Please support our friends at the Anchovy League (isn’t that a great thing name? Who wouldn’t want to join an Anchovy League!) on their upcoming event, “Beyond the Sharing Economy“.

It’ll be interesting to see Neal Gorenflo speak about the current state of the Sharing Economy and what that means to who, exactly, specially given his recent powerful opinion pieces on the subject. I’m also happy to see that Beyond the Sharing Economy will be grounded in its local context, as supporting the host city, Gijón, is one of the raisons d’etre of the event. As they say, “each one of our guests will drive or support a new project in Gijón during 2015 in association with other European, American, or Australian cities. This means new opportunities for the city and the people living in it.” This is a refreshing approach, closer to the ideals of the Sharing Cities Network than to other nominally “community-based” efforts with centralised, absentee technologies.

Please read the text below, copied from the event’s website and drop by if you can make it.

“Sharing economy” companies already represent a total equity market value of more than US$110 billion. The sector includes world renown companies such as Airbnb or Zipcar, and analysts consider it to be the actual foundation of the new economy.But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Protracted economic crisis has spurred has driven radical innovations in the ways people work, how they innovate, design, communicate, build, and live. And a new generation is building its identity around them.

Two sessions to open up a conversation

This will not be a usual event. Instead of conferences, easels, and speakers, there will be open interviews, sofas, and good music. We want to set up a new form of conversation and we will do that through a format more akin to a “late show” than a class.

We will present the main trends in the related to the new economy through the experiences and reflections of leading personalities from the United States, Europe, and Australia. We will get to know large-scale citizen collaboration experiences, city networks, new ways of learning and much more.

New projects for Gijón

But we don’t want this to be only about ideas. Each one of our guests will drive or support a new project in Gijón during 2015 in association with other European, American, or Australian cities. This means new opportunities for the city and the people who lives in it, all within a logic of networks and transnationality. Do you want to know them?

Friday, October 10th