Bilbao as a social Silicon Valley

I’m pretty sure that representatives from DenokInn will have attended the last big SIX event in Lisbon with my Innovation Exchange colleagues, Raj and Perrie.  It’s for others to speculate whether these two colleagues taught them all they know – what is for sure is that they have now announced a 6 million euro grant and the creation of a social innovation park (SI Park) in Bilbao.  Joking aside, big congratulations to those involved.  It’s an inspiring idea and one I hope the UK can learn from.

Perhaps the Young Foundation can more justifiably claim some influence.  Certainly their pamphlet, Social Silicon Valleys, has been read by social innovators across the world.  It talks about the significance of the networks and critical of Silicon Valley to its ability to drive technical innovation.  The hope must be that Bilbao can do something similar in social innovation.  If you are interested to find out more, here’s a paper with some details about the park.  And some of the leading lights of this work will be speaking at an event organised by our partners ACEVO in a few days time.  Good luck to all involved – it’s certainly great inspiration for our own work on Innovation Labs.

By John Craig