In a strategic partnership between Telekom Austria (TA) and osAlliance Thomas Fundneider, CEO of theLivingCore, created an open innovation process aiming at bringing (young) users and the technology company into a synergetic cooperation for several years. Even though being one of the major Austrian telecommunication companies, TA experienced a substantial gap between its technological potentials and its actual use and exploitation. TA understood very well that especially the younger generation, the so-called digital natives, could provide valuable insights for new products and services. However, this would require an open innovation system capable of assimilating these insights and co-create new offers.

In a first step, two Enabling Spaces were created as labs in Vienna and Dornbirn. Their goal was to bring together entrepreneurs, artists, and software developers for developing their ideas in a creative setting. These physical spaces were supported by a wide variety of of activities (trend camps, workshops, public events, curator model, business events, etc.). As a result  more than 30 projects have been realized, about 100 events have been organized, and several start-up companies were founded (e.g. the game developers “Broken Rules“ (nominated as Austrians of the Year 2009) a the social business “cropster“.