ACD - CD Tours Smart Travellers and Cultural Exchange Ambassadors

ACD mobile platform for interregional and international cultural exchange through multi-disciplinary partnerships and cooperations

Culture is becoming more and more a vector for economic growth, particularly through cultural and creative industries, SMEs and tourism.

In this regard, the ACD – Agency for Cultural Diplomacy has launched the ACD mobile platform CD Tours and project „Wheels of cultures“ aiming to support safety through mobility and cultural/educational exchange among individuals, interests groups, governmental and non-governmental institutions, corporations and companies, at the regional and international level.

Within the conceptual frame of the ACD - CD Thematic Tours, ACD  promotes smart investments into visits of places within neighbour regions and countries and worldwide. In cooperation with international partners, ACD is announcing open calls for students, professionals and other interested who like to travel and to take part in the thematic tours as ACD – CD Tours Smart Travellers and Cultural Exchange Ambassadors. Investing in travels with added value, participants have opportunities to improve, to extend and to share their knowledge, interests and experiences, learn about and practice cultural diplomacy witin specific thematic fields from professionals, learn about regional cultural and art history in wider European context and worldwide, learn languages, customs and traditions, learn about new technologies, exchange innovative and best practices within various field of education and professional work, meet likeminded people to build synergies, grow their networks and document their activities for the wider dissemination. All participants are provided by the ACD - Team with preparatory informations about places and events which they will attend, as well as informations about cultural diplomacy in practice and theory via online documents, skype meetings, e-broshures and via communication with our Team and partners, via email exchange and by possibillity via phone calls. All participants have opportunity to participate in the ACD Annual conference and take part in the ACD Educational certificate programme, organised by the ACD- partner institutions.

Specific objectives of the ACD project „Wheels of Cultures“:

• to support, initiate and develop cultural diplomacy activities within various fields of action through local, regional and international cultural exchange

• to research about, to collect, to document and to disseminate significant cultural diplomacy practices from the European regions and countries and worldwide;

• to create CD - Tours network across Europe and worldwide among cultural diplomacy professionals, civil society, companies, institutions, corporations and organisations, with aim to promote cultural diplomacy as academic and practical field for development of innovative methods for cooperation, strategies for safety and creation of new professional profiles and job opportunities, for regional development and value transparency;

• to facilitate transnational mobility of artists and other cultural actors and to initiate audience development within civil society and among professionals from various fields, to support programmes and initiatives for safety and for improvement of internal and external international relations through educational programmes and cultural exchange projects.

Results to be achieved

• enrichment of cultural diplomacy competences possessed by the professionals, volunteers and entities involved in the Project and beyond, through dissemination and exchange of good practices;

•  new professional profiles and job opportunities and development of international and interdisciplinary cooperations through cultural diplomacy activities, regional development through social entrepreneurship;

• durable cooperation between regional and international actors from all fields through cultural diplomacy activities; growth of smart investments through thematic travel initiatives and through creation of the ACD - CD Tours Smart travellers and Cultural Exchange Ambassadors profile, as added value to the thematic trips; audience development within various fields through interdisciplinary cooperations, engagement of civilian society into cultural diplomacy activities and development of young talents and upcoming generations with intercultural skills and competences within various fields of action, for safety, trust building and for better intercultural relations.

Became an ACD – CD Tours Smart Travellers and Cultural Exchange Ambassador:

ACD – CD Tours Smart travellers and Cultural Exchange Ambassadors will receive free ACD membership certificate for two years, by signing the ACD membership declaration for active contribution to direct cultural exchange by participating in the one of the thematic ACD - CD Tours. All ACD – CD Tours Smart travellers and Cultural Exchange Ambassadors will be rewarded with the ACD – CD Tours Ambassadors Certificate and invited to participate in the ACD Annual conference.

Requiered: all applicants (age up to 18) must have student status or job position and valid travel documents, visa for countries where visa is mandatory; basic knowledge in english and german and in the best case, basic understaning in the official language of the visiting country (more languages are plus!); budget for their travel costs and other needs during the travel; follow and read informations provided by the ACD- Team within the preparatory time; express interests to learn about and active engagement in the practice of the cultural diplomacy activities; sign and accept the ACD code of conduct.

All interested are invited to fill the application form below and send their informations to the ACD-office. (info@acdvienna.org)

By successfull approvement of application, candidates will be invited to sign Agreement for their contribution to the ACD – CD Tours project through quality report writing, fotodocumentation of their trips to certain destinations and accept the ACD codes of conduct.

Compleated applications are mandatory for participation in ACD -  CD Tours project.

The combi bus companies, train and plain companies, so as other transporting partners envolved into ACD project "Wheels of Cultures" will carry out community interventions in partner regions and countries and worldwide where the ACD – CD Tours Ambassadors will visit thematic events. The bus tours for 5-7 passengers are comfortable, safety, door to door services.

Travels by train, plain, bike, by walk and by other forms of transportation and mobility, will be organised and prepared by the ACD team and their partners.

For safety reasons and fairness in cooperation, each transporting partner must sign ACD partner declaration and agreement about taking care about passengers and their safety during the trip, fixed prices with possible student discount, responsibility to reach the destination in expected time.

The Travel costs and all other personal costs will be carried out by travellers, as ACD does not participate in any financial part for CD- Tours, only in organisation of the travels, thematic concept development, preparation of meetings, seminars, foto sessions with representatives from relevant institutions and organisators of events which will be visited,

and offers to participants free ACD membership certificates for two years.

All partnerships will be regulated via ACD partner declarations. All documents (applications, evaluations from participants, other) and documentations from the ACD - CD Tours activities and about thematic trips  are in the property of the ACD. Only in agreemt with the ACD Team, our participating, supporting and other partners will receive permission to disseminate and to use our documents and documentations, so as all other belongings of the project.

 By the Project start „Wheels of cultures“ in 2017, the ACD will develop further ACD - CD Tours within the 7 fields of action:

1. Airshow manifestations (visits of the Airshow manifestations across regiona and countries, educational exchange and interdiciplinary cooperations among military sectors, art and cultural institutions, civil society and all other fields. Documentations about all visits/tours will be presented at the ACD Annual Conference.

 Airpower Austria, so as other Airshow manifestations in other countries has been established as open public events wich has shown remarcable results regarding promotion and exchange of regional/national products, cultural and traditional values, international social gathering and network growing, and have positively influenced improvement of international relations, economic growth, job creations and safety. 

2. Visits of UNESCO regions and places in the ACD project partner countries, with aim to support international exchange about cultural/art history, mythology, rites and traditions of the european regions and to create CD broshure about methods and practices for protection of the (European) cultural herritage within natural environments and to reserch about connective paths among traditional values in wider European and global context; green tourism

3. Dance Tours and participation at the regional and international dance/art/music festivals in the regions of the ACD project partner countries, with aim to initiate interregional and international partnerships among cultural institutions and communities which will open new space for creation of job profiles and financial growth within Art sector as relevant contributor for improvement of internaional relations, tourism and economic growth; interregional cooperation with institutions for safety and security, to support the process of integration and social inclusion of the marginalized groups and minorities through cultural educational activities.

4. Language diplomacy CD Tours: creative language workshops and creation of the CD language screen-cards and regional language portfolios, which will include various terms from all languages of the local population. 

5. Cross-cultural Culinary Ties - CD Tours aims to support exchange about cross-cultural culinary ties and food and hospitality cultures, about natural regional products and health-oriented developments of new trends;

6. Academic exchange, research, lectures, conferences on CD as a tool for improvement of the international relations, starting with the neighbour countries, for improvement of safety and growth through cooperation; CD education for improvement of atentive communication, human rights practices and peace building;

7. Business CD-tours to support interregional and international exchange among social entrepreneurs by promotion of their initiatives, innovative methods, strategies and products, empowerment through building of partnerships, creations of new job opportunities. (Visits of exibitions, markets, fashion shows...)

The first ACD – CD thematic Tour have started on 03rd September 2016 in partnership with the NGO Društvo za akademski razvoj from Belgrade (Serbia) and the first ACD – CD Airshow Smart Traveller Ambassadors have traveled from Belgrade (Serbia) to the Airpower show in Zeltweg (Austria)

See more about this tour on the ACD Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/ACD-Agency-for-Cultural-Diplomacy-1062859200475115/?ref=bookmarks

Tatjana Christelbauer, 2017

For more informations about this project and interests to became ACD – CD Tours Ambassador, fill the application form below: