About this good practice
Challenge:
We have roughly 2,7 inhabitants per square kilometre in the Region of Jämtland Härjedalen. Many of our inhabitants are entrepreneurs and business owners. Access to meeting points and possibility to attend relevant events is scarce due to long distances and that these meetings and events often are located in our (1) city or in one of the bigger villages. Innovation and creativity studies show that when we are subjected to new information and contexts other than we are used to, new ideas and insights may to occur to a higher degree.
Solution:
A digital forum in the form of a 50 minute meeting, four times per year. During this meeting different people and organisations are invited to attend and share (dela, in Swedish) a learning, insight, failure or the like – connected to their business and digitalisation. There are 3-4 people invited to speak each meeting, always from the county. The attendees may ask questions, connect and reach out through the chat. This way, a small business owner cramped with work in a rural area, can have the chance to access a forum of inspiration and knowledge together with people from the entire region just by attending this meeting.
Stakeholders and Beneficiaries:
This is a forum for and by SMEs. It is coordinated and put in to practise by Region of Jämtland Härjedalen, but everything else is created for and by local entrepreneurs and companies.
Resources needed
The only resources needed are one person coordinating and people being willing to share their knowledge/experiences. The lack of need for monetary or great resources is one reason why this practise and forum came to be created. It can be done by most organisations in most economic situations.
Evidence of success
There have been several proofs of attendees getting in touch with each other after a forum to offer help and support. One example is a business promoting organisation reaching out to one of our speakers to offer them a 2500:- business development check for digitization.
There are also examples of people finding providers of services and materials that they have been struggling to find, through this forum.
And one speaker got in touch with local authorities regarding broadband and connectivity.
Potential for learning or transfer
This is a simple practise that is adaptable to many needs and settings. It’s based on innovation and creativity research and this one happens to be about digitalization – but it can be transferred into other subjects since the point is not the topic but the connections, learnings and ideation-flow.
The aspect of people not knowing what they are going to be listening to beforehand is important. Because as soon as an agenda is shared it’s easy to prioritize something else if you don't think it will suit you. The point is that you may not know what you need to hear.
An important aspect of this forum is that it takes almost no resources. Many strategic roles within the public sector have no budget connected to them. One has ones’ time, and not much else. This is a way to strategically use one’s time to reach many people, creating a space for learning and inspiration that hopefully will lead to a long term impact in increased business, incremental innovation and a more connected region.