The Future City Game in Pilsen

The opening event of the British Council’s regional project Creative Cities in the Czech Republic is the Future City Game that took place in Pilsen on 20–21 June 2008. The project will be implemented in cities in 14 European countries in the next three years. The Pilsen Future City Game was organised by the British Council in partnership with the City of Pilsen European Projects’ coordination section, the City of Pilsen Department of Culture, Centre for community work – Western Bohemia and ProCulture.

The Future City Game is a tried and tested methodology that has been successful in various cities across the world – Manchester, Oslo and Bogota. The theme of the game in Pilsen was ‘Pilsen – European Capital of Culture 2015’.

There were 22 players who participated in the game, ranging from people working in NGOs, cultural and educational organisations. The participants worked in 5 teams and looked for the best idea to contribute to the European Capital of Culture 2015 competition.

The idea had to be somehow related to a creative city. At the same time it had to be:

• creative and funny
• new and original
• dealing with actual problems in Pilsen
• dealing with global problems of European cities
• important for Pilsen citizens
• sustainable – with positive impact
• feasible

The players could test their ideas on the ground during the second day. They had access to the municipal library, internet, municipal authorities; some teams did small surveys in the streets of Pilsen. The participants could also use cameras or dictaphones.

The winning idea was the project of a Dance Festival in Pilsen streets.

The whole game was played in the presence of observers and representatives of the institutions who are taking part in the Pilsen candidature to the European Capital of Culture. All of them agreed that the game was a useful source of ideas that can help find creative solutions to the long-term challenges of the city.

About the project

Creative Cities

A creative city is a better place to live, work and play. It is a city that appreciates the advantage of investing in entrepreneurship and innovation. The main aim of Creative Cities – an international project that the British Council launched in the spring of 2008 – is to give young, influential people the tools to transform their cities into better places.

The project is arranged with partners within various private and public organisations and with European cities that understand that innovation is the basis of sustainable development in the modern world. It will find one to ten cities in the UK, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia that have the potential to become creative cities. Throughout their involvement, cities will be able to establish a competitive advantage for themselves and attract creative talent to contribute to their future economic growth.

Among the project’s planned activities are the Future City Game, Urban Ideas Bakery and online competitions.

Future City Game

This is a game that is played during a two-day event by the city inhabitants coming from different backgrounds and representing different disciplines and outlooks.  The aim of the game is to generate the best idea on how to improve the quality of life in cities – either in a specific area within a city, the city as a whole, or in response to the common challenges facing cities around the world.  

Local stakeholders such as municipal authorities, community groups, cultural, educational and urban regeneration agencies choose the theme, location and participants for each game to ensure that it is tailored to the local context. Teams playing the game identify the common challenges facing the city – environmental, social, economic and cultural.  

Game players use the specially developed Future City game-kit based on a unique and innovative methodology developed by the British Council, CLES (Centre of Local Economic Strategies), URBIS - an exhibition centre on city life and by other partner-organizations.  Players design ideas which they then test and refine with the help of practitioners and community members.  

Fifty seven games are planned across the participating countries for the period of June 2008 – March 2009.

Urban Ideas Bakery

Urban Ideas Bakery is a temporary office which will be set up in a city centre of selected cities where about eight specialists will work for one to two weeks on specific problems put forward by the city authorities in consultation with the Future City Game teams and the wider audience-base of the city’s inhabitants. It will deliver new yet practical solutions in sustainable transport, health, crime prevention, community building, recreational spaces, pollution and integration.  

Participants will work on the problems using a solution generation process created by the British Council and partners (Participle). The Urban Ideas Bakery will be of significant professional and personal development value to the participants – the innovative approach to generating Creative Cities solutions can be also applied to other challenges they might face in the future.

Online competitions

Several online competitions will be organised to involve wider audiences in the Creative Cities project.

One online competition has already been successfully run: people from all countries participating in the Creative Cities project uploaded photos or videos showcasing favourite places in their cities and demonstrated what they think makes their city creative (www.creativecompetition.britishcouncil.org)

Other competitions will be organised in the future.