About
Vision & MissionIn a fast moving society driven by economy, there is little time and space for the development of long term strategies for R&D, as well in the corporate, academic and political context. Yet, on daily basis, short term measurements are taken that have long lasting implications whereas a more open and complex systems approach imposes itself to tackle challenges of innovation, health and well being. Therefore CROSSTALKS, the Brussels University and Industry Network aims at: Creating an open and constructive exchange dynamics Since we live in a fast moving and continuously evolving society, long term visions are fundamental. However, the short term agenda's of decision takers do not allow the development of common ground and the emergence of long term perspectives. This is exactly where CROSSTALKS can make a difference. CROSSTALKS aims at creating an exchange dynamics through thematically and privileged encounters beyond specific disciplines and with the active participation of key players from all levels of society. Crucial about CROSSTALKS is the collaborative partnership and sharing of knowledge in an open and constructive way - the university has to provide a professional, unbiased platform that is trusted by all participants. Sharing knowledge, stimulating creativity in search of sustainability The cross-disciplinary approach is a key issue to face the global imperatives for innovation, keeping one eye on the quality of our social and individual life and another on the economical sustainability. The CROSSTALKS format encourages constructive dialogues on policy probing issues between all stakeholders: academic education and research, corporate leaders, arts, cultural curators & directors, sub-cultural actors, creative entrepreneurs and activists. CROSSTALKS THEMES The themes range from Free & Open Source Software, Brave New Interfaces, Early Warning Signals, The Future of Medication and Energy Efficiency to more specific issues as "Architecture, Photography & Chinese Encounters" (with BuroII), "Semantic Interfaces and Key Opportunities of S€PA" (with EDS), "Privacy & Dataprotection" (with VUB researchgroup LSTS). Since June 2009 CROSSTALKS co-organises together with Archi+I & Buro II a series of Open Academy lectures about sustainability - invited speakers are Alistair Guthrie, Olivier Mongin, Eric Corijn, Karl Schlögel a.o. Since 2007, CROSSTALKS is also co-organiser of Pecha Kucha Night Brussels , launched and organised by Alok Nandi, Architempo, as part of {creativity*conversation}. The concept - each speaker can use 20 slides that each can last 20 seconds maximum - was launched by Klein Dytham architecture in Tokyo in 2003 and went viral, now in 187 cities worldwide. One of them is Bruges where the Pecha Kucha Nights is launched by CROSSTALKS on November 9, 2009. A spin-off event of Pecha Kucha is Campustalks, an initiative by the rectorate of Vrije Universiteit Brussel, developed and organized by CROSSTALKS. The idea is to enhance community building among the many institutions and people associated with VUB and beyond. Therefore the Pecha Kucha format is used to enable researchers to share their research projects in an informal and dynamic way to a non-targeted audience and vice versa. For our list of publications, click here. Terug naar boven |
In 2003, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel started with CROSSTALKS. For Belgium and even far beyond the borders, CROSSTALKS is a unique kind of academic and corporate networking since it works bottom-up and inter-disciplinary. The real added value lies in the fact that from the conceptualization to the realization of the events and the publications, CROSSTALKS offers an open exchange platform to all possible stakeholders associated with a specific topic or issue.
©2004 • CROSSTALKS • A VUB Commitment to Networking • Pleinlaan 2 • 1050 Elsene • 32 (0)2 629 22 18 • crosstalks@vub.ac.be