Last week we went to a really interesting discussion about the opportunities of an ageing society. There were participants from 6 cities including London, Lisbon, Vancouver, Washington DC, Toronto and Paris.





In Europe, the statistics are staggering - by 2020, 25% of the population will be over 60 and the 80+ population is expected to double before 2050. There will then be a ratio of 2:1 of workers to retirees. Many people focus on the inevitable rise is costs linked to pensions, social security, health and long term care.

But our changing demographic is also a significant opportunity. it will be a source of jobs (and growth); and a source of innovation - there are already numerous organisations experimenting with new models of eldercare and mutual support. One of these kinds of organisations is Participle which together with members of the local community, developed the Southwark Circle. And this is what the participants of last week's meeting where talking about - the importance of doing 'with' rather than 'to' or 'for'.  The participants are meeting again in Paris in May. For more information on the event see here.

I'm very excited about the ElectroSmog International Festival of Sustainable Immobility taking place in Amsterdam later this week from 18-20 March. The three day event will be transmitted live online with participants from all around the world. The festival is based on the premise that trends towards hyper-mobility (travel and transport) are environmentally unsustainable and that new communication technologies might provide some solutions - these technologies will enable us to connect and collaborate with people in other parts of the world without the need for physical travel. This is exactly what we're doing at Dialogue Cafe.

For three days, designers, architects, environmentalists, technology experts, artists and urban planners are going to explore alternatives and design sustainable forms of immobility.  I'm particularly interested in the theme of Witnessed Presence where Dr. Carline Nevejan is going to talk about trade offs between presence and trust in social interaction -  essentially exploring which kinds of technologies are most appropriate in particular settings. In her research, Nevejan has argued that 'witnessed presence' is critical in building trust and truth. There are also really interesting discussions lined up on 'energy and information' and 'food and global mobility'. You can take part online - see here for the live streaming schedule.
 

Just been looking through the excellent website www.socialinnovator.info to find a featured method on Dialogue Cafe! They've got photos of early designs.....

and loads of excellent case studies on projects all over the world like Dialogue in the Dark.

The Young Foundation and NESTA have just published the Open Book of Social Innovation - the latest in the Social Innovator Series. The publication maps the landscape of social innovation - bringing together over 500 methods and tools for designing, developing and growing social innovation.

It features hundreds of social innovations - including Dialogue Cafe - from around the world and in fields as diverse as health, housing, education and the environment. All the information is now live on the new social innovator website. 

Robin Murray, one of the co-authors of the series, and a Dialogue Cafe advisor, was on Radio 4's Today Programme this morning talking about how social innovation is going to be a major force in the 21^st century.