My name is William Lagache. Coming from Southwestern France, I arrived in Tartu last summer for one year to work as a European Solidarity Corps volunteer at Tartu 2024 Foundation. One of my long-term tasks is to help our European Capital of Culture preparations by giving a visitor's view on the places and hospitality a culture tourist experiences in Tartu and Southern Estonia. So far, my task has taken me to nine museums in Tartu, as well as the city's different neighbourhoods and four localities in Southern Estonia.

November has been a key month for culture managers involved in Tartu 2024. The fourth seminar of the ongoing development process, titled Kellega? (“With Whom?”, 13 November) was followed by the international forum Kultuurikompass: How to Address Europe? (26 November). These two events helped the Tartu 2024 project developers get new ideas and methods to expand the international scope of their planned events.

On 26 November, European cultural managers gathered online at the “Kultuurikompass: How to Address Europe?” forum to explain the opportunities for strengthening ties between cultural operators across Europe and discuss the growth of Estonia's international prominence. The forum brought together over 600 participants from 18 different countries, and speakers from Estonia, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Serbia and three previous European Capitals of Culture.

On Wednesday, 28^th of October, the German winner of the European Capital of Culture 2025 title competition will be announced. In a recently released greeting, the mayor of Tartu, a European Capital of Culture in 2024, Urmas Klaas wished good luck to the five cities that have reached the final round of the competition and confirmed readiness for future cooperation.

In the beginning of September, Viljandi was host to Tartu 2024 official programme for the first time. Pärimusmuusika Ait, the Traditional Music Center, accommodated the VII Kultuurikompass Forum, a recurring main event of the Tartu 2024 capacity building programme. This time, cultural managers from around Estonia discussed the physical and the geographical accessibility of culture, the challenges and the solutions.