Objectives

The objective of the 4th IMAGINE seminar is to present, share and confront different sectoral and territorial foresight initiatives or processes in order to enrich participants’ knowledge and strategies. The seminar will gather forty high-level practitioners, from diverse private, public and associative backgrounds and local authorities, engaged in foresight processes. This “melting pot” of experience is expected to form the core group of the IMAGINE ‘Energy & Territories’ think-tank.

It is expected that the participants will set the scene for a new energy paradigm whereby the relationship between energy and territories will be managed by appropriate local governance. Local energy systems need ‘new arithmetic’ in order to go beyond a simple game sum of subtraction and addition in energy issues and seek new forms of territorial organisation.

Proposed is to:

• Confront current sectoral visions, approaches and techniques that influence territorial policies (and vice-versa)
• Underline the reality of these trajectories within one generation
• Look for coherence and synergies between these visions. Are they parallel? Do they diverge? Do they cross or meet? Where and how?
• Stimulate these types of exercises via exchanging ideas between different domains and identify sources of innovation and “imagination”
• Encourage mutual inspiration
• Lay the bases for future collaboration

Benefits and outputs

An important added value for participants is that the IMAGINE seminar allows participants to compare their own development processes and strategies with the approach of others, including local authorities, in an open, collaborative and creative “ambiance”. The IMAGINE seminars should engage participants within a broader societal context. Therefore, as principal output, a statement will be discussed and be made public. This statement is not binding. It will reflect the results of intense discussions among key stakeholders and sketch a vision of a sustainable relationship between Energy and Territories. While going much further than a mere proceeding of the event, this statement, though, does not have the value of a common declaration. Furthermore, this statement will give clues to inspire others to act and serve as milestone for further activities of the IMAGINE think-tank.

Format

IMAGINE seminars experience new and innovative ways of getting people together. Therefore, conference formats tend to ignore classical settings and choose creative means to stimulate dialogue. They build upon open-space conference principles, where the participants’ creativity is activated by their diverse backgrounds and the open character of the event. Open-space provides a setting that allows for intensive exchange and mutual learning. It consists of alternating plenary sessions, teamwork and "market places" where the ideas devised are presented.