Place led innovation week: Reimagining our communities and services

The week of the 27 July techUK will be hosting a campaign exploring how place led innovation and technologies are reimagining and reshaping our communities and services. Since our place based campaign last April, a lot has changed. These last few months we have seen a shift to place based working becoming the norm, with local public services tirelessly working together with community groups, police, health sector and many others across the place to meet the needs of the most vulnerable. Councils with the right digital infrastructure in place have been able to act as the broker and convener across the community, cutting across boundaries to solve common challenges and improve outcomes for the people and place. As place shapers, councils also have a critical role in leading a greener and inclusive recovery.  

As local public services and communities plan for renewal and recovery, this timely week will explore what lessons from can we learn from the crisis, and what can we take forward from the place led innovations as we design our future and reshape our communities and services? We look forward to hearing from members and stakeholders how digital can help reimagine our communities and create places that are productive, healthier and greener and where citizens want to live and thrive.  

Each day we will be focusing on a specific topic: 

• Placed based to place led: Has the crisis made collaboration the norm, and what does that mean for the future of local public services? 
• Planet & Place: How can we create places that are healthier and greener? Role of smart technologies in reimaging our places and tackling some of the biggest policy challenges? 
• Place & Productivity: The role the digital sector and local public services can play in renewing our local economies and becoming destinations that attract new talent and industry? 
• Connected Place: How can technology and next generation communications networks kept us connected with each other and services?  
• People & Place: As we plan for recovery and build back better, how can the digital sector and tech help to reshape places and improve outcomes for citizens? 

If you are a member or stakeholder that would like to contribute a guest blog to our #placeledinnovation week please email [email protected] with the topic you’d like to do a guest blog for by Wednesday 08 July. Guest blogs will need to be submitted by Thursday 23 July and you can view the guest contributor guidelines here. 

During this week we will also be hosting some exciting webinars bringing together the tech community and local public services to network and solve common challenges together.

28 July – Leading through crisis

In this webinar we will hear from public sector and industry leaders, who will be discussing their experiences leading through difficult times and driving change within their organisations, and how they’ve ustilised digital to do so.

29 July - Partnering & Networking: Connecting Smart Place ecosystem

This event will be an opportunity for SMEs to pitch ideas to companies currently providing services to local public services and smart places, and for large companies to expand the network of SMEs they work with to deliver services in this market.

30 July - Place led innovation: Reimagining communities and services

This virtual briefing will explore what foundations are needed to make place based a reality- everything from culture to data – as well as improve the ability to address key service and policy challenges. We are delighted to confirm speakers from Newcastle City Council and GeoPlace.