On February 7th, the Vital Regions International Conference was held in Viana do Castelo: Attachment and attraction of talent as a factor for territorial development, with the presence of several national and international experts.

The conference discussed various issues related to the desertification of our territory, the insufficiency of strategic thinking to deal with it and the clarification of problems and the search for appropriate solutions.

In the morning the debate focused on the following topics:Challenges for the reconstruction of low population density territories” and “Attractiveness factors for regional talent” and, in the afternoon, in four simultaneous workshops:

• Workshop 1 – “Economic diversification in rural areas”;
• Workshop 2 – “Economic resilience of territories”;
• Workshop 3 – “Education and skills development” ;
• Workshop 4 – “Well-being and quality of life”.

In the afternoon, we tried to respond to the challenge “What action plan from here? Proposed lines of action” with contributions from Domingos Lopes (President of the Operational Programme for Social Inclusion and Employment), António Fontainhas Fernandes (Rector of the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro and President of the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities), Nuno Mangas (President of the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria and President of the Council of Coordinators of Polytechnic Higher Institutes), Luis Suia (President of CEVAL - Business Confederation of Alto Minho), Luís Braga da Cruz (President of the Portuguese Foundation Centre) and Paulo Pedroso in the role of Moderator (Docente of ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon and Partner and Senior Consultant of PPLL Consult).

This Conference was organized by the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo in collaboration with the Operational Program Social Inclusion and Employment and the Intermunicipal Community of Alto Minho and the Business Confederation of Alto Minho.