From the monthly archives:

June 2015

Introductions to the Future of Places Conference

June 30, 2015

The Future of Places Conference opened yesterday in Stockholm and it was an impressive experience to see how many attendants the conference has drawn from all over the World. The people participating comes from four sector, from Academia and Research, from Governments, from business companies and from Civil Society. In the opening session I sat […]

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The Final Future of Places Conference

June 29, 2015

The final Future of Places Conference will be held in Stockholm from today, 29 June to 1 July. This is the final of a series of three international conferences and it will involve some of the world’s most profound minds and dedicated professionals in dialogue on the subject of public space, placemaking and place governance. […]

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Vucedol – New Growth From Ancient Culture

June 28, 2015

After Croatian accession to the EU in July 2013, the goal of achieving good growth rates and sustainable development, as well as reduction in income differences as compared to the EU average, will require overcoming socio-economic challenges, such as building a stable and competitive economy, positive demographic, lower socio-economic differences, a successful environmental policy, promoting […]

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What led to the Revival of the Worlds Cities?

June 27, 2015

Cities are in revival as the centres of economic and political development, and they are more often now than before pleasant places, as we noted in an article last year. Henri de Groot, Professor in Regional Economic Dynamics in Amsterdam, wrote a blog post on the World Economic Forums website this week, with an interesting […]

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Innovative Sustainable Re-development – Hammarby Sjostad

June 26, 2015

For this week´s case study, we will present Hammarby Sjöstad, one of the biggest urban development projects in Stockholm in recent time, located at the perimeter of the inner city. The old harbour and industrial area was aimed to be transformed into a modern neighbourhood, and because of the location the design was kept intentionally […]

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Stockholm Develops as Hub for Fintech Innovation

June 25, 2015

In a new report written by Stockholm School of Economics researchers Robin Teigland and Claire Ingram, the authors shows that investments in innovative Swedish financial technology companies increased sharply last year. Fintech is transforming the global financial industry at a rapid speed and there is a strong interest from investors in the sector. The growing […]

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Medtech Innovation in the iPhone ecosystem

June 24, 2015

Last week I wrote a brief note about the thin service layer towards end customers, that at this moment in 2015 effectively facilitates internets breakthrough as the primary platform for commerce. At the core of the customer interface today is not computers but smartphones and tablets. There are two essential product elements that have substantial […]

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Barcelona gains attractiveness and loses competitiveness

June 23, 2015

On March 25th, the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia published an article titled: Barcelona gains international attractiveness. That same day, the newspaper Ara published another article titled “Barcelona falls 14 positions in two years in the competitiveness ranking”. Barcelona gains attractiveness but loses competitiveness. How can this be explained? According to Miquel Barcelo, it is a […]

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Regional Manufacturing Hubs – A Path to Innovation

June 22, 2015

All across the World, policy makers are attempting to encourage innovation through public sector initiatives. In Europe and Asia, Science Parks and Incubators are tools for regional development projects, and in United States innovation districts and often privately run incubators in the cities fuel the development of the knowledge economy. However in most nations, manufacturing […]

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Handshake for Innovation

June 21, 2015

Handshake is the World Bank Group´s journal about private-public partnerships (PPPs). Handshake’s “Innovation” issue now online on a redesigned searchable website, which contains an archive of the 16 latest issues. What does innovation mean in the context of PPPs? Handshake‘s “Innovation” issue offers insights from government officials and private sector partners alongside case studies of […]

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America´s Advanced Industries

June 20, 2015

The need for economic renewal in the United States remains urgent. Years of disappointing job growth and stagnant incomes for the majority of workers have left the nation shaken and frustrated. At the same time, the advanced technology sector develops innovations that will shape our future. From advanced robotics and “3-D printing” to the “digitization […]

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Disrupting the Customer Interface

June 19, 2015

I read an article on Tech Crunch this morning, where the author made the point that Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Clearly, […]

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Matija Derk on the need for Innovation Environments

June 18, 2015

Matija Derk is a Senior Advisor with Bearing and has a background as Assistant Minister of Regional Development in Croatia. During his time in Government, he was responsible for preparation of all strategic documents necessary for the use of EU funds in the financial period 2007-2013, as well as in the period 2014-2020. This included […]

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Return to Rail

June 17, 2015

Last Wednesday, we brought a delegation from the Kenya Railway Corporation to visit the Railway Museum in Gävle in Sweden, the national museum for Sweden’s railway history. The Swedish Railway Museum is tasked with acquiring, preserving and providing knowledge about Swedish railway history based on the national collection. The Kenya Railway Corporation (KRC) runs a […]

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The Networked Society is Happening Right Now

June 16, 2015

During the Kenyan study-tour to Stockholm last week, we had a presentation by the Swedish multinational provider of communication technology and services, Ericsson, on the networked society. Not only we humans but also all our devices and things will soon be “connected” to the internet, and as they are, the real power of big data […]

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Power for Africa

June 15, 2015

Africa’s power sector is facing many challenges, mainly due to insufficient generation capacity which has limited electricity supply, resulting in low access and frequent power failures. The main obstacle to the increase in electricity generation capacity is the high investment cost of developing power generation plants. Many such initiatives fail already in a reluctance to […]

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Kenya Study Visit to Stockholm

June 14, 2015

Bearing Group have this week hosted a senior delegation from the City of Nairobi, the Kenyan Railway Corporation and the Kenyan Government to a study visit to Stockholm in Sweden. Following on from the successful conference at Naivasha Lakes during May 2015, the study visit to Stockholm focused on looking at how the Swedish transport […]

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Lars M. Andersson explains Municipal Finance

June 13, 2015

Mr. Andersson has a long record of working with finance in the public sector. After 10 years of experience as the head of finance in two Swedish cities, he initiated the formation of Kommuninvest, the Swedish Local Government Funding Agency, in 1986. Mr. Andersson became the agency’s first president and developed its operations until 2001, […]

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Multimodal Transport and Railway Systems – Denver Union Station

June 12, 2015

This weeks case study is the Denver Union Station, in Colorado, USA, a multimodal transit development located in lower downtown Denver. The article has been developed together with Donna Rubinoff, MD at Sustainability Advisors Ltd. Denver is the capital and the biggest city in Colorado. In mid-20th century the economy in Denver was focused around […]

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The Metropolitan Revolution – The New Geography of Innovation

June 11, 2015

Cities are growing and growing at a rapid rate. In 2014 there were 3.9 billion people living in cities in comparison to 746 million in 1950. According to the United Nations, the world’s urban population will grow to over 6 billion by 2045. Most of this growth is expected in less developed regions of the […]

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