Brainstorm results

How to stimulate entrepreneurship

First of all, thank you for your patience yesterday and for your fruitful discussion you managed to have online in the live chat, despite all this! We definitely learned immensely and have seen the potential it has, so definitely look into the possibilities of developing this online discussion element further.

We are still finalising our final document for the Innovatieplatform of what came out of our brainstorm yesterday, but for those of you who are already interested, we have
- the minutes of the physical brainstorm (non-edited)
- the live cartoons made by Hans-Jan Rijbering (worthwile indeed!)
- the whole transcript of the online chat (non-edited)

Let us know if you would add anything! Just leave a comment...

Briefing and Programme Online Brainstorm

Join online:
http://www.livestream.com/youenvisionwelisten

16.00hrs: - Introduction of agenda and explanation of goal of today
- Short intro of participants: Who’s who?
- Innovation platform presentation
Questions for online participants:
• Please introduce yourself with name, age, background/ job, nationality and where are you now?
• Is the objective of today clear? If you have any questions please let us know through the chat!

16.45hrs: - Plenary we will discuss and answer the following discussion:
1) For whom do we want to increase quality/value with a vision on competitive power?
2) What kind of value should the competitive power create? 
e.g. economic value in € or social value or cultural value or what?
3) What kind of economy would we like to be while being a competitive economy/country? 
e.g. What are basic principles of that future economy we find important...or see arising...no longer growth maximisation, but...
Online: Please join the discussion through the chat.

17.00hrs: - Gather and organise answers on homework/ preparation questions:
1. What are the current strong assets of the competitiveness of the Dutch economy?
2. What are the weak elements of the competitiveness of the Dutch economy?
3. From your expertise and focus what should be interesting areas for the Dutch economy to develop further?

Questions for online participants:
• Please send us your answers on the Qs above if you have not yet done that through the chat

- Select 3 topics: Think about why is this key for the Dutch competitiveness? Choose the 3 that you think are most relevant, important.
Online: We will have a Polldaddy.com ready where you can choose your theme as well. Please vote for maximum 3!
Together we come up with a top 3, to work on further for this brainstorm.

17.20hrs: - Brainstorm I: Split up in groups of 5 persons per theme. Dive deeper in your theme, what are the elements/ associations within this theme (mindmap), who are the stakeholders involved, answer the following questions:
1. What are the general trends and developments worldwide regarding this topic?
2. What elements are key/influential for this topic to enhance/increase the Dutch competitiveness?
3. What pitfalls/challenges, ‘bears’ can be identified preventing the competitiveness?
4. What opportunities ‘suns’ can be identified this topic will bring along?
5. What could be concrete targets for NL within this topic?

Online: As we now split up in groups it will be a bit more difficult to cover everything what is happening physically. Therefore we would like to ask you to also come up with answers to the questions above, which we can use as well. Please choose 1 of the 3 themes and make clear for which theme you are answering the questions.
Besides, our moderator will go by the groups and see if they might have questions for you to answer and help them further.
18.05hrs: BREAK
18.15hrs: Energizer (just watch and laugh…)
18.20hrs: Brainstorm II: based on the input from the sessions before, the groups will select the main elements they want to go further with as basis for the vision of their theme.
Enrich ideas with different creative methods to develop vision further (e.g. visuals, personification, imagination 2020).
Online: Please try to develop your own ideas further within your chosen theme. You can use also online brainstorm methods, like browsing through Flickr and see what ideas you come up with through inspiration by random visuals or you can of course also browse the internet and see what is already out there in other countries.
Again our moderator will go by the groups and see if they might have questions for you to answer and help them further.

18.35hrs: Vision finalization: Each group prepares a presentation about the gathered ideas and elements regarding their topic/subject and the main question: HOW can the Netherlands can increase its competitive power for 2010? Write out a vision statement with:
- Where are we now? (main suns and bears)
- Where do we want to go? (give a few concrete examples with:
 - What are the main goals/ targets?
 - Who is involved?)
- Come up with good tagline/ inspiring sentence that summarizes your vision.
You can visualize it or write it out, whatever you like, you will have 10 min per group max. to present.
Online: Please work out your own vision statement and post it on our blog, or email: Josine@enviu.org. Again our moderator will go by the groups and see if they might have questions for you to answer and help them further.
19.00hrs: Presentations and feedback.
Online: Let us know what you think about the pitches and please give your feedback, comments or suggestions through the chat.
19.40hrs: Plenary wrap up and reflection: What stands out, what are overarching elements, etc.
Online: Let us know what you think and please give your feedback, comments or suggestions through the chat.
19.50hrs: Evaluation and closing
Online: We will have a separate more thorough evaluation about your online participation, later on through email, as we are very curious how this worked out for you and if you have any ideas on improvements.

Link to join brainstorm tonight ONLINE

youenvisionwelisten on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

To join tonight's brainstorm online, use the following link: http://www.livestream.com/youenvisionwelisten

You can see what's going on in the brainstorm room in Rotterdam and join through a chat. Max, our moderator, will keep you up to date and follow the chat. At several moments in the programma we will specifically ask you for your input! 

To guide you in the process, you can see the programme in this briefing document.

Feel welcome to join!
8 March 
16.00 - 20.00 hrs

Join brainstorm ONLINE

Coming Monday the 8th of March we organize a special brainstorm. We want to generate ideas that will help the Netherlands get in the top-5 of knowledge economies in 2020. The Innovation Platform will use these ideas in their ‘competition agenda’ that they will present to the Dutch government.
 

We would like to ask you to participate in this brainstorm online! Maybe you are not able to be with us but you do like to share your opinion and ideas online. You will be able to see and hear the other participants and share your thoughts with them. You just have to be online at the same time! 

 

If you like to join, please let us know by sending an email to josine@enviu.org and we’ll send you the link where you can read, see and hear and of course JOIN this special session!

8 March
16.00 - 20.00 hrs
ONLINE

Question

What could be the role for the Netherlands to come to a fully sustainable and ethical economy? 
What are typical Dutch characteristics that could be exploited to contribute to this? And who would be involved, and in which ways?

Duurzame ideeen voor een competitieve economie

Vanuit ons netwerk kwamen deze ideeen binnen met focus op een meer duurzame economie. Ter inspiratie! (Sorry in Dutch this time...)

- internaliseren externe effecten (zie CE rapport Grenzen aan groen)

- opbrengst fiscale vergroening (deels) gebruiken voor duurzame doorbraaktechnologie, zowel pilot als marktintroductie fase

- faciliteer groene ondernemers, zie de speerpunten van de Groene Zaak en hun businessprinciples.

- kijk breder dan energie & klimaat, elektrische voertuigen (fiets, brommer en auto's) bieden perspectief voor innovatieve nieuwkomers als Tendris en E-traction, zijn energieëffciënter, zijn goed voor luchtkwaliteit en veroorzaken minder geluidsoverlast, waardoor er ook minder afhankelijkheid van energie import uit het buitenland is. Bovendien zijn de accu's bruikbaar als opslag voor duurzame energie tijdens aanbod overschot.

- zet in op duurzaam bouwen (je huis als energiebron) en gebruik daarvoor bv overdrachtsbelasting en vergroen de hypotheekrenteaftrek en het huurstelsel.

Question of today

What “New Economy” practices do you see happening world-wide? Please share with us one (or the best) example you know!

What practice(s) would you like to see implemented in the Netherlands?  

Also check this earlier post about the Economy Transformers for inspiration! 
 

Penta Energetica

Energy policies so far do not deliver enough results. Trias Energetica policies – save energy, use sustainable energy, process fossils as efficient as possible – fail to deliver enough effect timely. Energy use increases, sustainable energies hardly manage to match that growth and efficiency increases are slow and little. Its open ended nature without a maximum and its solo technical nature are fundamental shortfalls of the Trias Energetica. 

The Penta Energetica Principles can be applied to any region, but are best applied to urban area’s with sufficient size (more than 5-10 million inhabitants) and diversity of energy functions (industry, ports, transport, housing) as to facilitate energy integration best. Read the whole post

Tidal flow energy generation

Through Facebook Jon Brown shared his idea on extensive tidal flow energy generation facilities:

"To start with it's important for the Netherlands to establish a reliable, independent energy supply:
It's lowland position, along with experience building the Delta Works and Zuiderzee Works, means it's in a perfect position to build extensive tidal flow energy generation facilities..." read the whole post

Lifelong learning

One of latest members of the Enviu network, Bee Leng Lee, comes originally from Singapore and introduces to us her idea on Lifelong learning and how to create a positive and safe environment for senior students. Here is a piece of the document she sent us, to read the whole doc follow this link.

Why LLL?
People are the core infrastructure and resource of a country. The workforce in this case is extremely vital to sustain competitiveness. And people make up the workforce. So they need to be properly trained. To change something, we need to educate or make awareness of the changing world to the people.
While from the Lisbon treaty, the EU commission under Education and Training has implemented various Lifelong Learning Programmes (LLP) to enhance globalisation, much of the initiatives are based on student and staff exchange under the Erasmus, Comenius programmes. One purpose of this is to create opportunities for students and staff to expand their horizon to work/study in another country... Read the whole post

3 guidelines to foster innovation

Inspired by a column of Pieter Hilhorst Carel Muller suggested that the 3 guidelines for "passionate budget cuts", might also apply to foster innovation: "de-regulate, small-scaliness and do-it-yourself".

So advise to the government would be:
- de-regulate: it would be cheaper and much nicer to change unnecessary juridical fights with mediation. Looking for a solution is then the main goal, not applying the rules (as the "paarse krokodil" advertisement).
-Small-scaliness: from the positive experience in health care we can learn that large-scale is not always cost efficient, nor "customer friendly" to the patients. Small-cale can be "klein maar fijn", and if it would be the norm in healtcare it could save 2,8 mld euros according to Kees Tamboer in the Parool 10th of Febr 2010.
- do-it-yourself: and finally, the way to save most, according to Pieter Hilhorst, is let amateurs take over the work of professionals, as much as possible, as banks did with home-banking.

What do you think? Could the need to cut expenses create opportunities for new policies/ ideas?
And what do you think about the 3 principles suggested?

A summary of your input so far

THANK YOU, for all your input so far! We received ideas and answers through our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts and several people even sent in complete articles and worked out ideas. But DON'T STOP yet, we have the time until the 12th of March to gather our thoughts, enrich them and create new ideas. So please keep sending them in and join the discussion!

We thought it would be nice to give you a short wrap up; what has been said about the Netherlands and the competitiveness of its knowledge economy? 

We began by exploring what should be changed in NL, some thoughts were:
- Attitude of laziness/ Lack of ambition
- instead of striving for more and more income, striving for a higher quality of living
- Less complaints and more do'ers
- Feel responsable and connected to the rest of the world
- Focus on shared interests from people (who doesn't want a healthy planet?) instead of the current focus on the differences
- too much of unsystemized talks between government, developers and citizens
- open up more to international concepts, people, ideas.

When we asked about our greatest strength, our water management came up mostly:
- Water engineering
- Dutch Design
- Good infrastructure
- It's lowland position, along with experience building the Delta Works and Zuiderzee Works.

Then we started dreaming of 2020, NL would then be:
- still famous for our windmills and dykes. And we become known for the development and knowledge sharing on dealing with rising sea levels and (off shore) wind energy.
- the most Livable Delta in Western Europe and decision makers visiting from everywhere to see how this was achieved. They are especially interested in the holistic approach that provided the direction for this situation, in which sectors looked for their synergy instead of competing for attention, and funding.
- there is no more private transportation such as cars. In the future the Netherlands has already surpassed the "big brother" fear and works 100% interconnected, with a completely convenient transport system and where people are completely open to it.
- Four big cities competing eachother in the field of sustainability. In Utrecht all housing is CO2 neutral. Rotterdam has the most sustainable port in the world. In Amsterdam is the most elctric car friendly city on this globe and Den haag generates most of his energy decentralized. Let our pearls be inspriring examples for others!


And some of the first, concrete ideas that have been sent in are:
- Inspired by a column of Pieter Hilhorst; 3 guidelines to foster innovation: "de-regulate, small-scaliness and do-it-yourself" from Carel Muller.
- Life Long Learning and how to create a safe and positive environment for senior students by Bee from Singapore. And also Igor Kluin wrote before on our blog about this idea.
- Build extensive tidal flow energy generation facilities by Jon Brown
- Penta energetica: 5 principles that form a package of policy principles, that promote energy integration, resulting in a Neterlands with an “High Quality, Low Carbon society”, from Kees den Blanken.
- From Development Cooperation to Development Investment, by Third Chamber members (amongst who Marlon van Dijk)

If you would like to comment on one of the ideas, leave them below this post. And if you like to send in your own idea, please do: josine@enviu.org