The history of a City has a strong influence on its citizens’ attitude and on their ability to (re)create “their” City on a daily basis. In 1940, during the Second World War, the majority of Rotterdam’s City centre was destroyed in a bombing attack. After the tragedy, the Municipality chose to “look forward” and develop a new City centre, instead of recreating the lost buildings. Since then, it is said that the City “lost its heart” in the bombing, becoming a City that somehow lost its past as well. Another historical element of Rotterdam was its port, actually the biggest port of Europe. The port had shaped the identity of the City from its beginning. When the port was moved from near the City centre to an outside area, next to the sea, citizens felt that part of the identity of Rotterdam was gone as well. However, the spaces left empty by the transfer of the port have become an innovation hub for the City. Rotterdam is a truly multicultural City, with half of its inhabitants sharing a migrant background and representing more than 170 different nationalities. This diversity impacts the City in different aspects, from the cultural to the entrepreneurial context. Not only diverse, Rotterdam is also a City of sharp contrasts, starting by the geographic distribution of wealth. The City is separated in two parts by a river and, throughout history, this separation has always meant that the best opportunities could be found in the North, while the South was left as a “no-man’s-land”. Due to a long term strive to reduce the differences between North and South, Rotterdam’s two sides are now very well connected through multiple bridges and public transport lines. Companies and big corporates, such as Deloitte, have established their offices in the South and important venues of entertainment have been built there. Still, the poorest neighbourhoods of the City are located in the Southern area. The City climate towards innovation is fed by a fruitful combination of long-term visions developed by the Municipality and emerging citizen initiatives. While the reciprocal attitude is grounded on open, two-way dialogue and collaboration, which puts local institutions and Rotterdam citizens in sync and leaves ample room for the generation of good ideas, there still is a lot to improve for strengthening the City’s capacity to develop and implement innovations in the social and urban contexts. Being historically a City of traders and entrepreneurs, Rotterdam’s attitude is to “Make It Happen”. This attitude is reinforced by the stable collaboration between the Port Authority, the Erasmus University and the Municipality itself. Overall, the local culture, historical diversities and the push of urban institutions create the perfect environment for entrepreneurship to develop and innovation to be implemented in such domains as technology, healthcare, finance, etc.
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