From 24-26 March, the Digital Kiosks partners gathered in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium for our fourth partner meeting. With one year left in the project and pilots now running across all seven countries, the meeting marked a decisive shift in focus: from launching sharing stations to making sure they last.
Day 1: Partner updates and seeing the sharing model in action
Partners kicked off with a round of quick updates - one achievement, one challenge - giving an honest snapshot of where pilots stand. The picture was encouraging: stations are live across the consortium, Bergen opened its first sharing containers, and Familjebostäder reported such strong uptake that neighbouring areas are already requesting their own stations.
The afternoon brought the meeting into the city, with a guided walk to five of Sint-Niklaas's sharing stations and visits to two local circular economy initiatives: a toy library lending out over 5,000 items a year, and a second-hand baby clothing repair shop. Both were a reminder of what well-run, community-embedded sharing can achieve over time.
Day 2: Exploring business models and learning from experience
The centre piece of Day 2 was a business model workshop led by Ghent University. Three operating models were compared: city-led, public-private partnership, and vendor-led.
The research finding was unambiguous: By Year 10, the partner-led model delivers the strongest combination of financial sustainability and wider impact. The city-led model scores highest on user satisfaction but requires permanent subsidy. The vendor-led model offers speed but limits city control. The honest challenge partners kept returning to was that finding capable local operators is hard, and long-term political commitment is far from guaranteed.
An external presentation by IPALLE, a Wallonian agency that has been running sharing stations for two years, added grounded operational perspective. Their headline lessons: location matters above everything else; word of mouth outperforms any paid campaign; and longer rental durations can increase income even when the number of rentals falls.
Key priorities to emerge from the meetings
Three clear priorities came out of the fourth Digital Kiosks partner meeting:
Start finding local operators now: the partner-led model is the most promising path, but it takes time to set up. Cities shouldn't wait until the project ends to begin that search.
Get the location right: a well-stocked station in the wrong place won't be used. Visibility and footfall are preconditions for everything else.
Agree on a small set of shared KPIs: consistent, simple data collection across all pilots is essential for demonstrating the project's impact in its final year.
The next partner meeting will be hosted by the City of Bergen in September. We look forward to sharing news of continued deployments and new learnings in the months ahead!