Second Living Labs Europe Forum November 20-23 2006
The Second Living Labs Europe Forum 2006 was held at the IST 2006 conference in Helsinki, Finland at the Helsinki Fair Centre located 10 minutes from the centre of Helsinki city.
Monday 20 was begun with the Living Labs Europe network being present by special invitation at the Finnish Prime Minister’s launch of the Living Labs initiative as a pan-European model for innovation at a ceremony 16 kilometres outside of Helsinki in Espoo, Finland. Pre-publication copies of the mWatch Europe 2006 where handed out to the participants of the ceremony prior to the scheduled launch of the publication on Tuesday 21.
The afternoon of Monday November 20 was reserved for a short briefing session on the mWatch Europe launch and discussions on the progress of the mClusters project. Christer Asplun of Interlace-Invent / Living Labs Europe went through the findings of the mWatch Europe 2006 book and the special issues it raise for European the mobile & wireless industry. In the subsequent discussions special emphasis was put on how to integrate the activities of the mClusters projecs with the regions involved, especially how the regions’ communities of users and SMEs can be involved in the networking and project activities on a pan-European level.
Tuesday November 21 was begun with the IST 2006 opening ceremony with Commissioner Vivienne Reading as keynote speaker. At 11:00 the official launch of the mWatch Europe 2006 book was hosted by Christer Asplund of Interlace-Invent / Living Labs Europe. Mr. Asplund led the presentation of the mobile readiness index and the cluster profiling methodologies employed in the mWatch Europe 2006 book 21 European regions including Barcelona, Budapest, Catalunya, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Istanbul, London, Lund, Malmö, Matarò, Øresund, Oslo, Salzburg, Sant Cugat, Sophia-Antipolis, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tallinn, Torino and Vaestervik. Several aspects of the European mobile & wireless industry and associated marketplaces were discussed in the subsequent plenary session moderated by Prof. Jan Annerstedt of Interlace-Invent / Living Labs Europe. Special emphasis was put on the structural challenges of interoperability and roaming between the European countries and European telecom providers as barriers to innovation. Also, the advancement of Japan and Korea in the areas of mobile services and technologies where seen as benchmarks for the continuing progress of the European mobile & wireless industry. The plenary session was followed by the mWatch Europe 2006 award in which the city of Tallinn, Estonia was awarded the first prize for the its excellence in promoting mobile services to its citizens and firms. Helsinki took the second place, and the Swedish city of Lund came in third. A special prize was awarded for the smallest city in the mWatch Europe 2006, the City of Vaestervik, which through dedicated leadership has transformed a small community in Sweden into one of Europe’s most advanced mobile & wireless regions.
The afternoon sessions on “Helsinki region’s Advancement into a Third Generation Innovation Environment for Mobility” where moderated by Prof. Jan Annerstedt of Interlace-Invent / Living Labs Europe, and focused on the question on how Helsinki region can further develop its technological and commercial leadership in a changing European context. The expert panel involved leading experts from key Finnish innovation support and intermediary institutions, research and business.
Tatu Laurila, Deputy Managing Director, Culminatum
Kimmo Ojuva, Managing Director, Dimes
Jarmo Eskelinen, Managing Director, Forum Virium
Eero Holstila, Director, Helsinki Office of Economic Development
Veli-Pekka Niitamo, Director, Mobile Work Place Research, Nokia
Risto Setälä, Director, SW and Digital Media Industries, Tekes
Prof. Tatu Koljonen, VTT
The discussions evolved around the models for collaboration and innovation support systems which have made Helsinki a world-leading cluster in the mobile & wireless industry and how these models will evolve with the new and increasing emphasis on pan-European collaboration.
The evening was ended with an official dinner at the Helsinki mayor’s office in downtown Helsinki. Invited participants where the mClusters consortium, the participating members from Living Labs Europe and the participants in the expert panel from the afternoon’s sessions.
Thursday November 23 was opened with the networking session on Living Labs with the participation of leading European firms and research institutions hosted by the DG IST 2006. Prior to the networking session, Living Labs Europe had by special invitation been invited as a key driving member of the DG IST’s program on Living Lab and a special advisory group had been set up to integrate the methodologies and know-how of the mClusters and Living Labs Europe network into the broader context of the DG IST Living Lab programs.