Between April 19 and 21, Creative Ring -throughout its Brussels- hub, organized an inspirational trip to Aarhus, another hub of the Creative Ring. The purpose: to get to know the city, find inspiration, and to see the key success factors. Cross-over and cross-border innovative practices are at the core of the ring. For Aarhus specific, the goal was to discover the grassroots and learn from them.

´Real Innovation Starts by Combining Insights and Ideas´

Tanguy de Lestré, ICT and smart city policy advisor for the Brussels Regional Government, was one of the participants of the trip. ´Real innovation starts by combining insights and ideas. Don´t look for ideas to just copy to your own project, but find inspiration with others and create your own project.´ After the trip, Tanguy kept in touch with smart city advisors of Aarhus. ´The trip was insightful, but also good for my network. Aarhus is a city with many creative projects, a real smart city. It´s always good to keep learning from one another.´

Behind the Scenes Tour: Projects in the Making

The participants met the key persons in all sorts of creative and innovative projects. ´It´s as if we´re getting a behind the scenes tour. The projects are still in the making, we actually see how they are doing things. You can understand and imagine what the product will be when finished.´ The group visited many creative projects, amongst others the Dome of Visions. The dome is built at a location where a big building project will be executed later on. In the dome, citizens can share their visions in what to do with that ground. You can learn about the project itself and see multiple ideas and models for the future building.  Citizen inclusion and open innovation are ingredients of the Aarhus multiple helix formula.

Politics, Business, Knowledge, and Creatives Joint

Next to political persons, also businesses, knowledge workers, and artists registered to the trip to Aarhus. The intention is to facilitate and find inspiration for innovations, because these typically happen when multiple disciplines are combined. Companies such as Airbus, Renault, Decathlon and Saint-Gobain have already shown interest in our discovery trips.

´In order to work together, you need to know your own eco system, you need to know the cooperating eco system, you have to set up the link, and you have to actually organize the way you are going to work together.´ – Alain Heureux, CEO of Brussels Creative Ring and co-founder of the Creative Ring.

A Shared Eco System

Brussels Creative was initiator of the Aarhus tour and found support within the other hubs of Creative Ring. ´This is one of the value propositions of Creative Ring, because it´s about more than only creating a network. It´s about creating one big eco system in which we actually work together. So, meeting the people and learning about the projects, start working together is important´, says Alain Heureux, of Brussels Creative.

Discovery Days Fall 2017: Benelux

In the fall of 2017 there will be a second trip organized, combining hubs within the Benelux. The program is still in the making and will be communicated when ready. If you are interested, please contact info@creativering.eu and keep an eye on this website.

Photos by Ehrenberg Kommunikation & Tanguy De Lestré.