensuring clean water.
After the field visit, students from Hogeschool Inholland and French students of the Sorbonne Université Nouvelle continued that same conversation during an interactive dialogue at the 3rd Future is now event! Through inspiration sessions and a World Café, innovative ideas were discussed and shared to improve swimmability in cities through public pools and clean public waters. The outcome of the World Cafe will be shared during the Amsterdam Swiminar this weekend so stay tuned!
Hosting this event during the Paralympic Games was a unique opportunity to make the connection between water, nutrition and sport. Special thanks to professional athletes Simone van de Kraats, Scipio Houtman and Thijs van den End for their inspiration session about healthy plant based nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.
By using sport as a platform, we hope to make a bigger impact and realize sustainable changes in local communities through local ‘Waves’ in France. Our goal here in Paris was to connect and that’s what we did! Connecting beautiful initiatives for clean urban water to sport for more public support and awareness!
Thanks to Clément Brun, Julien Laurent, Paul Kennouche , Tim Rotteveel, Adriaan van der Linden for sharing their expertise.
This day would not been possible without the support of
Nederlandse Ambassade in Frankrijk, Cité internationale universitaire de Paris, GroentenFruit Huis, Tilly Stroo, Lucienne Willems, Lois Douma, Sytske van der Laan !!
Until the next Future is now event!
