So we created an analog innovation tunnel
How do you show the public how DigitalWell works, when it largely consists of processes and methods? We wanted, and needed, to flesh out the project.
We anticipated our participation at My Europe, where we were invited by the municipality of Karlstad to show our EU-funded project DigitalWell. Mitt Europa aims to show what EU funding does at the local level, and we would stand together with several actors in a central shopping center in Karlstad.
"If you let people try a workshop but in mini format then?" That was the starting point. We balled back and forth, jokingly said that you would go through a tunnel. Then you can only move forward and thus also take your thoughts forward. A tunnel. What is more concrete than something you can touch and literally walk through?
The ideas flowed after that. We landed in what a few weeks later became a reality: our innovation tunnel. We contacted Karlstad Makers to get help making the sketch a reality. They jumped on with great commitment and added their own ideas to the design.
On May 9, we stood there, in the mall, with our tunnel. Strings of light in the form of small bulbs symbolized the ideas we hoped would be born in the tunnel and a sheer white fabric formed the ceiling to give an open feeling. One of the parts of DigitalWell is to create an open innovation environment, you could say that the tunnel became a concretized mini version of that environment.
During the day, curious visitors, ranging from young people interested in gambling to pensioners happy to talk, came forward and tried out the tunnel. It soon turned out that you can fit more people than you think in a barely four square meter tunnel.
What did they do in the tunnel then, where is the innovation? We designed two different problem descriptions, regarding loneliness and long telephone queues in care. They were easy to relate to for all kinds of people and we could easily lead them along the innovation flow. Throughout the flow, participants were encouraged to write their ideas on the wall of the tunnel.
"You work with digitization? But the tunnel is analogue, right?” commented one participant. The fact that digitization is developing and moving forward does not mean that it is the answer to everything. It can just as well serve as a tool to increase something that is not digital, for example human contact. We probably can't stop digitization and it brings with it countless opportunities, but at the end of the day we are human beings striving for the human. It makes it even more fun to get out and talk to people and try to make something abstract concrete. This time it was with the help of a tunnel, who knows what will happen next time.
Do you also want to try our innovation tunnel? It accompanies us to Värmland 2029 with a completely new concept inside, specially designed for companies interested in the possibilities of digitization.
/Sandra Dalåsen, Event coordinator Compare
The regional EU project DigitalWell is a collaboration between Compare, Karlstad Municipality, Region Värmland, Karlstad University, County Council in Dalarna, Region Dalarna, Friskvården in Värmland, Almi and Tieto. The project runs between 2017 – 2019.
