Co-creation workshop: Covid-19 reActions (Malta)

UM held a co-creation workshop, on 27th May where HEI staff and students, and members of the wider community will be discussing Digital Action in Malta and their own personal experiences, and designing a competition that sees students creating a Digital Action based upon the themes raised during the roundtable events held in November 2021.

At the end of May, UM held a co-creation workshop to bring HEI staff and students, and community stakeholders together to discuss digital action and brainstorm a potential student based event which uses the arts as inspiration.

Participants included entrepreneurs and innovators from the private sector, directors of digital management departments within government ministries, senior academics and students from the University of Malta. With each participant carrying their own field of expertises, we brought the topics raised within O1 to light as springboards to discuss how to design a competition for HEI students that would see them produce a digital action that would address societal issues. Using a design methodology as put forward in O2A1s methodology report, the group envisioned the potential event and examined its reach, scope and barriers.

The key points of the workshop were that there needs to be an emphasis on collaboration and not competition, that digital innovations should be complementary to physical activities and not a replacement, that to increase participation, there needs to be incentives that are experience based, and that mentorship is key in supporting the transfer of knowledge.

The next step is to promote the ‘Design a Digital Action’ collaboration for students to spend the summer designing a digital action which is inspired by the arts and addressing current social issues such as raising environmental awareness. Registration ends on 30th June and we’re sure we’ll get a brilliant response.

The workshop was held in the beautiful Valletta Design Cluster, in the heart of the capital city and was the perfect setting to hold the event.