Creative Prototyping the Future High Street Workshop

Well it's certainly been a while since my last post and a lot has happened. I'm now a Research Associate at Manchester Business School working on 'The Wonders of Zooniverse' project but more about that another time. I recently wrote a blogpost for another website and it got me thinking about my own blog again. I love looking back at the posts and keeping it as a multimedia diary of my work and interests so thought I would get back into it again. I'm not even sure if my post will be published so have decided to share it on here as well. I'd love to hear to your thoughts and opinions on the workshop so feel free to contact me.

Creative Prototyping the Future High Street Workshop

By Kate Holmes

The future of our high street is a topic that is very important to us. As a group of people who actively use, research, and champion local and creative businesses, we are all aware of the challenges currently being faced by the UK high street. Creative Prototyping the Future High Street was a workshop run in collaboration by The University of Salford, Manchester Business School and Liverpool John Moores (Gordon Fletcher, Marie Griffiths, Kate Holmes, Anita Greenhill and Rachel McLean). The aim of the workshop was to use innovative methods to bring together and promote discussion amongst key stakeholders about the future of the high street. The event took place on Monday 21^st July at MediaCityUK, a fitting location with digital creativity, learning and leisure at its heart.

                                                    MediaCityUK, Salford

The workshop utilised Science Fiction Prototyping, a method used to explore the possible implications of future technologies along with Lego Serious Play, as an accessible and fun way to develop these ideas further. Participants were admittedly a little unsure at first, but with the help of our facilitator Tracy Ellis, soon became inspired and were enthusiastically working together to develop their ideas.

Findings from this workshop will be used to create reports to inform policy makers in order to have a real impact in some of the decisions made towards the future of the high street. This workshop demonstrates how the application of innovative methods can promote active discussion across sectors and bring together different parts of the community. 

Many thanks to the Future Cities Community Resilience Network and University of Leeds for funding this event, more information regarding this organisation can be found at www.FCCRnet.org