On being invited to Vienna to attend the CSI's event "The most needed social innovations of the 21st century", I thought it best to use the opportunity to take a look at what's happening in social innovation in Europe as we prepare to formally launch The Australian Centre for Social Innovation in 2010.

I've spent the last two weeks based out of the Young Foundation in London, visiting a range of organisations working in the fields of social innovation, social entrepreneurship, public sector innovation and design. I also visited the teams at Mind-Lab in Copenhagen, KennisLand in Amsterdam and the Centre for Social Innovation in Vienna.

All of the organisations I have met have shared valuable insights from their experiences. A common theme has been the importance of just getting on with it while making time to review, revise and iterate as you go along. I have also been interested to see and hear about the growing importance of design thinking and practice in addressing unmet social needs and in changing the relationship between citizens and services. This included a fascinating SIX tele-presence session on this topic!

I have greatly appreciated the goodwill of everyone I met on my travels and look forward to returning the favour should anyone wish to come and see us in action in 2010!

You can follow our progress at www.tacsi.org.au and I will continue posting here on ASIX what we're up to.

Brenton