Time
09.00 – 16.30
Room
AQUA
Agenda
Time | Session title | Speaker |
9.00 – 9.30 | Welcome & Introduction | |
9.30 – 10.30 | Lesson 1: Desirability, feasibility and viability: deliver sustainable and impactful innovation via co-creation and experimentation in Living Labs | Dr Dimitri Schuurman (Imec) |
10.30 – 10.45 | Brew & Build (connections) | |
10.45 – 12.15 | Lesson 2: Co-creating with arts and artists in your Living Lab | Martha King (KWMC) |
12.15 – 13.00 | Lunch & Talk | |
13.00 – 14.30 | Lesson 3: Place-based social innovation for Living Labs – seeding collaboration for urban activation | Dr Donagh Horgan (Inholland University of Applied Sciences and Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
14.30 – 14.45 | Brew & Build (connections) | |
14.45 – 16.15 | Lesson 4: Play the Bricks! Co-design and storytelling for transition facilitators & lab coordinators | Heleen Geerts & Dr Liliya Terzieva (The Hague University of Applied Sciences) |
16.15 – 16.30 | Closing | |
Intermediate Track Lessons Description
Desirability, feasibility and viability: deliver sustainable and impactful innovation via co-creation and experimentation in Living Labs
Explore the sustainability triad of desirability, feasibility and viability as a practical lens for developing impactful innovation in Living Labs. Through real-world examples drawn from diverse settings and topics, participants will gain a deeper understanding of how these three elements complement each other and why they are essential to successful innovation. The session also provides space to reflect on individual methods and tools, share experiences with fellow learners, and learn from both best practices and lessons from failed projects. Co-creation and experimentation remain at the heart of the discussion, reinforcing the role of Living Labs in delivering value that is not only innovative but also sustainable and grounded in real needs.
Co-creating with arts and artists in your Living Lab
This interactive session will provide you with tangible examples of how to harness the power of art and artists in your context. Helping people to understand why work with art and artists, what can art bring to your Living Lab and how to work with artists. You will come away feeling inspired and equipped to start working with artists in your Living Lab. This training will be hosted and facilitated by Knowle West Media Centre, Bristol’s Living Lab in the UK.
Place-based social innovation for Living Labs - seeding collaboration for urban activation
This session explores how Living Labs can drive place-based social innovation to tackle complex societal challenges and foster meaningful urban transformation. Through a blend of knowledge-sharing and co-creation, participants will be introduced to key definitions, the wider policy context, and real-world examples from engagement-led Living Labs. Drawing on both research and practice, the session highlights the importance of locally grounded approaches in addressing “wicked problems,” emphasising that not all solutions are scalable or transferable. Instead, it asks how we can co-design adaptable methods that reflect the unique needs of diverse communities while building local ownership and long-term impact. Interactive elements will guide participants in reflecting on their own contexts and spark dialogue on questions such as: how can Living Labs create positive change in areas like tourism, health, and wellbeing? And how can they activate collaboration amid social fragmentation? Examples from ENoLL labs, including the Urban Leisure and Tourism Labs, will illustrate how Living Labs can become catalysts for inclusive, sustainable, and people-centred innovation.
Play the Bricks! Co-design and storytelling for transition facilitators & lab coordinators
Step into a dynamic, hands-on training designed for those leading change in complex systems. Play the Bricks! introduces transition facilitators and lab coordinators to powerful participatory methods that foster creativity, dialogue, and commitment among diverse stakeholders. Combining the internationally acclaimed LEGO® Serious Play® method with the Mountain View Stakeholder Project Commitment Tool, this training invites you to build shared narratives, visualise system dynamics, and co-design pathways for sustainable transformation. Through playful construction and structured reflection, you’ll learn how to unlock deeper insights, enhance stakeholder ownership, and support lasting project commitments. Whether you work in education, innovation labs, public policy, or community initiatives, this training offers practical, adaptable tools to support your role as a facilitator of systemic change.
Trainers
Dimitri Schuurman
University Business Development Manager, imec-MICT-Ghent University & Senior Research Strategist, ENoLL
Dimitri Schuurman
University Business Development Manager, imec-MICT-Ghent University & Senior Research Strategist, ENoLLDimitri is a university business developer at research group imec-MICT-Ghent University where he is responsible for research on inclusive design, impact via Living Labs, and design for futures, all in the context of new and emerging technologies. He is a visiting professor of strategic design and innovation management at Ghent University and works in part for the European Network of Living Labs as their senior research strategist. His PhD on innovation management in Living Labs developed a three-layered model that is now widely used in Living Lab research and practice. Finally, Dimitri is active as an independent consultant in the domains of open innovation, user innovation and strategic innovation management.
Martha King
Creative Co-Director at Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC) Bristol’s Living Lab
Martha King
Creative Co-Director at Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC) Bristol’s Living LabMartha King is the Creative Co-Director at Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC) Bristol’s Living Lab in Knowle West, UK. KWMC is an arts and community tech organisation with a mission to ‘make fair and thriving neighborhoods together, with arts tech and care’. She is also co-founder and director of Control Shift, an international arts and tech festival, based in Bristol. She has developed and delivered numerous participatory and critically engaged arts and tech projects and ran community tech co-creation programmes exploring topics such as data ethics, AI and commons-based approaches to citizen sensing. Martha has a background in theatre and performance making which means collaborative and embodied practices are central to her work. She has a UCL accredited service design qualification and is a currently on the Clore Leading Systemic Change Programme. She is co-author on HCI published paper ‘A City in Common: A Framework to Foster Technology Innovation from the Bottom up’ and co-author of the chapter ‘We Can Make: Co-Creating Knowledge and Products with Local Communities’ in ‘Co-Creation in Theory and Practice Exploring Creativity in the Global North and South’.
Dr Donagh Horgan
Lab Lead, Urban Leisure and Tourism Lab Rotterdam
Dr Donagh Horgan
Lab Lead, Urban Leisure and Tourism Lab RotterdamDonagh Horgan is an academic and practitioner in the area of regenerative placemaking and socio-spatial transformation, and lab lead at the Urban Leisure and Tourism Lab Rotterdam. His work looks at societal transitions through a holistic lens of sustainable tourism. Trained as an architect and social designer, Donagh also consults internationally on social innovation on the built environment with cities and local government for UNDP, URBACT, universities and local governments. Specialising in participatory design and co-creation, he actively collaborates on a number of European-funded research projects on topics such as inclusive cities, climate democracy and heritage valorisation.
Dr Liliya Terzieva
Liliya Terzieva, Professor Designing Value Networks, the Hague University of Applied Sciences
Dr Liliya Terzieva
Liliya Terzieva, Professor Designing Value Networks, the Hague University of Applied SciencesDr Liliya Terzieva is Professor Designing Value Networks at the Hague University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands. Her PhD is in the field of Economic and Organizational sciences of Leisure and Tourism. Within her career pathway of around 20 years of international experience (Bulgaria, China, France, Malta, Vietnam, the Netherlands, etc.) she worked in non-governmental, public, as well as educational and business organizations, related to the domains of (among others): entrepreneurial learning and mindset, value generation, leadership, tourism, leisure, strategic and human-centred design. Her research interest is in the impact and value diverse multi-stakeholder collaborative interactions lead to and the role design plays to foster and nurture the above. Liliya is a member of the editorial board of various (scientific) journals. She is an active partner and member of the Worldwide Association of Female Professionals. Additionally, she works as an external evaluator and co-creator of projects funded by the EU. Liliya collaborates with institutions such as Beijing International Studies University, the Bulgarian Chamber of Education, Science and Culture, Fachhochschule Graubünden, the University of Montpellier, and Fachhochschule Joanneum. She is frequently invited as a speaker at (inter)national academic and applied research conferences.
Heleen Geerts
Coordinator Learning Community Haagse (Living) Labs THUAS, South Holland Impact Alliance (ZHIA)
Heleen Geerts
Coordinator Learning Community Haagse (Living) Labs THUAS, South Holland Impact Alliance (ZHIA)Heleen Geerts is Liaison Manager Entrepreneurship, Researcher Designing Value Networks, and Coordinator of the Learning Community Haagse (Living) Labs at The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS), Netherlands. She coordinates Living Labs & Triple Helix collaborations (Public-Private Partnerships) with a focus on educational innovation. As an External Relations Coordinator and lecturer, she has extensive experience in higher education and the Triple/Quadruple Helix context. Skilled in stakeholder management, international trade, marketing, 21st-century skills, and business strategy, Heleen holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Management and is author of ‘How to innovate with Living Labs’.