News

Successful EFL Autumn Conference

by Lily Maxwell | Nov 1, 2020

EFL held another successful conference last week on 22 – 23 October 2020, with participants from across the continent tuning in via MS Teams. Please find a short summary below.

Thursday 22 October: Conference part 1. Theme: The Future of Housing

There was a particular focus on digital solutions in the field of assisted living for elderly people. Experts shared experiences from Berlin, in particular from our member Gewobag, Gesobau (housing company owned by the State of Berlin), and SOPHIA (provider of digital care services).

Friday 23 October: Conference part 2. Keynote Prof. Dr. Peter Boelhouwer, Topic Groups and New Members

The day kicked off with an excellent keynote speech by Prof. Dr. Peter Boelhouwer (Delft University of Technology) about the present and future challenges for the housing sector in Europe. Prof. Boelhouwer discussed the lack of affordable housing in Europe (the housing crisis), the ongoing effects of the latest financial crisis, and how COVID-19 is affecting the housing market. Ulrik Brock Hoffmeyer and David Williams added to Prof. Boelhouwer’s insights with their own country and organisation-specific view on the future of housing, from the UK (Campbell-Tickell) and Denmark (Bo-Vest). The EFL general assembly then took place, including presentations by the network’s Topic Group leaders and new members: the Irish Housing Agency (Ireland), Chill Services (Germany), One4All (Finland), Redo SGR (Italy) and the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) (The Netherlands).

For the next EFL conference, planned from May 26-27 2021 in Glasgow, we hope to once again meet in real life! For the timebeing, though, we will be continuing all EFL events online.

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