SDC hosts Corporate Innovation Day 2018
The Innovation Management Programme of SDC in collaboration with the Innovation Center Denmark recently hosted a two-day set of activities in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship organized for managers, researchers and students.
This year’s Corporate Innovation Day was devoted to exploring how Chinese and international companies take advantage of co-creation, user-centricity and digitalization in China.
Showcasing the latest research
Dmitrij Slepniov, Associate Professor at Aalborg University and co-host of the event, explains that having a diverse group of participants is necessary for a productive discussion and a useful outcome, that academia and the businesses need each other to move forward.
“Without a good reality check from practitioners, the academia is in danger of becoming naive or even irrelevant. On the other hand, practice without theory may become blind and misguided. The innovation days event is a first in a series of similar events that will help us to engage with our industrial partners, to showcase the latest research and to capture the most current innovation practice trends.”
The two-day event consisted of open academic lectures by university professors and presentations by company managers followed by panel discussions, who engaged in dialogue with the presenters and the audience.
Among the presenters were John Ulhøi, Professor from Aarhus University, Martin Barnes, a TEDx speaker and the founder of creative studio Mountains of Imagination in Beijing, Allan Chou, founder of RADICAL Fund, Bruno Keonnel, Senior manager of Research and Development Department at Daimler China, Xue Yan, Director of Operations of Didi Development Research Institute, Peter Lee, Head of the International Cooperation Department of Orient Sundar Group-Windoor and John Liu, CTO of Guoshuang Technology.
A pool of inspiration for students, managers and researchers
As Dmitrij Slepniov evaluates on the two days transpired, he is very happy with the support and dedication the event received and hopes that the participants learned a lot.
“We tried to make sure that this event offered something for all participants to take home. The academics got insights into the latest developments in the world of open innovation and digitalization in China. Managers heard about how the theory sees these trends and their development in the future. We also opened this event for the SDC students, who I hope got new ideas for their projects and had a chance to network and establish connections for their internships.”
With November’s successful Corporate Innovation Day 2018 in the bag, Dmitrij Slepniov now looks forward to hosting more similar events at SDC going forward.
Take a look in the gallery below to learn more about the speakers and topics of the event.
Martin Barnes, TEDx speaker and the founder of a creative studio Mountains of Imagination in Beijing, gave a practice-based talk about the latest trends of digitalisation, user experience and user-centricity in China.
Peter Lee, Head of the International Cooperation Department of Orient Sundar Group-Windoor, Group spoke about “User-centricity in the digital age”
John Liu, CTO of Guoshuang Technology Co., Ltd., gave a presentation on the theme of “User-centricity in the digital age”.
Xue Yan, Director of Operations of Didi Development Research Institute, introduced the development of Didi, and how Didi has improved its business and operational efficiency through emerging technologies and the use of big data.
Allan Chou, founder of RADICAL Fund, introduced the original intention of the RADICAL fund and the company’s philosophy of bringing corporates and startups closer together.
Bruno Keonnel (on the right), Senior manager of Research and Development Department at Daimler, gave a talk on “The Co-Creation of Enterprises in the Digital Age”.
Panel discussion. Invited panelists included Richard Robinson (Founder and CEO of nHack), Jelte Ansgar Wingender (Senior Manager from Innoway), John Ulhøi (Professor from Århus University). The panelist exchanged their views on the topics of the day from both practical and academic perspectives and engaged in a dialogue with the company presenters and the audience.
Morten Laugesen, Executive Director of SDC, emphasized the importance of the Innovation Days and the commitment of SDC to continue organizing similar events bringing business leaders, academic and students together.
Dmitrij Slepniov, Associate Professor at Aalborg University and Danish head of the Innovation Management programme and Liu Xielin, Professor at University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese head of Innovation Management.
They discussed the latest innovation trends in China and the role of academia in understanding these trends and predicting their development in the future.