Living Labs’ staff recently attended Oracle’s OpenWorld conference in San Francisco. We wrote about five main takeaways:
- Politicians are talking the talk but not walking the walk – requests for technologies’ sustainability services are not backed up with funding opportunities
- Cities need to embrace the idea of piloting, evaluation, learning, and buying (we have seen this strategy succeed in the private sector, particularly among technology companies, and in select cities)
- Cities can more effectively advocate for innovative solutions if a coalition of citizens understand the benefits of change
- Technology offers the opportunity not only to cut costs but also to add value
- Cities need to adopt the philosophy that service cuts are not the only way to deal with recessionary budget issues
One of the ways in which Living Labs Global is promoting these ideas is through our Summit on Service Innovation in Cities, to be held November 23 – 24, 2011. At the Summit, cities, companies, and experts will come together to address the need for the diffusion of innovations into cities along three main themes: smart urban lighting; e-health and smart living; and wellbeing and the role of business innovation, new financing, and social entrepreneurship.
Make sure to keep an eye on our blog in the meantime as we will be dedicating several posts to these themes.
-Terra Curtis
Filed under: Citymart.com | Living Labs Global, LLGA - Living Labs Global Award, Our Summits, business, Cities, Citymart.com | Living Labs Global, events, funding, Service Innovation, summit on service innovation
