DANSIC – Danish Social Innovation Club
DANSIC is a platform for social innovation. Every year, DANSIC hosts Denmark's biggest conference for so-cial innovation. DANSIC works from an interdisciplinary perspective to inspire solutions to the biggest chal-lenges facing society via social innovation. DANSIC is thus aiming to create a society that is sustainable from social, environmental and economic perspectives.
Social Innovation Lab
Over the course of a single day, 1,700 square metres of 'Docken' in Nordhavn, Denmark, will be trans-formed into this year's biggest conference on social innovation. To start with, participants at the event will listen to presentations from highly qualified speakers, who are sure to provide plenty of inspiration. They will then have the opportunity to take matters into their own hands in a 'social innovation lab' featuring graphic filtering, laser cutters and 3D printers. The students will form groups with people from different study programmes whom they have never met before.
Kristine Kolling Hansen, President of DANSIC, explained: "We believe that it's in interacting with people who think differently to us that the best new ideas arise. I consider DONG Energy to be a progressive player that dares take responsiblity for its employees' mental health. It's inspiring to see them including so many dif-ferent players in this work."
From laboratory to the executive floor at DONG Energy
We can come a long way with post-it notes and a whiteboard when brainstorming new ideas. But setting up a conference where it is possible to develop tangible prototypes – and thus to give ideas a three-dimensional form – stimulates new ways of thinking and new perspectives that go way beyond words and letters.
It is precisely the combination of students working in multidisciplinary units and prototyping as a design method that is to ensure DONG Energy comes away with something that has never been seen before, and which may develop into the next major initiative to boost mental balance within the organisation.
"The point is that you don't know in advance what the conference day will produce. However, I guarantee that DONG Energy will bring home at least 80 great new ideas that they haven't considered before. It will then be up to the company to determine how the ideas can be put into practice and become long-term permanent solutions," concluded Hansen.
