Arctic Circle Assembly review: 2015

It was a privilege to be offered display and interaction space on the Hörpuhorn in Harpa alongside other booths from University of Iceland, University of Akureyri, University Centre Of The Westfjords, Students On Ice, Woods Hole Research Centre, World Wildlife Fund, Cambridge Polar Leaders Programme and the Arctic Council.

We were fortunate to be able to work with two outstanding collaborative partners this year – the PoLAR Partnership and the University Centre of the Westfjords – from initial concept and proposal co-development in April and May through to shared attendance at the conference itself. We look forward to taking these new relationships into further avenues of foresight work during 2016.

The Polar Learning and Responding Climate Change Education Partnership was our partner in developing and running the Arctic Arcade, a booth enabling attendees to play-test interactive games to explore scientific, social and political issues and future scenarios in the Arctic.

The PoLAR Partnership seeks to utilize fascination with shifting polar environments to inform public understanding of, and response to, climate change through the creation of novel educational approaches geared toward adults via the development of a suite of interactive and game-like tools. At this year’s Arctic Circle Assembly they showcased their new EcoChains: Arctic Crisis educational game which is now publicly available.

arcticfutures demonstrated a version of its Scenario Exploration System which we launched at the Assembly in 2014 and also discussed the value of futures work and explored people’s perceptions as to how it could be used in their own businesses or organisations.

#arcticarcade | @PoLAR_CCEP

The University Centre of the Westfjords were our collaborative partner for the breakout session ‘Arctic Blue Scenarios: The Future of Marine Innovation‘.

The Centre offers a master’s program in Marine Innovation providing individualised learning, in co-operation with the Innovation Centre of Iceland and the University of Akureyri, aiming to promote innovation across the Westfjords region. It is a leading agency in the Westfjords innovation cluster and is also a member of a number of international partnerships, for instance through the University of the Arctic, and has participated in projects of the Nordic Council and the European Union.

This exploratory workshop, developed by arcticfutures, provided practical but accessible ideas on how foresight approaches can be used to create insights to help improve both innovation practice and future Arctic marine business development.

#arcticbluescenarios | @Haskolasetur