a space mission I don’t work at NASA I
don’t work anywhere related to space but
the department in the city where I work
we wanted to send a balloon up to the
sky normally we are 55 staff members we
work with innovation technology and
creativity within the city and now we
wanted to make another department where
we could actually make some kind of a
little space mission so we created the
department itk space besides our normal
tasks for two months we work on creating
this space mission creating the balloon
some colleagues were in charge of
logistics some were in charge of
security like these guys some were
involved in building the balloon
creating all the technical equipment and
some reported from the entire process
what we wanted to do here was not just
have fun we wanted to get to know each
other we wanted the colleagues to work
together in another way than they
normally do we wanted people to try new
things to take on your assignments than
they normally do and then the day
arrived and we were so ready we had 3d
printed astronauts Hamilton and Lucy in
the sky that technical equipment was
there we were ready and we were so
excited would it work would they belong
the balloon fly how far would it go what
kind of days would we get would we ever
get it again would we retrieve it and as
we saw the balloon fly up to the sky we
were so thrilled
you were clapping we were hugging we
were yelling yes we did it that is an
example of what I would like to call
collaborative innovation I believe that
it’s very very important that we work
together with people with various
backgrounds are the normal tasks with
other context with other ideas in order
to make innovation when I was 29 that’s
12 years ago I got a job at a library I
didn’t have a library background
actually that was the first day I said
foot on that particular library and I
had been working with teenagers and in
youth clubs
and when I got to the library I couldn’t
find one single teenager and looked
around and I couldn’t find them they
weren’t there I asked them why are not
at the library and they said why should
we be what’s in it for us
luckily I got a green light to start
figuring out how could we actually make
teenagers come to the library so how
should I do that I talked to the
teenagers about this and they said
Louise you’re too old you can’t do
anything you can’t create services for
us so I involved them in it in the
entire process five librarians a bunch
of teenagers we employed actually seven
teenagers to help us including on there
on the other ones we added a lot of
partners and we had a crazy people like
myself and for two and a half years we
developed be tested we redeveloped we
made a universe for teenagers and
libraries we had a physical place we
made a caravan that could drive out to
festivals we had young people writing
books up and portraits about
the unities in Aarhus we made a project
guide so that teenagers can actually get
help to realize their own ideas so we
made a universe for teenagers we tested
the rules we bent the rules we broke the
rules
constantly and we set new rules new ways
of doing things new ways of being
together with the teenagers this project
was the start of the way that I work
when I work all the time when I work and
we were so lucky that this mine spot our
our teenage universe library universe it
got quite famous in the light library
success both nationally and
internationally because we set new
standards we found out a way to actually
be a relevant service for the teenagers
and that made me think that that is the
way I need to work and I’ve been doing
that ever since so the problem was that
the library wasn’t relevant for the
teenagers they weren’t there it wasn’t
relevant and there’s always a chance to
be irrelevant in the world that we’re
living in today because it changes so
rapidly and we need to do something in
order not to be irrelevant and we see it
all over the place in every sector the
risk of being irrelevant
digitalization tighter budgets make
libraries all over the world struggle
what’s in it what what can we use our
library spaces for the physical spaces
if we have ebooks what’s the role of a
librarian when we have Google you see it
in the cities when you create smart
cities more people more traffic more
pollution more individual demands for
what people want from us from the cities
we’ve struggled with tight budgets and
we need to figure out how we can be the
best possible cities for our citizens we
see it in our educational systems that
signal logical development makes it even
harder for us to be up-to-date the
skills that we need today and tomorrow
and definitely not the same as we need
it 20 years ago so the educational
systems have to to be up to speed to
actually give us the skills that we need
I believe that collaboration is a
solution for that I believe strongly
that if you take people contexts silos
firms cities and mix it and be open have
an open discourse to everything try to
hear when people ask your questions then
you can actually stay relevant and I’ll
give you some examples when I’m not
working in the city I’m a coding Pride
pirate calling Paris that’s an NGO
called working with IT creativity for
seven to seventeen year olds we are very
new organization together with a lot of
volunteers we encourage children to get
ideas to create ideas to build ideas
with technology we are not a coding Club
we are I see creativity because we need
our children to know that technology
that is just a tool they need to know
how to actually work with it
I got involved with coding pirates when
I was a team leader at the library
working with the children and family
section developing the new children
family section at dock one dock one is
our new library in you know who’s an
award-winning library so I could see the
relevance to have coding Paris attack
one I could actually see the relevance
of having it in
or libraries but we didn’t have the
skills at the library so we created my
colleagues and I we created coding parts
at dock one and at the same time we took
part in actually creating the
organization around a rapidly-growing or
organization coding pirates and we grow
rapidly two and a half years after we
started we have 50 departments around
Denmark we have 18 at libraries we have
55 to come in libraries we have 500 we
have 1,500 children being a coding
parrot every week we have 600 volunteers
and we have 105 500 people who are on
the waiting list kids who are on the
waiting list and we grow and we grow and
we are all volunteers we are still a
place for passionate people for
grassroots we have no history we have no
question no rules you can actually
question or break we don’t have any of
it and we miss it we would actually like
to have the rules have some kind of
structure that we could question is it
fun to work in an organization without
rules yes it most definitely is
is it hard to work in a place without
do I sometimes feel like I want to leave
this place and say no more coding pads
for me yes definitely go back to where
there are rules some rules that I can
break so we are working on creating
rules for coding pirates there’s a lot
of people who want to work with us in
coding pirates cities libraries IT firms
etc and it’s because we have made a
relevant service thing that people can
actually use and can see the importance
of I have another example
three years ago a colleague of mine he
told me that he had met this guy who
wanted to create a festival about play
and playfulness and we invited him to a
hostess festival act up one or at the
previous library at the time and I
completely fell in love with his mission
his mission was that we want play and
playfulness all over play and
playfulness is important for all of us
so I asked if I can join in and I was
warmly welcomed three years later we are
community not a very big one but a
global one we have about 300 and gates
people all over the globe who are
interested in counterplay we try to set
the agenda that we need play and
playfulness in our lives in our
education in the way we work because it
simply gives us better lives our biggest
activity is a annual festival and we are
now planning our fourth festival in
March 2017 we will fill that one with
plain playfulness the entire dark one we
will have morning dancing we will have
singing we’ll have music we’ll have
Indians running around we will have a
lot of play in this library and citizen
service center that we have we want to
bend and break the rules of Dark One we
want music in the silent sections we
want red noses and citizen service and
we want people imitating each other
without them even knowing each other all
around this dark one but of course we
need to talk to talk one about how we do
that so we collaborate with the good
people of da Guan to make a festival
where they get a play for place a
playful house for three days and we just
so I strongly believe that collaboration
a collaborative innovation leaves us
relevant because we always have to be
just change how things just a tiny bit
because people ask us why why do I
actually do that I mean because we used
to because we normally do that so when
we collaborate we can actually tip
things change them put them upside down
to see is it really relevant what I’m
doing now how can I do that in another
way so what happened to the balloon I
was talking about earlier it flew up
into the sky higher and higher and then
suddenly we couldn’t see it anymore then
we couldn’t track it anymore
because the battery went out we had an
idea that it would fall down into the
sea so we send out colleagues in a boat
it went out of petrol it stormed they
we called the local Harbor and the local
Harbor contacted the fishermen in the
area and a local fisherman Alan he
fished up our equipment he put it on a
ferry and two colleagues drove for two
and a half hours to pick up our
equipment they drove back to us two and
a half hours and they were with the rest
of their colleagues at midnight and we
were thrilled the balloon is still
hanging in our office we talked about I
was itk space mission regularly because
that showed us that we are unique place
we feel unique when we’re working
together but we are still on a mission
not a space mission we are a city
mission we try to create relevant
services every day by collaborating
i crossing silos and by going that extra
mile and tried to work with band break
rules or habits what is a core of all
the examples I’ve given you is that they
have a playful approach yes we had fun
we actually had great fun but there was
a lot of seriousness in it as well but
having a playful approach to what we
were doing so the way we were working
through the way we approaches each other
that made us go that extra mile to
actually make relevant interesting
learning things for all of us projects
so I believe that a playful approach is
essential when you collaborate this is
why I here ending my talk would like to
give you an invitation I would like to
invite you to innovate but while you
innovate I want you to do it while you
collaborate and I want you to play have
fun be curious dare play when you do it
thank you [Applause]