On November 20, 2025, the 3rd Annual Regional Policy Conference of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy took place in Chemnitz.

This year’s conference focused on exchanging ideas on how regional strengths can successfully contribute to managing structural change and returning to a path of sustainable growth. Participants from politics, business, public administration, academia, associations, and trade unions discussed innovative ideas, effective approaches, and new methods for forward-looking regional development in more than 20 workshops. 

Federal Minister Katherina Reiche  opened the conference with her keynote speech and subsequently visited the exhibition area of the federal competition “Zukunft Region” to learn about current funded projects. The STAY2GROW project was also presented there to more than 600 participants.

On the following day, the teams of all funded projects from the federal competition came together for a networking meeting. They discussed key questions such as: What challenges exist? Which approaches and ideas have been proven to be successful? With many new insights and inspiring conversations, the STAY2GROW team is now continuing to work intensively on its final future concept for the wir4 region.