THIS IS HOW WE DO IT

HELLO!

Our city has been undergoing constant change for years and is considered to be particularly social, digital, innovative and sustainable. Internationally, we have been able to coin a term and shape something with our "Dortmund Model" that has won several awards in the past and has been - and still is - a pioneer and role model for many other cities.

Indeed, in its transformation, Dortmund has taken an unusual but effective path to create new local ecosystems and platforms. To date, we have successfully integrated around 400 innovative projects into our innovation model. Together as a city, we have established knowledge and information networks and implemented structural changes - from overcoming the economic crisis in the German coal and steel industry to successfully developing locations for science and innovation. Citizens, science, business and politics come together here at various levels to take on the challenges together in a steady dialogue. These platforms are not only innovative, but also consensus-driven and thus successful approaches: our swarm intelligence approach!

But how does Dortmund achieve its innovative strength and structural change? Dortmund is first of all a completely normal city, like many other cities - with strengths and weaknesses. If you ask citizens and network partners about the working style and the road to success of our city, they usually come to the conclusion that people here talk to each other frequently and intensively. But doesn't that sound much too simple and normal? Is Dortmund the "normal one"?

Perhaps the best cultural explanation lies in our Westphalian stubbornness – the Westphalian region is famous in Germany for being especially stubborn and Dortmund is the capital of the Westphalian region. But for us stubbornness is the very first real form of sustainability. In our experience persevering with strategies or long-term thinking beyond fashion still works best. It is therefore hardly surprising that we answered in the competition for the European Capital of Innovation 2019 the question "Dortmund, how do you actually do it?" in our grounded, Westphalian way with "THIS IS HOW WE DO IT" - and have since been one of the TOP 12 innovation cities in Europe.

Our strategy can serve as a model for many large cities around the world that are neither capitals nor megacities, that have their own strengths and weaknesses - and that, like Dortmund, are simply "normal".

ON BEHALF OF OUR WHOLE CITY,