Venue: Colston Hall, free but booking essential 

We are running a panel session at this year's Digital Bristol Workshop Day. We'd love you to join us for this session and there are plenty of other cool things going on for free the same day - you can find the whole programme here.

10:00 Bristol: The World’s First Playable City

Speakers:
Rodric Yates, Program Director, IBM CTO Europe
Stephen Hilton, Director of the Futures Group at Bristol City Council
Verity McIntosh, Producer of Playable City Award, Watershed

Last year, Watershed joined forces with a fantastic group of private and public sector partners from across Bristol who exemplified the city’s strengths in creative and hi-tech industries. Together, they blazed a trail looking at the future of cities as not just ‘Smart’ (hi-tech, responsive, efficient) but ‘Playable’ (human, idiosyncratic, malleable) spaces. To explore this idea they together launched the international Playable City Award, inviting ideas that combined art, technology and culture.

Around 100 applications were received from 24 countries and this summer, the winning project ‘Hello Lamp Post’ launched in Bristol in July this year. Hello Lamp Post is a city-wide platform for play, encouraging residents and visitors to spark up playful text message conversations with the lamp posts, post boxes, parking meters and other ubiquitous street furniture of their city. Over 25,000 text messages were sent to over 1000 objects as the city came to life and as people shared their stories, ideas and memories with one another.

Join the producers and supporters for this one-off event to find out how the idea of a Playable City is gaining ground around the world and get a first look at where it will be going next.

Book your place via eventbrite here.

www.watershed.co.uk/playablecity | www.hellolamppost.co.uk