These events are being hosted over the next few months by each of the Creative Exchange partners, and each of the six Labs will be focussed on one of the cluster topics of the project. The topic for the first lab was ‘Public Service Innovation and Democracy’, and it was hosted by Lancaster University.
We had a great range of attendees, from small businesses to academic specialists to city council representatives. Also in attendance were some of our brand new PhD students, who have recently joined the project and are keen to get working on exciting projects.
The discussions during the day were wide ranging, encompassing such diverse topics as urban planning, open data and its use in social care, and the importance of narrative in conveying complex information.
Four key project teams emerged during the day, and came up with some excellent ideas for work that could be done in this area,
the most promising of which are currently being developed into project proposals. The CX Leadership board will review these proposals, and select which ones will receive funding from the hub and become working projects. None of the ideas will be wasted however, since unsuccessful proposals might still seek funding from other avenues. In addition to this, it seems that strong links have been made between the companies and academics who attended the event, which we hope will continue and lead to future collaboration.If you’re a partner company and you haven’t been invited to a Lab yet, don’t worry, since we’re trying to spread people out across the various clusters. But if there’s a cluster topic you’re particularly interested in, drop us a line and we’ll try and get you to the appropriate lab. This includes the topics already underway, as it’s likely we’ll be holding a second round of labs later on.
Naomi Jacobs