Demonstrate how innovation and design can respond to societal needs and challenges, highlighting the important role of creativity for innovation.

Help raising the international profile of a city or region, contributing to building a stronger regional identity.

Bringing different instituitions and organisations closer together, thus strengthening the regional innovation systems and the overall commitment towards innovation.

To follow a thematic approach in addressing societal challenges: Different societal challenges can be addressed by innovation. The European Innovation Weeks should cover the most important ones, based on a commonly defined approach. Each region should focus on those which appear as most relevant for them. The challenge is to selectively focus and address sectors and thematic segments of societal challenges where the regional innovation potential is strongest. In addressing these challenges the Innovation Weeks should excel in reaching out to the citizens. Yet it should target both mass and specialised audiences, through communicating innovation success stories but also through launching a more general debate on “society-driven” innovation. This discussion should be organised by INNOEXPO at the very beginning of the project.

To actively involve ‘civil society’ in the European Innovation Weeks: Societal challenges cannot be addressed only by scientists, artists or enterprises; they require a broad involvement of different societal groups. The European Innovation Weeks should therefore also reach out to schools, not-for-profit organisations and political parties in order to engage them in a broader discussion on innovation and its potential role in addressing societal issues. Such discussions should be organised in an open manner, also giving a voice to those who remain sceptical about what can be expected from innovation to tackle the grand challenges of society. This aspect is not well enough reflected by the INNOEXPO work programme.

To feature openness, diversity and tolerance as drivers of societal innovation: Creativity and innovation flourish best in a climate of openness, diversity and tolerance. This should be exemplified in the European Innovation Weeks by showcasing practical examples of how the innovation potential of a region or city has benefited from fresh ideas from outside. This would add a European dimension and promote a culture of mutual respect and tolerance. Such examples can be found in all the participating cities and regions. They need to be well presented and, wherever possible, supported by the active involvement of partners from other European regions. This goes well beyond design, and in this respect INNOEXPO will have to take the initiative to better capture societal diversity in a broader sense.

To demonstrate the power of collaboration for building strong innovation hubs: "Open innovation” calls for collaboration among different partners with different professional backgrounds and expertise. The European Innovation Weeks should provide examples of such collaboration at local and regional level, but also stress the need to remain open-minded and linked to other parts of the world. The challenge is not only how to make the best use of the available resources but also how to attract talents and potential partners and investors from outside the region in order to create strong “eco-systems” for innovation. The idea of clusters does not seem to be sufficiently taken-up by INNOEXPO.

To showcase the potential of creative industries for fostering innovation: As mature societies consolidate around urban centres with considerable consumer potential, as ICT turns ubiquitous and the economy becomes services-oriented, creative industries (e.g. information and entertainment, software development, design, tourism-oriented heritage preservation, fashion, global arts and cultural artefacts) address considerable domestic and cross-border market segments. At the heart of creative industry is talent, and talent is shaped by and, indeed, built on innovative performance, be it of individuals or organisations. The challenge for INNOEXPO is to give creative industries centre stage during the Innovation Weeks.