First Belgian Living Lab Day

On Tuesday, 9 May, the first ever edition of Belgian Living Lab Day took place in Brussels.                                                        

On Tuesday, 9 May, the first ever edition of Belgian Living Lab Day took place in Brussels.                                                        

It was organised by Belgian living labs: Atrium Brussels, imec, Wallonia e-Health Living Lab, Living Labs in Wallonia and ENoLL. The event brought together Living Lab practitioners and other interested parties in an innovative “open forum” workshop format, where the participants themselves could pitch and organize their own sessions. 

The first Belgian Living Lab Day was hosted in the premises of Atrium Brussels living lab – providing an interactive and inspiring envornment for the participants. In the morning session, living lab landscape of Belgium was presented by living labs active in different areas of Belgium. 

First, Innoviris.Brussels had a presentation about the Brussels living lab landscape and their activities. The company supports and stimulates research, development and innovation in and for Brussels. 

Dimitri Schuurman (imec) who has participated and spoke at various living labs events organised by ENoLL (such as the OpenLivingLab Days) has shed some light on the active lviing labs landscape in Flanders. Participants have also learned about interesting projects that imec.livinglabs (previously iminds) has worked on; such as the popular and widely used Mobile Vikings.  

Next, Nicolas Devos from Living Labs in Wallonia provided some insight in the Wallon living lab landscape, the activities of living labs in the region and numerous Fab Labs, Creative Hubs & Living Labs that are operating. 

And finally, Pieter Ballon (ENoLL Secretary) and Zsuzsanna Bodi (ENoLL Association Manager) presented international living lab landscape and various members who form the extensive European Network of Living Labs. 

– The event aimed to bring together participants who are active
   or interested in Living Labs 

A total of 4 rounds, each provided a choice between 3-8 different topics. The topics ranged from general topics, such as discussions on main challenges of Living Labs to specific, such as exchanging experiences on field tests & drop-outs. The ENoLL publication “Best Living Lab Project Award 2016” publication was introduced here for the first time, announcing Taiwan Living Lab as the winner and Precision Agriculture Living Lab & Thess-AHALL and first and second runner up. 

We are looking forward to the Second Edition of Belgian Living Lab Days in 2018! If you have missed the event this year, you can flick through the photos