HQ49assoportrP9P10v2
0 likes•29 views
The International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) is a global network of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers interested in innovation management. Founded in 1983, ISPIM organizes annual conferences and symposiums to facilitate networking and knowledge sharing around innovation. Recent challenges included making events more relevant and improving networking opportunities between academics and corporate delegates. ISPIM looks for centrally located venues that can accommodate hundreds of attendees, include facilities for breakout sessions, and support social functions in the evenings.
HQ49assoportrP9P10v2
- 1. HEADQUARTERS 9 HQ: Could you briefly present ISPIM? Iain Bitran: The International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) is a network of researchers, industrialists, consultants and public bodies who share an interest in innovation management. Founded in 1983 by Professor Knut Holt in Norway, ISPIM is the oldest, largest and most active innova- tion association in Europe. It produces scientific and educational material and events to help people understand and share thinking and experiences on how in- dividuals, organisations and society can be better organised to create and distribute new products, services and processes to make the world a better place. HQ: What kind of challenges has the Society overcome in recent years? Iain Bitran: Our network includes practitioners as well as academics. There are a number of corporate innovation events that already exist where delegates that we spoke to said that the series of events was not really evolving in terms of content or numbers and the lack of social networking events and high-end pricing (GBP 2,450 in 2012) was causing increasing dissatisfaction. These comments were the inspiration for ISPIM to put on a new event for innova- tion thought leaders that we are calling “Innovation for Business”. This event will last for 1.5 days and will run alongside our conference and will include around 18 high level speakers from companies such as IBM, Yahoo!, Kodak, Phillips, Nokia, P&G, ABN AMRO, Alcatel-Lucent, Tata, Unilever, etc. By including the event in our confer- ence, delegates from industry will be able to freely mix with academics, consultants and policy makers also interested in innovation management as we will have many joint sessions such as the plenary (our headline keynote is Henry Chesbrough), roundtable discussion sessions and our famous social networking events. HQ: What kind of events do you organize? Iain Bitran: We run several international events per year including our annual flagship Conference, held in Europe each June, and our innovation symposium, held outside Europe each December. The ISPIM audience reflects ISPIM’s diversity. Delegates will be predominantly a mixture of European and local/regional, although about 60 countries will be represented at our conference. Iain Bitran is the Executive Director of ISPIM and has overseen the Society’s growth since 2003. We asked him to tell us about how the organization works and what kinds of challenges it had to face over the years. Effective networking with the International Society for Professional Innovation Management HQ> A ssociation P ortrait Iain Bitran 4TH ISPIM Innovation Symposium
- 2. HEADQUARTERS 10 Delegates include researchers, practitioners, independent and well-known consultants, regional and national policy-makers as well as science parks, innovation agencies etc. Profiles range from CEOs and VPs to mid-executives, from full professors to PhD researchers, and from independent researchers and consultants to global com- panies. 2012 is set to be a growth year for ISPIM. We have just received submissions from 550 authors from 53 countries for the XXIII ISPIM Conference in Barcelona, which takes place in June, just 6 months before the Seoul Symposium in December. HQ: What is the association's decision process concerning the organization of your annual meeting? Iain Bitran: The Board of ISPIM decides where to hold our events. Criterion include attractiveness of the host city, availability of local support and identification of a local host. As a not-for-profit association we rely heavily on a local host to be able to provide a local venue for our event at no cost to out association. HQ: What kind of venues do you need and what criteria must they satisfy? Iain Bitran: We are looking for the following: + Event Venue: A centrally located venue with a plenary room for up to 500 delegates (200 for the symposium) plus 7 breakout rooms for up to 50 delegates (3 rooms for the symposium). All rooms should have AV facilities and an onsite technician. + Social Event Venues for the following 3 evenings: Welcome Reception (for a 1.5 hour cocktail and canapé reception); Gala Dinner (for a 2.5 hour seated/ served dinner in a venue with some historical significance); Social Evening (for an informal 3.5 hour buffet dinner and drinks in a fun venue) + Hotels: A 4 star property near to our event venue. We will only offer one event hotel and expect to receive a special rate for our delegates that includes free WiFi. In addition we expect to receive 1 free room for every 30 room nights booked by our delegates. + Airline partners + Technology providers HQ: How would you summarize new trends in the association congress world? Iain Bitran: The trend is definitely towards more relevant events where effective networking can take place. We believe by having a mixture of academics and practitioners we offer a unique environ- ment in the innovation management field. HQ: Any memorable destination for one of your events? If yes, why? Iain Bitran: Definitely Barcelona. It’s a vibrant city with a great deal of culture yet very innovative at the same time. www.ispim.org > A ssociation P ortrait ISPIM’s events 2012 5TH ISPIM Innovation Symposium Seoul, Korea XXIII ISPIM Conference Barcelona, Spain 2011 4TH ISPIM Innovation Symposium Wellington, New Zealand XXII ISPIM Conference Hamburg, Germany 2010 3RD ISPIM Innovation Symposium Quebec City, Canada XXI ISPIM Conference Bilbao Spain 2009 2ND ISPIM Innovation Symposium New York City, USA XX ISPIM Conference Vienna, Austria XXII ISPIM Conference The trend is definitely towards more relevant events where effective networking can take place In Bilbao, for the XXI ISPIM Conference XVIII ISPIM Conference - Warsaw, Poland (2007)