Position: Managing Director
Organization: 21c Consultancy

Dr. Julia Glidden (Managing Director, 21c Consultancy Ltd) completed her D.Phil. in International Relations at Oxford University, and has extensive experience working with public administrations across Europe to improve service delivery. An internationally recognised expert in e-Government, Dr. Glidden used a keynote address at the 5th Ministerial Conference in Malmö and the launch of the Slovenian Presidency to champion the importance of Web 2.0 technologies in the co-design and co-production of citizen-centred public services. Dr. Glidden has authored numerous articles on this subject, including a Council of Europe sponsored volume on eParticipation. In 2010 Dr. Glidden worked with the Flemish eGovernment Authority to draft ‘The Citadel Statement’ – a pan-European agenda for local eGovernment that represented the views of over 120 participants from 18 countries across Europe, including 64 organisations representing over 200 cities on five continents. Building on this initiative, Dr. Glidden helped to found ‘Citadel on the Move’, a flagship project of the European Commission aiming to combine Open Access Data and Mobile Application tools to create ‘smart,’ innovative citizen-generated services that can be used in differing European Cities.

Dr. Glidden is regularly asked to speak on eGovernment at forums around the world. She is Senior Research Fellow at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, a guest lecturer at the European Institute of Public Administration in Maastricht, a member of the Scientific Committees for the Global Forum, the CeDem Conference and the annual Bled eConference. In addition, Julia has been retained by the European Commission as an official EU project evaluator, and is regularly invited to participate in and Chair juries for eGovernment competitions, including the Bahrain eGovernment Excellence Awards, the Issy Molineaux World eGov Forum competition in France, and forthcoming Scandinavian innovation in eGovernment competition in Stockholm.

This presentation will examine the way in which the Living Lab movement in Europe is providing a strong and rapidly expanding platform for collaboration between the public and private sectors. In particular, it will discuss the way in which the Living Lab methodology is intentionally designed to bring together civil servants and SMEs in the co-design and co-creation of public services that meet the true needs of small businesses. SMEs represent the true engine of business innovation in Europe. This presentation will argue that Living Labs - combined with new Web 2.0/3.0 tools - represent the next big step in ‘Innovation for eParticipation,’ particularly when it comes to tapping into the innovative potential of the private sector.

• Keynote speech

• Presentation: Living Labs and Social Media – Or How to Turn Turtles into Gazelles (.PDF)