From the 27th till 29th of January, Rīga completed the first stage of the British Council's Creative Cities project, which trained games masters for the Future City Game. Thirty future facilitators of the game, coming from nine European countries and working there at mayor's offices, NGOs and private companies, participated in the event. In the next 12 months they are going to hold a Future City Game in their respective cities, attracting local decision makers and community members.

The visionary Future City Game took place in Andrejsala, the former port district of Rīga. It began with a two-hour excursion of the area, which offered learning about its history, latest developments and future plans. Later the participants worked in groups and brought out five proposals for the territory's future:

Aquatic Institute (DNA). One of the teams proposed that Andrejsala is suitable for scientific, research-related and business organisations and incubators. It may also host biennials. Within the institute's campus, there would be no cars, instead of which water traffic, such as a river bus would operate. This would be the working environment for individual artists, artists' residences, convention rooms and exhibition spaces. Moreover, the institute would have the role of a community centre serving, among others, pensioners, people with special needs, schoolchildren, etc.

Future Rīga. The second proposal saw Andrejsala as a leisure and recreation space for families with children. This makes use of its closeness to the heart of Rīga, but it also offers very pleasant outdoors. The authors invented three different "experience trails" for Andrejsala: Blue – seafood restaurant, fishing, dolphin show, water therapy; Green – alternative energy sources, green playground for children, nocturnal garden; Red – souvenirs, art museum, hotel, concerts and shopping.

Energy. The third proposal focused on using an existing feature to highlight the identity of Andrejsala. For the authors, energy combines both direct and indirect meaning, e.g., an energising place, energetic activity and electrical energy. The participants at Future City Game also suggested using alternative sources of energy or promoting them. One way to do that would be to light up different structures in the vicinity of Andrejsala in central Rīga, thus showing or symbolising the route to Andrejsala.

High Tech. This concept attempted to correlate the internet and other types of modern technology with Andrejsala's history and natural environment. For example, handheld computers and mobile phones might be used by Andrejsala's visitors to capture different phenomena or to access further information on them available in an advanced digital environment, a technique called "augmented reality".

The Community Project Sofa singled itself out by describing Andrejsala as a place where unique and locally created artworks are made available. The team proposed the utilisation of second-hand items, such as furniture, appliances, metal objects and domestic gadgets, by artfully transforming them into exciting and previously unseen products of art. Besides, the creation and reshaping could attract not just artists but everyone who'd happen to be interested. Therefore, the concept foresaw also the organisation of art workshops and alternative educational courses.

"There have been many working groups with people of different professions in which we discussed the ways of creating an urban environment that would meet the needs of the locals, inspire the formulation of new ideas, nurture every individual's specific talent, help acquire new knowledge and ensure the application of the already known. Future City Game, being a workshop of visions, once again ascertained that such ideas as a museum in a zero-energy building, incubator of creativity or aquatic institute are valid and might indeed come true in the future," Valters Māziņš, chairman of the board of the Andrejsala real property development company SIA Jaunrīgas attīstības uzņēmums, said in a comment.

The participants of Future City Game were trained under the guidance of Britain's expert of urban development and socio-economic policies Neil McInroy. The specialist also happens to be the director of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies in Manchester.

The British Council will continue with the project in Latvia and has chosen four local games masters: Ieva Hmieļevska (Liepāja Municipality's Department of Culture), Ilona Asare (Cēsis' Arts Centre, NGO Culturelab), Anda Šaka (Latvian Association of Major Cities) and Viesturs Celmiņš (Analītisko pētījumu un stratēģiju laboratorija – "Laboratory of analytic research and strategies"), in order to manage future games involving subject matter deemed important by the Rīga City Council.