Amazing ideas, insights, glitter, guitars, songs and confetti' The Future Ideas team was proud to be present at the spectacular annual Front End of Innovation EMEA conference in Munich, Germany. In this article we will share with you our highlights of this inspiring event.
The theme of the first day of the conference was idea generation. How to integrate trends into the innovation process (Pepsico), what your checklist should be (Innovation Factory), how to screen ideas through a process (Spinner) and how to build on ideas (DSM).
Furthermore, there was attention on how to use the crisis in your advantage (Diageo) and the monitoring of the idea (PwC).
One of the most inspiring talks of the first day was the four lenses of innovation by Rowan Gibson. We really enjoyed his examples of innovation - a Jumbo hotel, a supermarket in a subway station and how Netflix changed the model of the movie rental market.
While the inspiring speakers were entertaining the audience and explaining their view on idea generation for innovation, the Future Ideas team had a different approach! In line of the theme of the day, we were asking the attendees to show us their idea for the future by the use of colorful notes and glittery stickers! No one would expect the balloons, glitter, colorful pens and the board we had with us to sparkle innovation-driven thinking and trigger playfulness at FEI.
After the keynote from the Chair Peter Meier, day two of the conference day kicked off with a confetti cannon from Future Ideas' Chief Inspiration Officer, Jaspar Roos, who invited everyone to take a picture of themselves at our photo booth ' the condition was to wear the requisite we brought and to show us how the innovative 'you' looks like! Keep an eye on FutureIdeas.eu to see the lovely pictures we took!
After the playful intervention from Jaspar Roos, the conference started with Navi Rajou's talk on Frugal Innovation and emerging markets. Next was author Magnus Lindkvist, who warned us to be aware of the attack of the unexpected. A suggestion of his is that innovation should be both technology- and business-led.
The day ended at the Coffee & Wash dinner of Ernst & Young, which was a nice, non-traditional atmosphere to connect to other companies and to think of other possibilities to innovate.
The third day of the conference started with a fantastic and completely unexpected approach in the look of innovation ' through songs! Professor John Bessant performed on a guitar songs with lyrics about laggards, congratulating open innovation for its 10th birthday, etc. This remarkable experience was completely unexpected by all attendees!
The Future Ideas team took pictures with the requisite we had again. We were also present at the NSN field trip, where Fabian Schlage explained what NSN's approach to new ideas is ' they are spaghetti ' all sorts of knowledge from all sorts of people. In the end, only 2% of the ideas pass through the innovation funnel.
After this we were demonstrated in another building from the NSN offices a remarkable example of augmented reality, possible through a technology like an iPad. Imagine, you are walking towards the bookstore and by applying the technology through the iPad you can see the discount code of your most desired book right now hovering above the entrance!
In a nutshell, the Future Ideas team was very happy to be present at the FEI conference and we hope that we made the conference sparkle a little more with our enthusiasm and confetti! Hopefully we will see you all in Venice, where the grand finale of the Future Ideas Thesis competition will be held. Moreover, we will have a lot more humorous interventions waiting for you!
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| Aneliya Evtimova |
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Aneliya Evtimova is Chief Operating Officer at Future Ideas and Jeske Eenink is Chief Human Officer at Chief Humor Officer.
Editor's Note:
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| Jeske Eenink |
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