Building the Marketplace for Cities

Challenges and innovative solutions for global cities edited by CITYMART.COM

Good Gym: Moving towards healthier living

People are increasingly making connections between the built environment and the impacts that it has on our health, both physically and mentally. While public health has been less of a focus of concern for cities in the past, more urban areas today are taking notice of the important linkages between health and the quality of the urban environment.

Around the world, city officials are beginning to incorporate public health experts and entrepreneurs into discussions of how to take action to promote healthy urban populations. In fact, 3 of the 21 cities participating in the 2012 LLGA put forth challenges that center around health and physical activity issues. Clearly the state of health in cities is gaining greater recognition as a key urban concern, one that is as worthy of attention as other major urban problems such as transportation, energy, and the economy. And like any urban issue, health problems do not occur in isolation. Providing solutions to promote healthy populations in cities can benefit other aspects of city life, and vice versa.

With many cities facing public health challenges such as air quality, poor nutrition, and lack of physical activity, there are plentiful opportunities to develop solutions that would enable cities to promote rather than compromise good health. An article posted earlier this week discussed the potential that public spaces have to encourage physical activity. By creating installations that engage passers-by and inspire movement and play, cities can influence the activity levels of their citizens.

Another idea to encourage mobility and active living comes from the nominees’ list for Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in this year’s LLGA. Dubbed the “Good Gym“, this project couples exercise with social assistance for the elderly. Runners and walkers can use the Good Gym to find a list of errand runs needed nearby, such as picking up groceries or making a delivery, that benefit elderly people within the community who are unable to make these trips themselves.

By connecting those who want to exercise with those with limited mobility, the Good Gym harnesses the social good potential of physical activity. Elderly people of the community benefit from reduced cost of care and greater social interaction with runners, while runners are connected to an inexpensive way to simultaneously exercise and volunteer their time to those who need it.

~ Allison Bullock

Filed under: LLGA - Living Labs Global Award, , , , ,

Recap: Eindhoven Summit on Service Innovation in Cities

On November 24th we held our Eindhoven Summit on Service Innovation in Cities, collaborating with the City of Eindhoven, Brainport Development (the regional development & innovation foundation), and the Smart Homes Foundation. At this Summit, we focused three areas of technology and development in cities that connect the priorities of transformation in Eindhoven with major global technology and societal priorities. Service innovation in cities are enabled not only by the availability of new technologies, but new tendencies in public policy, public private partnerships, and a more participatory understanding of service delivery.

Eindhoven Summit on Service Innovation in Cities

Mary-Ann Schreurs, Eindhoven’s Deputy Mayor, highlighted in her welcome address the fundamental transformation taking place. Who is driving our city? It is the citizens. Increasingly empowered, citizens are becoming more and more active stakeholders empowered by technologies and a new service paradigm. This, she said, is not just a political statement, but a fundamental transformation of the way government works.

Following this perspective, Living Labs Global shared how this transformation changes our markets. How come that blind citizens in Minneapolis present the White Cane Award to a more accessible street light when at the same time Boris, a blind citizen of Stockholm, experiences a complete transformation of his live through e-Adept the navigation solution allowing him to move freely and independently through the city. This case reminds us just how intransparent markets remain, not just to public decision-makers, but also citizens who should be demanding best services. Our mission for the coming years, therefore, is to make Citymart.com the central tool to provide this intelligence real-time to connect cities and solution providers.

 

Following this 16 entrepreneurs presented 1-minute elevator pitches that ranged from Callock’s urban system to lock and release shared bicycles and other items in the city, T-Huis design centres that engage teenagers, and the Continua Alliance promoting standards in e-Health. As in our previous Summits, these Elevator Pitches reminded all of the entrepreneurial energy that is readily available to change our cities.

Sensors + LED + Design = Smart Urban Lighting?

Lorna Goulden - Smart Urban Lighting in STRIJP-S

Our first Parallel Session, chaired by Elke den Ouden of the Interactive Light Institute and TU/e looked into how available sensor and LED lighting technologies can come together into smart urban lighting systems. Lorna Goulden of Philips Design shared the groundbreaking work under-way in Eindhoven’s STRIJP-S district; and Josep Maria Serra of Santa & Cole presenting the Living Labs Global Award 2011 winning integrated solution for urban infrastructures. Ellen de Vries, a globally renowned lighting designer leading Het Lux Lab shared how they overcome barriers in exploiting the full potential of urban lighting and was followed by Jan Reitsma responsible of the Sensor City Assen programme.

e-Health and Smart Living Solutions transforming health systems in cities.

In our second Parallel Session, Peter Portheine the director for health at Brainport Development moderated the discussion of how e-health and smart living solutions can help cities rebuild their social and healthcare services for an ageing, more independent future society. Netown shared their Baby Bot / A+ Healthcare Solution that won the Living Labs Global Award 2011 and turns new homes in Taiwan into connectors to the health care system. Rama Gheerawo shared the work undertaking by the Helen Hamlyn Centre on service design in healthcare, and in particular the experience of the city of pregnant women. Ruud Hoosemans presented the work undertaken at the Jeroen Bosch Hospital where user-needs trigger new development processes.

How do you make the elderly and chronically ill more physically active? This is the mission of the BOZ Foundation and results and new solutions were shared with the delegates. And finally, Thijs Honig shared the impressive work of the Housing First Project which connects the homeless to health and social care to unfold their possibilities.

Social Entrepreneurship, Business Innovation and the prevention of disease and social incidents

In our third parallel session, moderated by Open City Foundation president Motoo Kusakabe, we looked at social entrepreneurship and business innovation as a way to prevent disease and social incidents in cities. In particular the role of methods for identifying challenges and measuring the impact of solutions became a critical focus point of the lively interactions. Unless we can measure problems and impact of solutions, we are unable to invest and deploy wisely and, importantly, maybe also wind down some of the existing services that may no longer deliver value.

Parallel Session Prevention & Social Entrepreneurship

The first experience shared in this session was Marjon Meijs of the City of Eindhoven’s Social Innovation Living Lab. It raised the rapid changes faced by the city and new approaches that require organisational change to deliver new solutions. Yalp!, the Dutch Lappset subsidiary shared its new playground concepts that incorporate new technologies to reach not just children but teenagers and adults to stimulate physical activity.

Dr Karen K Lee of New York City’s Department of Health shared the strategies and design regulations deployed in New York transforming lifestyles. Results were impressive: a 3,000% increase in staircase use just by placing a simple sign saying “Take the stairs, burn calories” but also the emphasis of deploying more drinking water fountains to combat unhealthy soda consumption or supporting neighborhood supermarkets and healthy food options. All this serves as a model for 14 US cities today.

Chloe Feinberg of Ashoka Changemakers provided insights into how social entrepreneurs find alternatives to glovernment financing to scale up their solutions that may transform cities and societies in areas government doesn’t or cannot deliver.

10 Visioning Workshops

Following the parallel sessions, 10 Visioning Workshops were held bringing together city and business leaders to invent new solutions. Cluster.eu published a wonderful article on their sustainable tourism workshop.

Here the results:

Henk Kok: Development of a Business models for an (e)Bike City Plan and an (e)Bike commute plan

Manel Balcells: The role of cities in promoting health

Josep Maria Vidal-Ribas: Smart Urban Lighting Systems – Who Should Lead the Project?

Molly Webb: Creating a new generation of “Prosumers”

Hans Robertus: How to integrate Design Thinking into the relevant touch points of a city

Martin Dunlea: Smart Grids and real-time urban data transforming city services

Jakob Rasmussen: CityMart

Marcia Caines & Federico De Giuli: Sustainable Tourism

Hans Schneider: Energy Community

 

Filed under: Citymart.com | Living Labs Global, , , , , , ,

Recap: Eindhoven Summit on Service Innovation in Cities

On November 24th we held our Eindhoven Summit on Service Innovation in Cities, collaborating with the City of Eindhoven, Brainport Development (the regional development & innovation foundation), and the Smart Homes Foundation. At this Summit, we focused three areas of technology and development in cities that connect the priorities of transformation in Eindhoven with major global technology and societal priorities. Service innovation in cities are enabled not only by the availability of new technologies, but new tendencies in public policy, public private partnerships, and a more participatory understanding of service delivery.

Eindhoven Summit on Service Innovation in Cities

Mary-Ann Schreurs, Eindhoven’s Deputy Mayor, highlighted in her welcome address the fundamental transformation taking place. Who is driving our city? It is the citizens. Increasingly empowered, citizens are becoming more and more active stakeholders empowered by technologies and a new service paradigm. This, she said, is not just a political statement, but a fundamental transformation of the way government works.

Following this perspective, Living Labs Global shared how this transformation changes our markets. How come that blind citizens in Minneapolis present the White Cane Award to a more accessible street light when at the same time Boris, a blind citizen of Stockholm, experiences a complete transformation of his live through e-Adept the navigation solution allowing him to move freely and independently through the city. This case reminds us just how intransparent markets remain, not just to public decision-makers, but also citizens who should be demanding best services. Our mission for the coming years, therefore, is to make Citymart.com the central tool to provide this intelligence real-time to connect cities and solution providers.

 

Following this 16 entrepreneurs presented 1-minute elevator pitches that ranged from Callock’s urban system to lock and release shared bicycles and other items in the city, T-Huis design centres that engage teenagers, and the Continua Alliance promoting standards in e-Health. As in our previous Summits, these Elevator Pitches reminded all of the entrepreneurial energy that is readily available to change our cities.

Sensors + LED + Design = Smart Urban Lighting?

Lorna Goulden - Smart Urban Lighting in STRIJP-S

Our first Parallel Session, chaired by Elke den Ouden of the Interactive Light Institute and TU/e looked into how available sensor and LED lighting technologies can come together into smart urban lighting systems. Lorna Goulden of Philips Design shared the groundbreaking work under-way in Eindhoven’s STRIJP-S district; and Josep Maria Serra of Santa & Cole presenting the Living Labs Global Award 2011 winning integrated solution for urban infrastructures. Ellen de Vries, a globally renowned lighting designer leading Het Lux Lab shared how they overcome barriers in exploiting the full potential of urban lighting and was followed by Jan Reitsma responsible of the Sensor City Assen programme.

e-Health and Smart Living Solutions transforming health systems in cities.

In our second Parallel Session, Peter Portheine the director for health at Brainport Development moderated the discussion of how e-health and smart living solutions can help cities rebuild their social and healthcare services for an ageing, more independent future society. Netown shared their Baby Bot / A+ Healthcare Solution that won the Living Labs Global Award 2011 and turns new homes in Taiwan into connectors to the health care system. Rama Gheerawo shared the work undertaking by the Helen Hamlyn Centre on service design in healthcare, and in particular the experience of the city of pregnant women. Ruud Hoosemans presented the work undertaken at the Jeroen Bosch Hospital where user-needs trigger new development processes.

How do you make the elderly and chronically ill more physically active? This is the mission of the BOZ Foundation and results and new solutions were shared with the delegates. And finally, Thijs Honig shared the impressive work of the Housing First Project which connects the homeless to health and social care to unfold their possibilities.

Social Entrepreneurship, Business Innovation and the prevention of disease and social incidents

In our third parallel session, moderated by Open City Foundation president Motoo Kusakabe, we looked at social entrepreneurship and business innovation as a way to prevent disease and social incidents in cities. In particular the role of methods for identifying challenges and measuring the impact of solutions became a critical focus point of the lively interactions. Unless we can measure problems and impact of solutions, we are unable to invest and deploy wisely and, importantly, maybe also wind down some of the existing services that may no longer deliver value.

Parallel Session Prevention & Social Entrepreneurship

The first experience shared in this session was Marjon Meijs of the City of Eindhoven’s Social Innovation Living Lab. It raised the rapid changes faced by the city and new approaches that require organisational change to deliver new solutions. Yalp!, the Dutch Lappset subsidiary shared its new playground concepts that incorporate new technologies to reach not just children but teenagers and adults to stimulate physical activity.

Dr Karen K Lee of New York City’s Department of Health shared the strategies and design regulations deployed in New York transforming lifestyles. Results were impressive: a 3,000% increase in staircase use just by placing a simple sign saying “Take the stairs, burn calories” but also the emphasis of deploying more drinking water fountains to combat unhealthy soda consumption or supporting neighborhood supermarkets and healthy food options. All this serves as a model for 14 US cities today.

Chloe Feinberg of Ashoka Changemakers provided insights into how social entrepreneurs find alternatives to glovernment financing to scale up their solutions that may transform cities and societies in areas government doesn’t or cannot deliver.

10 Visioning Workshops

Following the parallel sessions, 10 Visioning Workshops were held bringing together city and business leaders to invent new solutions. Cluster.eu published a wonderful article on their sustainable tourism workshop.

Here the results:

Henk Kok: Development of a Business models for an (e)Bike City Plan and an (e)Bike commute plan

Manel Balcells: The role of cities in promoting health

Josep Maria Vidal-Ribas: Smart Urban Lighting Systems – Who Should Lead the Project?

Molly Webb: Creating a new generation of “Prosumers”

Hans Robertus: How to integrate Design Thinking into the relevant touch points of a city

Martin Dunlea: Smart Grids and real-time urban data transforming city services

Jakob Rasmussen: CityMart

Marcia Caines & Federico De Giuli: Sustainable Tourism

Hans Schneider: Energy Community

 

Filed under: Citymart.com | Living Labs Global, , , , , , ,

Living Labs Global cities sign to share technologies and policies in Tainan

At The Global Smart City Summit in Tainan this week, our partner cities Tainan, Eindhoven and Lavasa together with the cities of Dubuque (US), Kortrijk (BE) and Helsingborg (SE) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on Smart City developments and knowledge exchange in the coming years.

Living Labs Global Cities Sign Knowledge & Technology Exchange in Tainan

Tainan’s Mayor Ching-te Lai concluded yesterday’s lively exchange with about 250 participants at which six cities shared their visions, projects at which the issues of citizen participation, environmental sustainability, inter-governmental collaboration and new procurement practices were central issues.

One clear statement resonated across all cities: That Smart Cities are not a technology product, but the intelligent application of government policies, public-private-partnerships and a clear focus on and inclusion of citizens. Hence, the participating mayors declared their intention to ‘re-conquer’ the smart city concept from what has become a one-sided technology perspective.

Filed under: Uncategorized, , , , , ,

Health Help

Two more partner cities, Terrassa, Spain and Eindhoven, The Netherlands, are looking for solutions to create a healthy living environment. Eindhoven notes that good health is a primary determinant of happiness; Terrassa takes a more practical view by recognizing the need to promote prevention in public health. But regardless of the reason, both cities want to help their citizens maintain healthier lifestyles. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

Health Help

Two more partner cities, Terrassa, Spain and Eindhoven, The Netherlands, are looking for solutions to create a healthy living environment. Eindhoven notes that good health is a primary determinant of happiness; Terrassa takes a more practical view by recognizing the need to promote prevention in public health. But regardless of the reason, both cities want to help their citizens maintain healthier lifestyles. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

Twenty Global Cities Launch Technology Award to improve the living standards of 100 Million Citizens

Twenty global cities, including Barcelona, Cape Town, Lagos, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and San Francisco, in four continents, join forces with Living Labs Global, Oracle, CityMart.com and The Climate Group in an effort to find innovative solutions that will improve the living standards of more than 100m citizens by launching the Living Labs Global Award.  International technology and service solution service providers will compete for twenty winning spots that will allow them to pilot their solutions in these cities and put their effectiveness to the test.  

20 Global Cities Call for Solutions to Improve Lives of 100 Million Citizens

Babatunde Fashola, Governor State of Lagos says: “For any modern City, Lagos being no exception, the requirement to leverage innovation is no longer an option, but a necessity and this I believe is the objective of our partnership with the ‘Living Labs Global Award”.

“Oracle is proud of the collaboration with Living Labs Global and cities around the world to improve citizen services through innovation and technology achievement,” said Juan Rada, Senior Vice President, Public Sector.  ”Oracle is pleased to be the corporate sponsor of the Living Labs Global Award 2012 showcasing technology innovation in the Public Sector.”

Living Labs Global (www.livinglabs-global.com), the non-profit association which promotes new technologies and services in cities will be working with Barcelona, Birmingham, Caceres, Cape Town, Coventry, Derry~Londonderry, Eindhoven, Fukuoka, Glasgow, Guadelajara, Hamburg, Lagos, Lavasa, Kristiansand, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Sant Cugat, Santiago de Chile and Terrassa to select the providers and the solutions that will best tackle key urban challenges such as social inclusion, intelligent transport, urban service automation, urban lighting, open data systems, smart living, and healthcare.

Councillor Paul Tilsley, Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council, said “We think the Living Labs Global Award scheme is a real opportunity to help find an innovative solution, fully utilising emerging technologies to efficiently and effectively process food waste, resulting in a sustainable energy source for the benefit of Birmingham businesses and residents.”

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Ed Harrington says: “San Francisco is proudly participating in this innovative program to find the best and brightest ideas that will make our city infrastructure more efficient and resilient.” Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Citymart.com | Living Labs Global, LLGA - Living Labs Global Award, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Global cities, business leaders and social entrepreneurs meet in Eindhoven to exchange the latest solutions to society’s problems.

Eindhoven will host 150 international public and business leaders, social entrepreneurs, and investors to tackle some of our society’s major challenges such as climate change, obesity and life with chronic diseases, ageing and the new investment partnerships needed to transform our public services.

Living Labs Global a non-profit association to promote digital service innovation in cities, has partnered with the city of Eindhoven to hold their 15th Summit on Service Innovation in the city, a pioneer in implementing new approaches to becoming a zero emission community, the world’s most interactive urban lighting system, and a healthy city in which citizens have latest technologies at their disposal to maintain a high quality of life even when suffering from chronic diseases.

Representatives of New York City, Barcelona, Stockholm and international non-profit organisations including Ashoka Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

Global cities, business leaders and social entrepreneurs meet in Eindhoven to exchange the latest solutions to society’s problems.

Eindhoven will host 150 international public and business leaders, social entrepreneurs, and investors to tackle some of our society’s major challenges such as climate change, obesity and life with chronic diseases, ageing and the new investment partnerships needed to transform our public services.

Living Labs Global a non-profit association to promote digital service innovation in cities, has partnered with the city of Eindhoven to hold their 15th Summit on Service Innovation in the city, a pioneer in implementing new approaches to becoming a zero emission community, the world’s most interactive urban lighting system, and a healthy city in which citizens have latest technologies at their disposal to maintain a high quality of life even when suffering from chronic diseases.

Representatives of New York City, Barcelona, Stockholm and international non-profit organisations including Ashoka Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

Smart and Sustainable Mobility for the UK and Eindhoven

Our congratulations are extended to colleagues at Active eConcept, who have just expanded the implementation of their sustainable mobility solution to Smart Homes in Eindhoven and the Boroughs of Southend-on-Sea in the UK.

Active eConcept, which we feature in our Showcase, develops electric bicycle mobility plans for cities and businesses.  In addition to planning a specialized solution for each of its clients, Active eConcept provides a cost-benefit analysis of all of the plan’s components so the client can see how they will save money by providing more sustainable transportation options.
Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: LLGA - Living Labs Global Award, , , , ,

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