This podcast presents how-not-to lose the opportunity to get support from citizens. Luca Leonardi, director of Arca textile shares his experience on planning the creation of a successful living lab (TECLA Living Lab) dedicated to the creation of textile and clothing for the recovery of the traditions and the exploration and testing of new fabrics, materials, technologies and business models. Luca emphasizes the importance of the role of art in triggering innovation processes.Along with these learnings, he also stresses the audience not to miss the chance to build strong relationships among partners and final users.

Key learnings

• It is highly relevant to get to know the territory. For example, it is important to know the number of Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) working in the same area, the type of government, and essentially the social needs of that area and how can the Living Lab contribute to the satisfaction of those needs.
• It is very important to create an honest relation with the final user or citizens. When working with citizens it is imperative to build trust, this is possible by:
  – Being crystal clear about the insights you are looking to gather with the project
  – Telling the citizens what will happen stage by stage Get their feedback of what happened
  – If something goes wrong, be honest with them and tell them the truth
  – After completion of the project, do not disappear, follow ups are important to have a long lasting relationship.

• Financial support from public and private partners.One of the biggest challenges from projects and new Living Labs is to get funding. Thus, it is essential to work in a business plan that allows all the potential supporters to understand their role and the impact on the project.

To get an insight of a business models visit:  https://www.scribd.com/document/386099304/Conference-Proceedings-OLLD18  Page 134