2013

Supporting entrepreneurship and innovation has become one of the key tools in the development strategy that a few countries are using lately. There is a new competitive focus on talent rather than anything else. Some countries/organizations realized that the way to grow is not based on investments behind infrastructure but rather on talent, there is a new wave of talented people willing to change countries based on how these countries are attracting them. This new immigration behavior is dramatically changing the way on the world interacts. The countries that make themselves highly attractive for this new type of nomads will have the advantage and probably lead the next disruptive innovations. In the last 3 years Chile has been taking a leap on this matter, launching successful programs such as StartUp Chile, attracting international centers of excellence and many internal policy changes that aim to make the country more attractive for both local and foreign entrepreneurs and innovators. In this webinar you will see the evolution on these public policies with a deep insight to Start-Up Chile, how it started, how the learning process was and the impact generated so far.

Relator: Ms. Angeles Navarro

Angeles Navarro is the Global Networks Director at Start-Up Chile; a program created by the Chilean Government that seeks to attract early-phase, high-potential entrepreneurs to bootstrap their startups using Chile as a platform to go global. Her objective at this position is to help Start-Up Chile participants to be better connected, generating global networks within the alumni and creating alliances with companies abroad.

Crowdfunding in Europe is booming. Crowdfunding for SMEs is taking of rapidly. In the current financial crisis it is difficult to raise enough funding to finance innovative or growth plans by SMEs through traditional ways of financing by banks. Crowdfunding offers a solution. Crowdfunding is a collective effort to raise money to realize a project. Instead of having one large funder, you have hundreds of funders who are also the ambassador of your project. Worldwide this is used by millions of people and in 2012 $2,7 billion was raised through crowdfunding, a growth of 81% from last year. Besides raising money, crowdfunding offers more advantages. It allows the project owner to gain feedback on some of the most critical parts of the product before it is released onto the market. For example, the project owner is able to receive feedback on how the design of a product can be improved, get a better idea about market demands, and get direct customer interaction. It can also lead to word-of-mouth recommendation. For the project owner, crowdfunding establishes a direct link between himself and the customer. This link is the first step towards marketing, customer loyalty, participation, and emotional  attachment to the innovation. Crowdfunding is an incredibly effective way of gauging if their product or idea has a mass appeal. Even more important is the time in which the project owner is able to make this assessment; a two-month long crowdfunding campaign is a relatively fast turnaround for getting an idea off the ground. For project owners who experienced a successful crowdfunding campaign to fund the first phase of their ideas, the aforementioned benefits can be extremely useful for financing the next phase. Some project owners may utilize crowdfunding again, where others may resort to more traditional forms of funding. They can then use their fan-base of funders to show there is public support for this idea. When project owners combine different approaches they can fund the whole life cycle of a project, product, service or other business innovation. Either way, being able to call upon pre-sales information, number of funders, amount of money raised in a specific time period is valuable for project owners seeking a second round of financing. In this session I will discuss the concept of crowdfunding. How did it start? What types of crowdfunding business models are there and what is the future of crowdfunding?

Relator: Mr. Ronald Kleverlaan

Ronald Kleverlaan is a well known expert on crowdfunding and an international speaker on crowdfunding trends in Europe. He is the CEO of WEBclusive, the leading crowdfunding software company in Europe and vice-chairman of the European Crowdfunding Network. He is co-author of the paper "A Framework for European Crowdfunding" and advises the Startup Europe program of the European Commission about the use of crowdfunding for the "Digital Agenda for Europe". As an experienced speaker, Ronald spoke at universities and over 50 small and large events about crowdfunding throughout the world, including Sorbonne University in Paris, the University of Amsterdam and presentations in Izmir (Turkey), Göteborg (Sweden), Solo (Indonesia), Orlando (VS), a TED talk and every year dozens of other workshops and presentations.

Innovation is turning ideas into value – value for the own organisation, for the customers andinnovation partners. Leading companies, therefore, manage their innovation activities systematically for sustainable value growth. Based on our large innovation management databases both on large and small companies, we can take a look into the key success factors how to
leverage innovation for sustainable growth. In this webinar, you will learn about best practices in innovation management and how you can benchmark your own organisation or help companies to assess their innovation management performance and close the gap to the growth champions.

Relator: Dr. Eva Diedrichs

Eva Diedrichs is Senior Manager at A.T. Kearney and there core team member of the Innovation and R&D management practice. She leads the IMP³rove project, the initiative of the European Commission for better innovation management support for small and medium sized enterprises. She is actively involved in the European standardisation activities on innovation management.

Innovation is the key to unlocking economic, environmental and social sustainability for firms of all sizes. Research by the Network for Business Sustainability (nbs.net) on Innovating for Sustainability describes how innovation can show up across all of a company’s operations, including design, packaging and promoting products, hiring and training employees, and even evolving the business model. Innovation can be free and simple or expensive and complex. Webinar participants will learn (1) the three stages of innovation for SMEs, based on rigorous, international research, and (2) proven practices for innovating at each stage – including strategies such as back casting. We will also demonstrate how to find and access free resources for SMEs like How to Drive Innovation: A 4-Part Guide for Small Business Leaders through NBS.net.

Relator: Ms. Pamela Laughland

Pamela Laughland is Managing Director for the Network for Business Sustainability. NBS is a Canadian non-profit, which connects researchers and managers through knowledge to change business practice. NBS has also begun expanding internationally, with its first global affiliate, NBS: South Africa, launched in 2013. Since its inception in 2006, NBS has grown into a thriving network of more than 3,800 researchers and managers and has attracted more than $4 million in public and private funding. The Network produces free, authoritative resources in collaboration with world-class researchers on priority topics including innovating for sustainability, embedding sustainability into organizational culture, and building sustainable supply chains. Pamela oversees the operational direction of NBS and its activities. Since taking this role she has championed several significant initiatives including the Global Sustainability Centres Community, a program that convenes more than 50 sustainability research centres from business schools around the world to collaborate for greater individual and collective impact. Participating schools range from Harvard and MIT to Auckland and Stellenbosch. Prior to joining NBS, Pamela held research positions at the Richard Ivey School of Business, Statistics Canada, and the University of Guelph. Her work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, the Ivey Business Journal and the International Journal of Biotechnology. She holds an MSc in Resource Economics from the University of Guelph.

While Intellectual Property is a term increasingly used nowadays and it is essential to reap the benefits of innovation, it seems that organizations usually use informal processes when developing a portfolio of technology, even if it is built with a few patents or technologies. Therefore it is necessary to know the tools or methodologies that can be used to organize and commercialize IP. The webinar will focus on 4 main factors that are important to consider in order to create value for a business:

• Internationalization of the portfolio, selecting the inventions with more potential to be transferred and the ones that have to be abandoned in order to reduce cost of maintenance fees;
• Diversification, detecting the patents, projects of R&D or knowledge (processes or methods) that can be exploited in other sectors of application;
• Detection of new opportunities, continuously evaluating the market in order to detect new technologies to add to the commercialization portfolio;
• IP Strategy, establishing the roadmap of each technology and the different steps to the commercialization stage.

Relator: Dr. Lídia Aguilera

Technology transfer professional with a strong track record of academic and professional achievements and experience in leading technical teams. Lidia has a PhD in nanotechnology and has over 10 years of international experience in both private and public research. She developed her scientific career in prestigious centers of Belgium and Spain and is still linked to research as a evaluator of R&D projects for the European Commission. Over the past five years, she has worked in the private sector as technology transfer manager, negotiating and getting projects with multinational companies, SMEs, and public agencies and managing a highly qualified team.

For investors, the four key elements of any successful business are: a good idea, an excellent team, a bigmarket, and money to do it right. If you ask a business: Are you looking for money? 99 % will say yes! Regardless if they are in early, growth or mature stage. The process of raising money is undergoing a transformation, and in this Webinar we will go through the different routes available today. We will cover strategies like Crowd Funding, Accelerator Programs, “LeanStart, and “MVP” start-ups. The Webinar will also include ”The ten key factors for getting outstanding results in the process of raising money.”

Relator: Mr. Amir R. Raveh

As a Founder and CEO of the British investment house MG Equity Partners raised US$250Million, and specialized in setting innovation and entrepreneurship centers around the world. As a Lecturer at leading Universities, created the E-Mindset model which focuses on developing the entrepreneurial mindset. Founder & Ex CEO of Media Call UK Ltd, sold in 2003. He holds a MBA from Middlesex University in London.

Innovation is a hot topic right now for organisations of all sizes. Those that are trying to improve their innovation capability have no shortage of  resources available to them. But how can you tell which tools and  approaches are right for your specific organisation? I am doing research work right now which looks at the various types of innovative firms that exist. In this webinar, I will explain how to figure out which type of innovative organisation yours is, and give you some tips on how to identify the tools that will be most useful to you.

Relator: Mr. Tim Kastelle

Tim Kastelle is a Senior Lecturer in Innovation Management in the School of Business at The University of Queensland. He teaches, researches, writes, consults and blogs about innovation. Learn more at http: timkastelle.org

SMEs represent a large reservoir of jobs. More must be made so that they can better exploit the global markets and create new activities and jobs. In Italy, more than 10% of SMEs would become more competitive if they engaged in relevant R&D (Research & Development). Based on this recent book From Science to Business (www.sciencetobusiness.ch), Dr Georges Haour presents the specific aspects of SMEs innovating and benefitting from technology transfer, mainly coming from Universities, or public research, such as CNR. One aspect is that SMEs must effectively use R&D/Innovation as a strategic tool; second, collaborative work and multi-company projects can be used to share cost and risks; third, websites can be used to identify problem-solvers; finally, Universities and public research may offer relevant knowledge and technical expertise.

Relator: Dr. Georges Haour

Dr. Georges Haour is Professor at IMD in entrepreneurship, innovation management and technology commercialisation. For several years, he has been associated with the incubator/innovator firm Generics (now Sagentia), in Cambridge, UK. He is an adviser to firms & organisations on effective R&D/innovation management for competitiveness and growth. He is on the board of several companies and worked as an expert to evaluate Italy’s CNR. Born and raised in Lyon, France, he graduated from the higher school of chemistry ENSCP, Paris. He has a Master of Sciences (New York) and a Ph.D in Chemistry & Materials Science from the U. of Toronto, Canada. Dr. Haour has 8 patents and four books. His latest book is From Science to Business (Palgrave, London, 2011) on technology transfer.

The Social Media Innovation is a new knowledge production model, based on the full integration of the social networks and tools onto the internal, and the external context of the organisation. The low cost external communication tools -easy to use and share- like online communities, or processes like the viral marketing are changing the way organisation are structured and are creating value. The boundaries of the “old” organisation are now questionable, a new way of generating value is emerging.
The Social are also part of new and innovative business processes which is generating a new professional profile in the organisation: the Social Network builder who uses social networks, such as Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook to identify, satisfy and create new needs and clients. These new professional figures, other than managers and IT experts, are the new protagonists of the Social Innovation.

Relator: Mr. Aleardo Furlani

Aleardo Furlani, CEO and founder of INNOVA S.p.A., graduated in Law “summa cum laude” (with highest honors), University of Naples, holds an MBA from IESE- Barcelona. After an experience as Senior associate for MAC Group/GEMINI Consulting Group from 1987 to 1992, where he carried out strategy formulation consultancy for leading Italian corporations in the Space Industry Sector, he founded INNOVA in 1993 to support EU companies and Universities in the implementation of their exploitation of R&D results. With over 20 years of experience in business strategies, international marketing and innovation financing, Aleardo Furlani assists industrial and research organisations in the commercial exploitation of technologies and the valorisation of R&D results in Europe and in South Mediterranean Countries (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon ,Syria, Egypt): since 2006 he is head of 2 European Investment Bank Technical (EIB) Assistance Projects in Morocco and Tunisia.