Inspired by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s recent Northern Futures initiative, our aim is to establish a new style of conversation about the future of the South West’s economy by asking people to get involved in formulating radical new growth strategies for the region.

On the 7th July 2015, exactly two months after the General Election, there is a unique opportunity to take place in a South West Futures Open Ideas Day pilot, led by RSA South West and a range of partners, bringing together experts and non-experts across multiple locations.

Lead partners include University of Exeter and Devon County Council, RSA SW and Knowledge Hub, supported by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly and Heart of the South West (HotSW) LEPs. Other key partners include Made Open, Current Works Ltd, and COSMIC.

We want to involve local authorities, businesses, social enterprises, academics and students in identifying key challenges for the region and collaborating to solve them, to drive open policy making, new business clusters and open innovation, using a mixture of creative problem solving tools and design thinking methods.

The South West Futures Open Ideas Day is a pilot project. We have issued an online call for ideas, seeking to generate topics to explore on July 7th, and develop solutions that can be shared at a follow-up event with key partners in September. If it goes well we aim to run a bigger project in 2016, building on interest we have received in Somerset and Bristol.

On July 7th, parallel events are being held in the following locations:

Exeter (University of Exeter Business School)

Honiton (East Devon Business Centre)

Penryn (Made Open, Jubilee Warehouse)

Places are very limited, there is space for around 20-30 people at each event. We are particularly seeking participation from people who are passionate about making positive change and are willing to collaborate across sectors and boundaries.

If you are unable attend one of the events but would still like to take part, you can share your ideas by tweeting @RSA_SW or @phillirose mentioning #SWFutures, via the South West Futures Group or email project lead Phillippa Rose (phillippa@current.works)