The Urban Ideas bakery is an open process which takes place over the course of one year. The Urban Ideas Bakery is made up of several touch points or workshops with local stakeholders. Central to this activity is the International Bakery event when locals and internationals convene to generate solutions and delivery plans to address local challenges.
 
Before the International Bakery event can takes place, we consult closely with each local community to understand their needs. This can be done, for example, during a Future City Game or through the prescribed Urban Ideas Bakery Diagnosis workshops. Key local community members work together to define barriers that can block effective solutions. During this preliminary stage, local community resources are reviewed, best practices shared and a collective vision of the community developed.

All this preparation culminates in the three-day International Bakery event, designed and delivered with local partners and stakeholders. The ‘Bakers’ – the participants in the Urban Ideas Bakery event – are a very diverse and multidisciplinary group that includes local policy makers and experts, international sector experts, facilitators and young social innovators, both local and international. Together, they deliver custom-made, fresh, practical solutions to issues such as community building, developing creative clusters, cultural policy and programmes, recreational spaces, environmental issues, integration, sustainable transport, health, and crime prevention.
 
By the end of the three days one Short Term Solution will have been delivered and several Medium and Long Term solution will have been developed with clear business plans in place for how these solutions will be delivered after the event

Practical solutions, prototypes and implementation plans are not the only benefits to a city hosting an Urban Ideas Bakery. Social innovators, policy makers and other Urban Ideas Bakery participants gain access to international networks of knowledge and expertise that can be used to bring about further positive changes in cities.