Dear Future

Short Summary

Dear future is the European Social Innovation Week which will occur for the 5th time, this year. The event will take place between the 23rd -29th of September 2017, across various locations of the city of Tilburg. Dear future is a festival which brings people together in order to explore the future. The festival demonstrates what opportunities can be achieved through social innovation. The festival consists of innovative expo's, lectures, meet-ups and the presentation of the Social Innovation Award.

Everyone and anyone is welcome to the week of social innovation!

Context

In a beneficial way, events like Dear future can be inspiring for cities and the people in them. No matter what the context, an event like such can be a great strategic occurrence. Dear Future for example will draw attention to Tilburg, as well as show initiative. On top of this, the event will also highlight topics which can quickly be dismissed by the everyday citizen, such events basically bring workshops to a city for a week, allowing the city to involve itself in what could be new topics. Making use of various locations around a city to (house the workshops) the event also influences how people will see and use the city, meaning that people will realize that a cities infrastructure can have more than one use.

Transformational Measures and Activities

An event like Dear future is a great way to change the dynamic in a city in a positive way. Dear future will draw a lot of attention from people outside of Tilburg, as well as inside Tilburg putting Tilburg on the map. Events like such can help with the awareness of a city as well as opening doors (informative doors). When an event as such turns out successful it often has broadened the scope of city.

Results

The direct results of the Dear future event are not visible as the event still needs to occur. However it can be said that the event has raised the awareness and interactivity of the city, because they are hosting an international event and will try to make it as effective as possible.

The results will likely help the social innovation thought process and developments for the future.

Challenges, Opportunities and Transferability

Events/ conventions of such can easily be transferable. A challenge however is that a city should show the drive and stimulation of the topic in order for the event to have an interests in coming to the specified city. An opportunity however is that it can broaden the scope/spectrum of Tilburg.

In Depth

More information about Dear future can be found at: http://dear-future.nl/en/