Future welfare services in focus

Representatives from world-leading companies, researchers, teachers, consultants and politicians were invited to Karlstad CCC on December 2-3 to discuss how we can develop future welfare service. The requirements on both services and suppliers are becoming higher and regardless if the user is called customer, citizen, local resident, or patient, it is the experience that makes the difference. To offer services based on the user’s requirements is becoming increasingly important. How are we involved in the development?

The conference revolved around the concept such as digitalization and service innovation, service design and collaborative economy. The participants were encouraged to dare to try, dare to fail and to involve users early in their efforts to find new approaches and develop better welfare services. And as researcher Per Kristensson, CTF, expressed in his lecture:

- It is not about the service or product itself, but what it does, that is, what value it has for the user.

Lorna Ross, the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation, in the United States, shared the general insights and lessons about their work with service design and service innovation in healthcare.

- The innovator is expected to create new things that you can show off, and not remove things that do not work, said Lorna Ross about the efforts to develop new services at Mayo Clinic which is a pioneer in the healthcare field through the focus on service design and patient experiences.

Researcher Johan Quist, CTF, enlisted the help of ropes and volunteers in the audience to demonstrate meetings between citizens and the system. He talked about “Blind spots and organizational gaps” something that many citizens encounter in their dealings with healthcare and other authorities such as the Swedish Tax Agency and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency.

Some people had tears in their eyes when Ole Kassow showed pictures of happy retirees with the wind in their hair.

- Cycling without age is more about the ordinary citizen’s desire to transform and enrich the lives on someone else. It is about creating relationships between people, says the entrepreneur Ole Kassow, when he talks about the project in which volunteer cyclists give older people the opportunity to feel the wind in their hair. The project started in Denmark in 2012 and has now spread over the world and not only to the elderly but also to other groups in society.

- Free the welfare data! Said Sofia Svantesson, Ocean Observation, when she spoke about the possibilities digitalization bring and the endless possibilities we have in today’s society with all the data. The question is what we make of it and how can we create an innovative and digitized future?

Researcher Per Skålén and Peter Magnusson form CTF talked about using driven innovation in their research projects which they conducted together with the staff and patients of the County Council of Värmland, where they developed a methodology for idea generation and implementation of innovation in primary care. Peter Magnusson also received the Service Academy Award, handed out by CTF and the Foundation of Marketing Technology Center, MTC. The 10,000 SEK is awarded to an outstanding service researcher at CTF.

IT guru Joakim Jardenberg showed many good examples of what access to data may result in and urged everyone to take the internet and technological progress seriously.
- There are things that are more important than the internet, but all the issues are won or lost by using the Internet, said Joakim.

Experio Lab and partners offered and interactive demo shop where participants tried out innovative health and wellness services. At the conference was also Psych Lab - a creative workshop which gathered 20 people to together create new concepts for improving mental health among young people.
Service Convention Sweden 2015 is over for now, but will be back next year. Stay updated on the conference via serviceconventionsweden.se

About Service Convention Sweden
This was the second consecutive year that the conference was organized. The Sola Hall at Karlstad CCC was filled to the brim with over 200 participants. Moderator was Johanna Koljonen. The organizers of Service Convention Sweden is, CTF, Service Research Center at Karlstad University, the County Council of Värmland, The Muncipality of Karlstad and Visit Karlstad AB.