Workshop report

Two groups took part in the workshop on July 17 2000

The two groups were given an outline scenario of a town in year 2000, and a list of technology ‘drivers’. They were asked to develop a brief presentation on the town in year 2010 for the other groups. Then taking the presentation from the others, each group reviewing the implications of the changes for work, transport, leisure, democracy, and professionals. Full briefing here.

Summary: the headlines

The following are common themes from the two groups — what they expected in year 2010, and the implications for the town and concerned professionals. Full reports below.

  • We will see more live/work in the home and small neighbourhood business centres, and more leisure development in the town centre.
  • This may mean reduced requirement for large corporate headquarters.
  • Home delivery will grow, and to serve this there will be local secure collection points where goods can be left if people are out. Town centre retail will be more leisure oriented, with other moving to peripheral malls.
  • The university will be an important focus for business development, with strong technology focus.
  • There will be pressure for local government — and all institutions — to become more transparent as they delivery services online.
  • The growth of electronic communication will lead to more campaigning and other pressures on government and professionals.
  • While the town centre and well-off residential areas may prosper, the future is not so good for peripheral housing estates unless there is major investment in networks, support and new job opportunities.
  • We will see less substantial new build, and more conversions of existing buildings.
  • Professions will have to work in multi-disciplinary teams, learning new skills, often facilitating rather than directing change. This requires a change in professional education.

First presentation from Group B

Positive aspects

  • Signs of regeneration (but is the call centre part of this?)
  • New corporate HQ location
  • New University
  • Motorway access

Concerns

  • Crime
  • Lack of leisure facilities
  • Hung council makes decisions difficult
  • Poor urban design

We would hope for/expect to see in 2010

  • Better information to promote democracy
  • Local information hubs to linked to the main central council — a possible role for local libraries
  • Downsizing and redundancy of HQ buildings
  • Smaller community-based offices with business support and services

Challenges - how do we

  • Decrease crime
  • Increase employment and local sustainability
  • Encourage new local start-up businesses linked to the university — incubators space
  • Build on the National Grid for Learning
  • Improving tourism and marketing... - but what is the theme?

Expect

  • The most important driver for sustainable development is knowing what and how - rather than just technology drivers
  • University builds on food technologies to support organic agriculture
  • Easy to do core ICT network, but periphery is more problematic
  • Encourage youth self-learning, entrepreneurial skills, provide recreation facilities
  • Better support for the elderly with effective service delivery. More home delivery through satellites... corner shops. Distribution centres.
  • The town centre will be a public space to meet, with high security and safety. More emphasis on leisure, less retail.

The response from group A about the implications

Work

  • Work will be increasingly home based
  • Local centres may be offering business services as much as providing work space
  • There may be links to the University
  • Not sure if centres and businesses will be locally-owned or multinational
  • Some houses will be easier than others to convert to home/work e.g. Victorian rather than 1960s.
  • We will see further development of the informal economy and ‘alternative’ communities

Leisure

  • Further development of tourism
  • More continental atmosphere in public spaces and cafes
  • More living in the centre of towns
  • Growth of clubbing means acoustic barriers needed ... look for 60s revival music!
  • Growth of online community might lead to rediscovery of local community

Development and professionals

  • Mixed use developments instead of zoning
  • Emphasis on flexibility
  • Professions will act as advisers and facilitators...involved in issues of conflict management
  • Emphasis on reuse of buildings and brownfield rather than greenfield development
  • Email makes complaining easier
  • Availability of specialist information on the Net means more awkward questions for professionals.
  • Professional mystique questioned
  • Professionals work more in virtual teams.
  • Work and leisure merge

Local democracy

  • Silver surfer power
  • Succession of single issues
  • Growth of independents rather than current political parties?

Presentation from Group A about the town — they named as EMOOR

Emoor now

  • Attractive - if not on estates
  • High property prices in desirable areas
  • Acute social divisions with a gentrified middle
  • Travel to work problems
  • Conservation lobby
  • Education and the university are key players

Employers in 2000, and changes

  • Now: local government, health, university, retail, corporate headquarters, call centre
  • In future: Silicon Moor - the university gets Microsoft funding and starts developing online learning materials
  • Biovale is created to support incubator business. There is a new biological science park.
  • Retail has moved to edge of town malls. Growth of local distribution centres.
  • Call centre has gone
  • Local government is much diminished
  • Corporate headquarters could be facing problems
  • By 2010 50 per cent of the population will be over 60

Leisure

  • Shopping increasingly as leisure
  • Old mill converting to shopping mall
  • Pedestrianised centre
  • Heritage centres developecd

Education and youth

  • All young people have mobile phones
  • Highly funded programme for youth - training at Biovale so not excluded
  • Workshops to develop music, videos and films - the new youth club

Travel

  • May be less work-related travel
  • More community bases plus home working - community hot desking
  • Still get school travel
  • Worried about outlying estates and ageing population
  • Tourism interest growing

Group B then analysed the implications of this scenario

Location of work and living

  • More mixed use development
  • More local serviced offices and industrial units
  • Town centre is focussed on leisure, with larger retail, office, health
  • Less new development, more conversions

Location and type of leisure

  • Focus on town centre for leisure
  • Emphasis on tourism linked to leisure and culture
  • Young people using cyber centres and cafes more plus local learning centres, and optimal use of school

Professional practice

  • Less opportunities for large new build
  • Think small and refurbishment
  • Greater complexity
  • New holistic thinking and better added value
  • More professional guidelines in role of institutions
  • Emphasis on facilitating multi-professional thinking breaking institutional barriers
  • Institution must help change professional culture

Transport — wish list

More on demand, real-time public transport involving…

  • location indicators
  • school buses the norm for pupil travel
  • more integration between services
  • more home delivery or to local centre
  • incentives to use public transport — (but what are they?)

Community involvement

Government generally more transparent by…

  • web casts of council meetings
  • more opinion polls
  • better local feedback to democratise and empower
  • youth forums

Then re-engineer services and delivery using ‘Planning for Real’ - virtual modelling with online access and comment. Travelling service for this on a bus. May get more challenging of decisions = professional services will be more challenged

Professional education

  • More of a continuum, less segmented, more
  • More individually tailored, but difficult for people to say what they need in the new context...so need to be able to play and explore. Leisure informs education.
  • Changing culture will involve being more flexible

General feedback on the methodology from participants, and relections from consultants

  • Timing of the change-over of presenations between groups didn’t work well (maybe groups develop the year 2000 scenario from scratch and then hand over to the other group).
  • Tend to focus on one's own professional perspective which doesn’t give a rounded view in scenarios.
  • Maybe need more mixed groups to reflect other town interests ...we were too middle-class middle-aged?
  • Questions to the groups did work well as prompts for discussion.
  • It was relatively easy to identify issues — much more difficult to propose answers.
  • Need closer consideration of ‘that is happening... what then’.
  • Clarify what are the problems -and then what needs to be done, who would do it.

‘Real’ issues for use of the methodology

  • Overall issue of how do we think about the places we want.
  • How do we get cross-disciplinary group discussion to do that.
  • Maybe technology provides a neutral ground for discussion, as well as being a driver for change.
  • In using the methodology ‘for real’ we would need to make this simpler, with more visuals. It should be usable by councillors, residents and other interests.