Forum OCOVA

Program highlights Edition 2025

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Connected sports: a new appeal for mountain sports and leisure activities

In the face of global warming, mountain tourism models need to evolve by extending the seasons and diversifying activities to better distribute flows and ensure that the mountains are accessible to all. With the 2030 Olympics on the horizon, initiatives such as the Pôle Sport Innovation des Orres and partnerships are supporting the development of connected sports, or how digital technology and innovative image/movement technologies are bringing a new approach to mountain sports and leisure activities, generating appeal, pleasure and performance.

Data-driven ecological transition and risk management

To support the ecological transition in the mountains and reduce the carbon footprint, it is essential to rely on decisions informed by data from sensors, drones and satellites, enabling a better understanding of the realities on the ground. The complementary nature of these data sources encourages optimized territorial management and effective sharing between local and regional players. Forum 2025 will explore these opportunities through case studies, collaborative projects and field experiments.

Sharing a vision of the mountain's future

A round table will bring together key players in the development of mountain regions and their activities to discuss the mountain of tomorrow, with a view to the 2030 Olympic Games: political decision-makers, representatives of research and innovation, industry, professional organizations, local authorities and development agencies.

Forum 2025 will thus make a further contribution to the emergence of the mountains of tomorrow.

Practical info

DATE: Tuesday, March 25, 2025, 9am to 5:30pm

PLACE: Espace Rencontre et Culture (ERC), Les Orres 1650
ITINERARY

RATE: free, registration required

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OCOVA is organized by Semlore and the commune of Les Orres, with the support of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, the Hautes-Alpes department, the Communauté de communes de Serre-Ponçon, and private sponsors.

The OCOVA forum

Since 2004, the OCOVA forum has been the place where territorial development players meet to discuss the contribution of digital technologies to tomorrow's intelligent, sustainable mountains. each year, 150 to 200 participants gatherto share their visions for the future of mountain regions. It's an opportunity to take stock of the evolution of uses and markets, technological breakthroughs, future solutions, the obstacles to their deployment and the levers for ecological, economic and social transformation.

Presentations by major players in industrial and regional innovation (EDF, RTE, Veolia, Atos, Orange, SFR, CEA-Tech/INES, INRAE, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Météo France, European research organizations, innovative startups, etc.) take stock of the current situation and the prospects for technological developments. Case studies take stock of actions and pilot projects deployed in local areas. Round-table discussions open up the vision beyond the technological aspect, by tackling sociological and economic aspects in order to take stock of the dynamics underway and assess the prospects offered by the emergence of new models for the mountains of tomorrow.

The forum is free and open to all players. It features an exhibition space for some twenty exhibitors (manufacturers, SMEs and innovative startups, laboratories, teaching centers and their students, etc.), who present their products and solutions in the forum area.

The context

Alpine resorts and valleys are undergoing two major transformations:

• ecological transition
• the evolution of tourism models.

Mountain resorts are the driving force behind the tourist industry, and are essential to the economic equilibrium of our regions, given the scale of the direct, indirect and induced income and employment they generate. In the face of the challenges posed by global warming, the objectives of energy sobriety, good management of water resources, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and, more generally, consideration of all areas of the ecological transition are a necessity now recognized by all. The second aspect of the mountain of tomorrow is the evolution of tourism models, notably with a view to broadening the scope of seasonal activities, towards a mountain for all, all-season approach.

Mountains of tomorrow: Territorial intelligence

OCOVA and the international scene

From its very first forum in 2004, OCOVA has been an international event, with the participation of MIT (Cambridge, USA) via videoconference. Over the years, presentations have been given in duplex or on site in the Hautes-Alpes with Hong-Kong, Tunisia, VTT Finland, our Italian neighbors in Piedmont and Liguria (Torino Wireless, ISMB, Politecnico di Torino, Università degli studi di Milano), and South Korea. Since 2013, several OCOVA forums have been held in Italy (Vintimiglia, Genova, Ivrea). In 2021, the coupling with the closing event of the Smart Altitude project, for which Les Orres was lead partner, has enabled greater participation from the countries of the Alpine Arc: Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Slovenia.

Following their participation in the OCOVA 2018 forum, our partners in South Korea decided to organize the OCOVA Asia forum with the support of OCOVA's founders. Since then, OCOVA Asia has been held every year in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, the venue for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. A link has thus been established between the two continents, which share common concerns when it comes to the development of mountain territories. On November 11, 2021, the 4th OCOVA Asia was held, during which a summary of the work carried out at the OCOVA forum in Les Orres in May 2021 was presented, along with presentations and round tables by our Korean friends on digital technologies for the development of tourism and the attractiveness of mountain regions in Asia.