Let’s have more ‘new conversations’

The theme of the final day of Smart City Futures – which took place in Salford yesterday – was ‘the new conversation’.

‘New’ meant not only uniting people who don’t come together as much as they should – universities and their local communities – but also framing conversations in a new way to take advantage of digital sharing technologies.

Gone were the on-stage speeches from experts, with question and answer sessions squeezed into the final five minutes.

In their place were round table debates interrupted constantly by Twitter comments, Wiki updates, video and photographic footage.

The ‘community’ – so often discussed but rarely invited to such events – was there in force. The technology took a while to bed in, but by the afternoon the buzz was palpable.

Martin Hall, who takes up his new role as vice chancellor of Salford University next month, began his tenure as he means to go on.

He chaired a session that included a university psychologist, a man from Nokia and two young people from the local community.

The straight-talking Rory and Nicky – representing ‘youth’ – won the audience over with their views on how to build self-esteem in deprived communities.

Regular tweets and verbal interruptions from audience members hit out against negative stereotyping of Salford. The other voices around the table – those usually most at home on a conference stage – seemed jargon-heavy in comparison.

Afterwards the entire audience went upstairs to brainstorm a practical idea to solve some of the issues discussed throughout the day – how can we unite different parts of our communities, how can we become more sustainable, how can we talk and listen to each other a bit more.

But this was not just a talking exercise – at the end of the day the four winners went home with funding to help their idea become reality.

Soon, an urban growing network and a positive image bank will start growing within Salford, helping to ensure that the new conversations of today will continue tomorrow and the day after.  

View video footage of Pro Vice Chancellor for Enterprise and Regional Affairs at Salford University Professor James Powell, talking about the day: http://tiny.cc/1eMKh.