Opening of POTSDAM LAB – A Space for the Future

The Potsdam Lab is the new centre for design thinking and knowledge transfer in the heart of the city. As part of the Smart City Potsdam model project, the centre is being run under the motto "Innovative. Green. Fair – Together we are creating a sustainable city for tomorrow", innovative solutions for Potsdam's urban development are being developed. The sub-projects of Smart City Potsdam will be presented at the official opening. The University of Applied Sciences Potsdam is actively involved in the day's programme as a cooperation partner and is offering interested parties the opportunity to take part:
 

• to take part in the digital scavenger hunt in the Potsdam Lab, get to know the Lab's stations and win a prize. Registration in the Actionbound app is a prerequisite.
• view the exhibition of the Master's programme Urban Futures at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, with works by students.
• find out more about the background to the collaboration between Smart City AG and the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam in the teaching research project in a keynote speech. The lecture provides an insight into exciting and pragmatic project ideas from students for a Smart City Potsdam.
• and to be inspired to critically reflect on digitality in a further lecture: Ubiquitous, promising, complex – this is everyday life in dealing with digitality. The short lecture talks about the challenges and excessive demands and provides an outlook on ways of dealing with them.

Programme schedule

11.30 am – Welcome

• Mike Schubert, Lord Mayor of the state capital Potsdam

11.35 am – Greeting: Smart City model projects funding programme and its significance for Potsdam

• Klara Geywitz, Federal Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Construction of the Federal Republic of Germany

11.45 am – Greeting: Smart City Potsdam: "Innovative. Green. Fair – Together we create a sustainable city for tomorrow" – The POTSDAM LAB as a centre for design thinking, participation and knowledge transfer

• Mike Schubert, Lord Mayor of the state capital Potsdam

12.05 pm – 12.35 pm – Moderated discussion: The POTSDAM LAB – What are recommendations and wishes for the POTSDAM LAB from different perspectives?

• Mike Schubert, Lord Mayor of the state capital Potsdam
  Klara Geywitz, Federal Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Construction of the Federal Republic of Germany
• Prof. Oliver Günther, PhD, President of the University of Potsdam
• Prof. Eva Schmitt-Rodermund, President of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam
• Prof. Ulrich Weinberg, Director of the HPI School of Design Thinking

From 12.20 pm it's time to join in, try things out and join in the discussions in the Potsdam LAB.
Further information with detailed programme

Smart City Potsdam model project

In June 2022, Potsdam's Lord Mayor Mike Schubert and the President of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, Prof. Dr. Eva Schmitt-Rodermund, signed a cooperation agreement as part of the Smart City Potsdam project. Potsdam had chosen the motto "Smart City Potsdam – Innovative. Green. Fair. Together we are creating a sustainable city for tomorrow!" in the Smart Cities Model Projects funding programme in close cooperation with Stadtwerke Potsdam and other municipal companies.

Thanks to the funding, ongoing processes can be accelerated and innovative approaches to urban development can be trialled: The ongoing growth of the city is to be carefully organised under the conditions of scarce space and the challenges of climate change. The state capital is committed to strengthening the municipality's ability to act in the context of the digital transformation. With the help of digital solutions, additional services are to be created locally to enable broader citizen participation.

>When: 14^th of October 2023, from 11 am
> Where: Science floor in the Potsdam Education Forum, Am Kanal 47, 14467 Potsdam (4th floor)