Teknopark Istanbul, İTU ARI Teknokent and ODTÜ Teknokent, hosted the 34th IASP World Conference in Istanbul, Turkey from September 26th – 29th 2017. With the theme of “Science parks and natural innovation ecosystems: Articulating future strategies,” the conference offered new insights into how Science Parks and other Areas of Innovation can prepare for the future and continue to lead their innovation communities (businesses, entrepreneurs, researchers and technicians) as well as their cities and regions through a world of rapid technological change. 

As with other concepts laden with potential, science and technology parks and their ecosystems have already shown a relentless evolution since their inception. We have seen many different models follow on from each other, and the event explored how science parks are developing new concepts of space, from FabLabs to Living Labs; how they are offering new specialized services, and creating innovative funding mechanisms to keep themselves ahead of the curve when it comes to new trends and technologies. In other words, speakers from around the world rose to the challenge of predicting the future, of our own industry and beyond.