The Open Living Lab Days in Turin

From 20 to 23 September 2022, the Open Living Lab Days took place in Turin, Italy. Peggy van Schijndel, Manager of the Creative Business Knowledge Centre and Program Manager Iris Kerst visited this conference and gained a lot of inspiration. 

European Network of Living Labs

The Open Living Lab Days are organized annually by the European Network of Living Labs. This year, the conference was hosted by the city of Turin and the Torino City Lab. The focus of the conference was on five thematic tracks, namely:

• Society: exploring all ‘human’ aspects of innovation in cities via Living Labs. 
• Governance: exploring analysis and practices for governing cities and living labs. 
• Green & sustainable: analysing how Living Labs contribute to address climate change and new models for sustainable products & services. 
• Transformation: addressing digital and green transformation, urban planning & development, zero pollution, also through smart & emerging technologies 
• Beyond the city: innovation beyond city borders, focusing on rural living labs, on scaling-up and cross-sectoral and cross-border collaboration to support (global) challenges at regional level. 

At the congress, delegates from municipalities, knowledge institutions and companies came together to develop new ideas and establish partnerships.

Workshops & Site Visits

The three-day programme featured interesting workshops. Each of the workshops provided useful tools or handles to further improve living labs.

For instance, the workshop ‘Participation beyond the usual suspects’ given by TU Delft zoomed in on connecting with parties or groups of people who would normally not be so inclined to participate within a living lab. Another example was the workshop Re-think and unfold- Art as a driver for societal changes, given by Stavanger Kommune and NTNU. This workshop highlighted the importance of having shared values in order to engage in meaningful engagements within living labs.

On the third conference day, ‘site visits’ were on the programme. Each of the three routes demonstrated the importance of working together to achieve innovative solutions.

Want to know more about the European Living Lab Network? Check out the website here.