The 4th Italian Living Lab, held on 11 May at the Officine Culturali in Bitonto (BA), reached a crucial point: the ideation phase.
In the previous stages of this dynamic Design Thinking journey, promoted as part of the three-year multi-actor project GRASS CEILING, eight rural women innovators explored the real needs of users to be involved in their future individual business projects.
It is finally time to step out of the comfort zone and think out of the box! The generation of ideas, in fact, is the beating heart of the method and requires creative efforts. The innovators tried to identify some possible alternatives to better define solutions to the problems detected in the initial context analysis.
During the morning they experienced how there are no good or bad ideas: at this stage the most important thing to do is to create, using specific facilitation methodologies such as the World Café technique.
After meeting up with stakeholders in discussions around tables, they open the door to their imagination. The output of the activity was a colourful mosaic of ideas and questions to continue the journey in coming months.
In the afternoon, the working group reasoned about the future through the practice of Foresight. It is certainly not easy to predict the future, but it is still possible to be prepared for what may happen. Through a group exercise, the innovators were able to build a medium/long-term vision, expanding the boundaries of perception.
In the next meeting, the eight participants will focus more on the realisation of their ideas and no longer rely simply on their imagination.
The work was led, as usual, by the two co-leads Legacoop Puglia and CIHEAM Bari, with some local stakeholders who collaborated in the morning activities. They included Mariano Frachiolla, agronomist for the Bio Distretto delle lame, Gianvito Turi, visual designer for corporate communication, Francesca Volpe, local food policy expert for CIHEAM Bari, and Vincenzo Fucilli, professor at the University of Bari.
The GRASS CEILING project is funded by the Horizon Europe programme and runs until December 2025, with several Living Labs held in the 9 countries involved in the European partnership.
The Living Lab is an opportunity to strengthen the relationship and discussion within the working group.
No need to wait long for upcoming activities: the next Living Lab will be held in June. Stay tuned!
