SMARTER TOGETHER Year in Review 2017

Special attention was given in a holistic and societal approach to all kinds of participation with a huge number of institutional partners ensuring that project results will be anchored in the respective organization based on ongoing learning and training.

The major partner in this regards is certainly the Urban Renewal office 3/11 that is under contract by the City of Vienna. It runs most of the participation events. The mobile urban Living Lab called SIMmobile enabled a direct contact to citizens from all different backgrounds on 5 locations, during 45 days and over 1.500 intensive face to face contacts. In addition, the GB* 3/11 also organized a tour in the district (“Walking Star”) and managed the sharing of the new Smarter Together e-cargo-bike. It also participated in the traditional Street Happening.

Also, The Vienna Housing and its communication institution Wohnpartner developed together with Smarter Together a new communication approach with the tenants shifting from mere information on upcoming refurbishments (mostly experienced as traumatic) into a highly dialogue oriented information and co-creation of upcoming refurbishment. As Vienna Housing owns 220.000 social flats in Vienna, the replication effect is tremendous.

A key player in regards to participation and co-creation is also the already mentioned wohnbund:consult in the housing estate Hauffgasse 37-47 by BWSG. In addition to the refurbishment it also contributed to the establishment of an innovative e-carsharing where the major innovation in the business model is the co-operation of a group of tenants. A real added value!

A major partner in regards to information and participation is the local adult educational centre VHS Simmering, where a series of major events was organized: “Smart Energy for Simmering” on 20^th of march 2017, “Smart Mobility” on 19^th of June, “Smart Data” on 13th November 2017 which gave all the floor to participating institutions and businesses to present their contributions and to inform a larger public. The VHS Simmering hosted also several additional activities and almost all local and international visitors groups passed by.

A special cooperation developed with the Science Pool, a local non-profit organizations which is active in the ludic knowledge transfer on science and smart city to pupils. A series of workshops was held enabling children to become smart city ambassadors.

The cooperation with the Mobility Agency of the City of Vienna ensured another in deep anchoring of project results. First, a local district walk targeted new public from other districts. Mainly, the cooperation within the Beat the Street mobility game reached out to over 6.000 participants, 11 schools, 2 youth clubs and was most successful as all participants walked during six week from 10^th October to 21th November 2017 over 80.000 km!

The cooperation with “die umweltberatung Wien”, an institution specialized in providing information to a larger public on how to save energy in the everyday life underlined the importance on learning tools for all those living in new smart homes as the technology can only deploy its eco-friendly effects and money savings if the users know how to do and act accordingly. Smarter Together Vienna translated a set of information leaflets and held a first workshops with local inhabitants in the VHS Simmering.