Smart Dubai Organises Training Programme for Happiness Champions in Denmark titled ‘Designing Cities’

The Smart Dubai Office (SDO) is organising a training programme in Denmark for 30 Happiness Champions from more than 25 Dubai Government and Non-Government entities on November 18-24, 2018, following the success of last year’s Service Quality Training Programme at the Disney Institute in Orlando, Florida.

Falling under the “Education” portfolio of the Happiness Agenda, the 2018 training trip is designed by Smart Dubai in collaboration with Innovation Lab – an international Denmark-based knowledge centre for new technologies with activities in research, product development and entrepreneurship. While the previous training programme to the Disney Institute in Orlando had participants explore existing services, the Denmark trip focuses instead on three main themes: Smart, Citizen and Design. The citizen is the ultimate focus of the training course, making use of the latest smart solution and creating better designed products will result in increasing the happiness of Dubai residents and visitors.

The programme seeks to find solutions and create services, products, tools and technologies that enhance the happiness of Dubai’s citizens, residents and visitors, while gaining knowledge and expertise from a country that consistently leads global happiness ratings. It also introduces participants to proven approaches to build resilient, innovative and high-performing teams within their organisations. According to United Nations (UN) 2018 e-government survey, Denmark is the World’s best in e-government initiative.

SDO Director General, Her Excellency Dr Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, said: “Denmark is a country that has become synonymous with happiness; it ranks consistently in the top spots of the World Happiness Report, and in 2018 is the world’s third happiest country. Denmark’s approach to happiness resonates with our mission at Smart Dubai, to embrace advanced technologies for the primary purpose of utilising them in perfecting our services, better tailoring them to people’s needs, and ultimately, to increase happiness among citizens, residents and visitors.”

“This programme in collaboration with Innovation Labs provides the Happiness Champions with access to remarkable international success stories in happiness, well-being and innovation, which they can bring back with them to implement in their own entities in Dubai,” Dr Aisha added. “It is also a platform for us to convey Dubai’s success in smart technologies and happiness policies to the world, cementing the emirate’s global lead in the sector.”

Prior to their departure from Dubai, the Happiness Champions took part in a preparatory session on October 25 at the Queen Elizabeth II Ship attended by H.E. Dr Aisha Bin Bishr, where the Champions were briefed about their upcoming trip. In addition, participants have been trained at the session to identify the challenges that their organisations or department are facing, outlining the project they will be presenting once they return to address these challenges.

The training programme includes a community engagement session entitled “Defining Denmark’s City Experience and Happiness”, where the Happiness Champions meet Danish citizens to explore the features that affect citizens’ well-being, wellness and happiness, and understand these factors and how they are implemented, and how to tailor these factors to suit Dubai’s needs. The extensive training allows participants to master the art of user-centred and easily accessible civic services; learn new techniques to improve innovation in service design; understand factors that make Scandinavian cities happier; and gain insights from the Scandinavian innovation culture & technology.

Upon completion of the training programme and submitting the individual or group projects, the participating Happiness Champions will receive the ‘Happy Citizen Practitioner Certificate’, issued by Smart Dubai with an endorsement by Scandinavian knowledge institutions, which certifies that they have demonstrated their knowledge of international best practices in happiness and their ability to use that knowledge in a practical way, to develop better public services and solutions.

In September 2017, Smart Dubai organised and sponsored a Service Quality Training Programme at the Disney Institute in Orlando, Florida, with 30 Happiness Champions from more than 23 Dubai Government and non-Government entities in Dubai. The programme allowed participants to attend workshops, interactive sessions and theme park site visits that introduced them to proven methods that improve the level of services and experiences provided by government institutions and agencies to the public.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.