Living Labs in Southern Africa (LLiSA) and the way forward

The 2nd annual conference of Living Labs in Southern Africa  (LLiSA) took recently place in Cape Town and was hosted by Reconstructed Living Lab (RLabs). The event was a great success with all the Living Labs sharing their information freely for everyone to grow together.

The 2nd annual conference of Living Labs in Southern Africa  (LLiSA) took recently place in Cape Town and was hosted by Reconstructed Living Lab (RLabs). The event was a great success with all the Living Labs sharing their information freely for everyone to grow together. The invited key note speakers ENoLL Council members (Tuija Hirvikoski (ENoLL Thematic Domains LL Coordinator), Daan Velthausz (Amsterdam Living Labs) and Minna Fred (Laurea University of Applied Sciences Finland – PhD candidate on Living Labs and co-author of a book on innovation from organizational perspectives) managed the heat of Cape Town summer day of 37 celcius and provided extremely valuable information and ideas on evaluation of Living Labs, the Learning by Developing model applied in Laurea University in Finland and on funding and sustainability of Living Labs.

During the first day, the participants engaged in discussion about the different Labs and how they were established and the kind of challenges they are facing as a Lab. It became clear that all the Labs were facing some challenges but that is what the conference was about, to see how the different Labs could help and assist each other on the way forward.

Three active Living Labs provided information on their business models, innovations, service offerings and lessons learned, ENoLL member Siyakhula Living Lab situated in Dwesa in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, Reconstructed Living Lab in Cape Town (host of the two day workshop) and North West Living Labs from the North West Province of South Africa. The focus on social innovation was evident from all the presentations. Later on the LLiSA board meeting took important decisions regarding future commitments and proposals collaboratively as LL in LLiSA for international funding.

During the second day the facilitators at Rlabs got to share about Social Media and the importance of the way forward as the LLiSA Network to get maximum publicity using the Social Media Tools. An excellent presentation was provided by the RLabs team and on how they also provided training for individuals on how to integrate social media into their own web pages.  Two breakaway sessions were held where one group focused on the funding and sustainability and the other on evaluation of Living Labs. Valuable feedback was provided on the way forward for LLiSA based on everyone’s feedback with timelines for actions. All in all, lot of information was shared and everyone has a better idea of on what is the way forward for Living Labs in Southern Africa.

FInd out more about LLiSA and the event here.

See pictures from the event here.