About the scripting

Chronology The above-presented four versions of Ghent 2040 didn’t appear out of the blue. They are largely based on the information collected in an initial process within Group Ghent: On 17 February 2017, Digipolis Foresight organized an inspirational moment - we called it a future session - allowing experts to share their views on the roles of technology in the future of the Mobility and Environment & Climate domains.

On 16, 19, and 22 May 2017, a total of seven creative and more in-depth workshops were organized, during which colleagues from Group Ghent explained and further elaborated their views on possible futures. Here, too, the central approach was the relationship between technology and society.

On 6 June 2017, a second future session was held with ‘Technological trends for the government’ as its theme. Experts gave presentations on (big) data, VR/AR, Blockchain, and increasing participation in policy through technology, among other things.

Ultimately, everything built towards 7 September 2017: the Foreplay conference. All day long, more than three hundred interested people were inspired by the importance of future thinking and the role of technology in Ghent as a ‘City of People,’ and finally, they got to work in co-creative workshops. Finally, led by Applied Futures Research, there were also a Scenario Exploration System workshop (25 September 2017), a Causal Layered Analysis (9 October 2017), and a backcasting session (16 October 2017). More than 100 individuals from within the Group Ghent were involved in the workshops - and over 250 others were involved in the public showings (the future sessions and Foreplay). In the four versions of Ghent 2040, they will find their own ideas as well as the insights provided by the experts.

About Digipolis Foresight Digipolis Ghent has a Foresight team since October 2016. The team works on:

• Exploration of the future. We look for possible futures for Ghent in different ways, working co-creatively to the highest possible degree. We pay extra attention to the relationships between people and technology in Ghent.
• Innovation and experiments. The future is not fixed. We create it together. We bring various partners together around experimental and future-oriented projects. We constantly do this from the City-of-People vision: people and societal needs come first, and technology is a means, not a goal.
• Strategy and policy. Foresight wants to help design the future, but also wants to work on
• the road that leads to it. With a view to the long term, we also work on short-term realizations.
• (International) Collaboration. We are the contact point for collaboration projects that Digipolis is involved in - locally, nationally, and internationally. Collaboration is also central to the City-of-People vision. We refer to the ‘quadruple helix:’ citizens, civil society and companies, academia, and government.

Foresight on social media: Twitter: @Foresightgent Facebook: Foresightgent We can be reached via [email protected].

Applied Futures Research The Applied Futures Research knowledge center is a collaboration between the Tourism & Recreation Management, Communication Management, and Idea & Innovation Management programs from the Management, Media, and Society department at the Erasmus University College Brussels. We develop practice-based methods and instruments for future research and collaborate with societal actors to encourage and strengthen future thinking in a variety of contexts. We aim for added value from future research for companies, nonprofit organizations, governments, education, activism, communities, and society. We encourage long-term thinking providing insight into methods and approaches, concrete tools, training, coaching, and tailor- made activities.

Find us online: www.erasmushogeschool.be/nl/praktijkgericht-onderzoek/open-time email: [email protected]