Festival As LabCall For Expressions of InterestFutureEverything 201525-28 February 2015Manchester UK

FutureEverything 2015A global festival of ideas, art, invention

Festival As Lab

Cities become laboratories for new ways of living, playing, governing,

new forms of citizenship.

FutureEverythingEst. 1995

FutureEverything is an innovation agency, that presents city data services, design for science, innovation events, advice and training, art commissions, and experiences and demonstration.Its festival is both a cultural event and research vehicle, for experimentation in methods and mechanisms for research and knowledge exchange around the emergence of a digital culture.The 20th anniversary of its award winning festival takes place 26-28 February 2015.

Call for EntriesFutureEverything and the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) invite proposals for self-funded research and innovation projects to be presented as a part of the 20th anniversary edition of FutureEverything festival, which takes place 26-28 February 2015.Successful applicants will be given a unique opportunity to stage co-design, prototyping and public trials, engaging festival visitors and/or residents of Manchester, at festival venues or across the city. Projects will showcase ground-breaking concepts, products and services to attendees, commercial enterprise and the international design and innovation community.A physical hub with WiFi and A/V equipment will be provided for presentation of data, workshops and public engagement at The Shed, hosted in partnership with MMU Digital Innovation. Projects must launch and remain live over the festival period. Projects could be live place for those days, or run over a longer period.The opportunity will appeal to research teams, design and new product development companies, innovation agencies, and commercial enterprises. We encourage applications from consortia and organisations with established commercial partnerships.The FutureEverything Festival As Lab 2015 (FAL15) is presented in association with European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) as a part of FutureEverything 2015.

FAL15 ThemesThemes of relevance include:– Smart Cities. Future Internet. Internet of Things.– Smart Mobility, Wayfinding and Transport Innovation.– Digital Social Innovation. Civic Participation. e-Government. – City Sensing. Citizen Observatories. Data Services.– Creative Media. Experience. Personalisation. Identity. There is a particular interest in city sensing projects and trials. One option here would be to combine a number of sensing projects into a sensing lab.

FAL15 CriteriaA living lab project involving co-design and/or participatory research that:– Co-creates and/or tests ideas and prototypes with festival attendees and/or Manchester residents.– Generates visibility and engagement around a theme.– Uses creativity or design methods to engage users or an audience in a novel way.– Involves motivation or reward. This can be intrinsic (the experience is gamified, artistic, playful, entertaining or thought provoking) and/or extrinsic (an incentive, such as entry into a competition).– Uses the festival environment to extract learnings be they through participation, user testing, workshops, interviewing, ethnography, and other methods.

Festival As Lab CharacteristicsFestivals as agile research and development environments for real-world rapid prototyping, open innovation and user-led design.– Experts and passionate amateurs coming together to imagine and experience the future.– City as playspace - People and businesses play and experiment with the infrastructure of a city.– These experiments devise and test innovations, and generate visibility and engagement.

Why Festivals?– Involve large numbers of people taking part in experimental, playful activity. – Participatory spaces that nurture play, risk and community creation. – Enable the free circulation of people and ideas, connecting people at different levels, from grass roots to government and business leaders.

FestivalAsLab LivingLabpop-up,

light touchembedded, longitudinal

staged, extraordinary

real world, ordinary

wide engagement

deepengagement

Festival As Lab Differentiation

Pricing For applicants wishing to run a project to the specification detailed above, guidance indicates that a fundamental event package will cost €5500* (NB: Indicative cost), although applicants may wish to explore higher scope / cost projects, so it is recommended applicants provide a cost breakdown.In understanding that applicants and their partners may have additional requirements, FutureEverything can offer bespoke innovation events, enhanced festival profile and curatorial expertise in response to a specific project brief. Applicants wishing to explore additional scope should indicate so in their expression of interest.Applicants should signal any interest in commissioning an artist or designer to contribute to their project (eg. interactive visualisations, or novel forms of user or audience participation).

Comms BenefitsFutureEverything offers partners and external organisations a variety of sponsorship options, ranging from banner based exposure to festival footfall, branding in promotional materials, and an opportunity to inform the programme itself by hosting curated and branded events. Communications benefits for all participating projects/teams include:– Agreed passes for all festival events.– Branding on all marketing materials.– Promotion through FutureEverything online marketing activity, including press release, newsletter, Facebook, Twitter.The festival plays host to an international community of designers, companies, city agencies and citizens, therein providing a unique platform for public and industry engagement.

FutureEverything is Responsible for– Registering projects and providing event coordination and administration.– Venue and event support: a base for projects, a Festival As Lab workshop.– Promoting the Festival As Lab projects as a whole and the participating research institutes to its global community and within Manchester.– Comms support including editing, proofing, refining copy.– Guidance (through written and/or verbal feedback) on how to: identify research themes and questions of relevance to festival attendees and/or Manchester residents; create an engaging experience; engage a wide audience/user group; communicate the project to non-scientists.

The Partner is Responsible for– Design, delivery and evaluation of the Festival As Lab project, within terms defined by FE.– Meeting all deadlines and milestones agreed with FE.– Creation and delivery of communication and interpretation materials.– A dedicated project contact and lead.– Appropriate crediting of project contributors in marketing and publications.– FutureEverything direct costs and their own project costs inc. travel and accommodation.– Optional: Contribution to a revised edition of the Festival As Lab Toolkit.

Timeline30 September 2014 Call for proposals open27 October 2014 Deadline for entries27 - 7 November 2014 Interviews (Skype/Hangout for Non-UK applicants)22 November 2014 Submission of revised and full project plan5 December 2014 Final decisions, sign off and contracting, delivery of project copy, images, materials12 December 2014 Festival As Lab press release and announcementJanuary 2015 Project team available for project communication and developmentFebruary 2015 Launch and delivery

Entry FormatPlease send a 4 page application detailing your proposed Festival As Lab project and supporting information to include project partners.Portfolios and supplementary visual resources are encouraged, although will not be considered without a detailed written application.Submission Email: tom.rowlands@futureeverything.org Submission Deadline: 5pm, 27th October 2014