On Thursday, October 6, the organization of Sustainable Cities in the Netherlands organized their third annual conference in the Chassé theatre in Breda. Public servants, scientists and developers discussed ways to learn from experiments to make cities more hospitable and sustainable in the future.
Students of the minor Specialization Hospitality Innovation & Imagineering, a cooperation between NHTV University and Haaga Helia University of Applied Sciences, were asked to design and execute social experiments during this conference and share the results with the audience at the end of the day. Their assignment was part of the ‘Smart City Hospitality’ project (SCITHOS) that NHTV leads and works together on with CELTH.
The students focused on researching ways in which people can be connected, and setting up experiments to do so:
1.Does active participation in a hospitality event support a positive feel about this event?
2.Can locals interact with visitors in such a way that life becomes more interesting for both parties?
3.Will subtle communication hints on hospitable behavior stimulate hospitality amongst visitors?
Using original and sometimes unexpected methods, the students sought answers to their research questions, by for example organising a photo wall to boost social media exposure of the conference, by opening an exclusive cava bar at the conference, or by subtly starting new conversations using special napkins.
One of the most exciting outcomes of the experiments was that the students managed to involve the conference visitors in these processes. In doing so, the students forded the visitors to reflect upon their own work. As concluded by the chair of the conference: The results as presented by the NHTV students gave the audience serious food for thought and, in this way, the event proved to be a successful combination of involving education in a real-world setting.