Far from everything was perfect at the Innovate conference in Copenhagen. How could it have been? The subject is a very tricky one and the conference was only run for the third time. Seventeen presentations from ten countries couldn't possibly all be fantastic - it is rather a success that none of them was poor.
In this summing up article, we decided to focus on what was good, in the form of a top ten list. It turned out harder than expect to select what would qualify for the list and what would not!
The undisputed number one, Andrew Needham, to the right.
1. Andrew Needham: The "co-creation revolution".
There were plenty of speakers fighting for the top positions, but the winner was nevertheless unchallenged. Like so many of the others, Andrew took his own business as show case, but didn't emphasize it. Instead he showed that he really understands why it is exactly now that the time is right to interact with consumers to produce real research insight. The internet of today have given consumers "Ubiquitous connectivity" (I love that term), making them masters of everything everywhere. Some say consumers is a problem when innovating. Those who understand what is happening, can make the right consumers play a key role in innovation.
Plenty of wisdom - but Andrew had never reached the top of this list unless he had spoken very clearly, engaging and without a script to read from, not to mention opening with a game that made us all wide awake and interested. Look out for this guy at future conferences!
More discussions like this one in the future - please!
2. The Co-creation panel discussion. The other speakers in Andrews session didn't quite reach his level until it was time to sit down and discuss the topics. There they all demonstrated how well they understand the subject and gave insightful and inspiring answers even to questions that were not so easily understandable. Simon Pulman-Jones did an excellent job as moderator before letting the audience in with their questions. This is a format well worth repeating in the future: don't let the audience in from the start, but still make sure there is well enough time for discussions, questions and elaborations from all corners.
Keynote speaker Gregg Fraley, to the right, deepens the discussion with program committee chairman Ari Popper.
3. Gregg Fraley: Deliberate Innovation. If Gregg had been just anybody, he would have competed for the first position in this list. Now he was THE keynote speaker, with a relatively newly released book behind him. The expectations were unreasonably high, but he met them, although not more than that. What he does is basically presenting a structured method for achieving higher levels of innovation. The method is not his own, but he presents it so everyone can understand, both on stage and in his book, and he does the world a favour by doing so.
Check out our web-TV interview with Gregg in this article: http://www.smrn.org/Home/tabid/55/ArticleId/6256/Culture/English/Default.aspx.
4. The good mood. Everyone seemed happy. Everyone was open for a chat. If there would only have been more networking time, I would eventually have made friends with every one of the 150 delegates. I would have loved to!
5. István Kozári, Initiative and Márta Hoffmann, Research International Hoffman, both Hungary: The network of favours.
Again an incredibly close shave towards a number of other good speakers. I liked this presentation because István and Márta managed to present a very important learning from a very simple starting point: the need to relaunch an old and insignificant consumer brand, Tic Tac. The result, a site where ordinary Hungarians can get help with simple daily problems from perfect strangers, is hardly something that would have come out of regular research, which shows the strength of co-creation and letting the most creative consumers into the research and design process.
They would have risen a step or two on the list if they had dwelled on the implications of where society at large is heading, when we obviously need a commercial company to help us with things that should traditionally have been settled through a regular network of friends, family and acquaintances.
Márta gets an extra plus for her elegant, witted and humerous way of referring to previous presentations.
Both shall have praise for their excellent ability to handle the English language. You seldom hear non-native speakers express themselves so well as these two - in fact, they beat many of the fast-speaking native speakers at the conference.
6. iMotions ad hoc decision to host an extra round of networking drinks at the top bar of the conference hotel Tuesday evening. Surprises are always welcome and even more so when they are as positive as this one. CEO Peter Harzbech's introduction to tourist sights of his home town was a great feature of the gathering, but he could have ended even higher on the list if his selection of sights had not been so obvious.
Lucy Blakemore with program committee member and moderator Luis Arnal, to the left.
7. Lucy Blakemore: Building innovation. I had marked this presentation as one of very few "must-sees" before the conference, which meant there was a good reason to get out of bed Wednesday morning. Lucy certainly met expectations by her well thought-through analogy of the innovation team as a house building group. Furthermore, her descriptions were solidly founded in a good piece of research that her two-person firm had financed with their own money just because they wanted to learn more about their clients. This is the kind of stuff I expect to find at a conference about innovation. The only reason it ends up so far down in the list is because competition was so fierce.
8. The comprehensive thinking. This was not just a series of presentations that happened to have been sent in. The presentations were carefully selected and positioned in the program according to content. Where the proposals didn't complete the picture, speakers had been invited to fil the gaps (it is another story that the speakers who had proposed themselves, generally did better presentations and had more interesting content than the invited speakers). As usual, the program was supported by a flawless administration as well as enjoyable food and drinks. And last but certainly not least, the time schedule was kept to the minute without any stress. (This is a feat that is far from as easy to accomplish at it sounds.)
The backside of the comprehensiveness is of course that it locks out colleagues who would have liked to just sneak in for a smaller part of the conference. Difficult thing to solve - you can't do everything at once.
J. Alison Bryant and Fiona McAnena.
9. Fiona McAnena: Setting the innovation agenda. The perfect match to Gregg Fraleys optimistic opening speech, taking it all down to basics. Fiona listed all the problems that come with innovation and stressed the need for organisations to contemplate why they want to innovate, before even considering where they want to do it. Not to speak of what to do - something you shouldn't even think of unless you are clear about the why's and where's.
Copenhagen train station - 100 meters from my hotel!
10. Being in our own backyard. It is fantastic to attend a conference in a town you know well and where you can bike to the conference venue in less than ten minutes. Even more fantastic to be able to get on a comfortable train while going home. No security lines, no long walks to the gate, no waiting in a busy shopping mall, no squeezing into a narrow plane seat too small to use your computer, no lost luggage on arrival. Just boarding the train, stretching out and, what... it is already time to get off!
Jaroslav Cir at his "own" presentation, with Evert Bos in the background.
An honourable mention goes to Jaroslav Cir, stepping in for Ana CM Medeiros who was unable to attend. Jaroslav had already done a presentation of his own the day before and was very careful not to take any credit whatsoever of Anas work, but instead praised her appropriately and did his best to play her part. Very gentelmanlike indeed.
Henrik Hall
SMRN
NB! I missed the three last presentations, so please don't regard the list as the absolute truth. Well, you wouldn't have anyhow, would you?