The 10th European Week of Regions and Cities closed on Thursday 11th October. More than 580o participants from 46 countries attended the various meetings, workshops and seminars. A video summary of this major European event on regional policy will be available on the OPEN DAYS website by the end of October: see http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/conferences/od2012/index.cfm
Future Center Study Group
A number of Japanese organizations from the world of business, the public sector and universities have initiated a Future Center Studies Group (FCSG) in order investigate relevant models for future centers in Japanese organizations. The group meets regularly to explore good practice in existing future centers, living labs and other innovation- enabling environments from diverse perspectives: open innovation, value creation, place versus space, future orientation and organizational renewal.
The FCSG wants to discover how best to create open, expansive – even enjoyable – workspaces, which encourage collaboration, unlock creativity, leverage people’s potential, facilitate teams to push beyond limits, and enable organizations to innovate. They recognize that, “if it were easy to do, our organizations would all be doing it already.”
There is no single ‘ideal’ model, and diverse working models are successful in some contexts, less so in others. This year, the FCSG will address diverse issues relating to the ‘future of future centers,’ hoping to learn about relevant business models to turn creativity and entrepreneurial spirit into innovation excellence.
http://www.facebook.com/jp.futurecenter
Design to reshape local public policies
The two-day creative seminar Local Public Design will take place at L’Imaginarium in Tourcoing, on 19-20 September 2012. It brings together around 100 French officials and civil servants from national and local government, as well as expert practitioners and innovation pioneers from France and all over the world: Mindlab (DK), SITRA (FR), Nesta (GB), SILK (GB), Think Place (AUS), User Studio (FR), Plausible Possible (FR), Talking Things (FR), Desis Parsons (USA), Educore (NL), Aalto University (FI), University of la Manouba (TUN), and Strategic Design Scenarios (BEL) among others.
Together, participants will work actively with new ideas in the area of local public design, exchanging methods to innovate within the public sector, inspired by design thinking, ethnography, social innovation, and open source culture. The program of hands-on workshops will explore how state-of-the-art tools and concepts can contribute to rethinking traditional practices and lead to radical new ways to innovate in the public sector.
The event is organized by The 27th Region, the French “public transformation lab,” in partnership with Region North Pas de Calais, State Modernization, General Department, the European Commission, Caisse des Dépôts and the National Association of the French Regions. The 27th Region is a non-profit organization funded by the National Association of the French Regions, Caisse des Dépôts and the European Union. It aims to help local governments and administrations to innovate in the way they conceive and implement public policies. The 27th Region won the Design Management Europe Award and the French “Victoires des Acteurs Publics” in 2011.
More information in French and English is available from the 27th Region: http://www.la27eregion.fr/
Twitter : #designpubliclocal