Press Release: Expect the unexpected at this year’s SA Innovation Summit
Anyone lucky enough to be going to this year’s eagerly awaited Innovation Summit may never think the same way again.
In its most adventurous, interconnected and interactive incarnation yet, the 4th SA Innovation Summit aims to jolt participants off their well-worn mental tracks and on to more fruitful and creative paths.
Leading the process under the theme ‘Innovation Legends – Ideas to Market’, will be a line-up of 50 of the most exciting and successful innovators in business, government and academia from South Africa, Africa and beyond.
The global trend towards collaborative or open innovation is a hot topic which will be explored by top practitioners in the field. Skip Davis, Vice President of open innovation consultants NineSigma will be talking on “Harnessing the wisdom of the crowd “ while creative strategist Tim Malone will make the argument for organization-wide creative collaboration in a presentation titled “The fuzzy front end”.
Industrial heavyweights Anglo and Eskom will both be presenting case studies of open innovation in their organisations.
Delegates will get first hand experience of collaborative creativity at the summit’s bold new feature, the Innovation Lab, which will function as both an experiential exhibition space and an idea factory.
As well as showcasing inventive installations from cutting edge brands like Gijima and BMGi, the lab will give companies the chance to tap into a global network of thousands of creative thinkers to find novel solutions to their real-life business challenges.
The Innovation Lab will be presided over by charismatic creative guru Jan Van Mol, the Belgian–born founder of Ad!dict Creative Lab and a pioneer of open innovation.
Van Mol will also be stretching delegates’ brains in lab sessions on breakthrough thinking and idea generation.
A major focus of the 2011 Innovation Summit is the stimulation of local creativity and the transformation of new ideas into commercially-viable, socially-useful products and services.
Among those sharing their experiences of bringing ideas to market will be FNB Innovation Programme Manager Paul Steenkamp, Verimark founder Willie Van Straaten, Brian Steinhobel of the Steinhobel Group and William Gwata, the Zimbabwean scientist, accountant and inventor of a hugely-successful automatic pap-cooker.
The CSIR will also be presenting case studies of some of South Africa’s most exciting and successful innovations.
Insight into the creation of entrepreneurs will be provided by the dynamic Nigerian-born TV presenter and businesswoman, Moky Makura, author of “The secrets of entrepreneurs”, and Allon Raiz, radio and TV personality and CEO of Raizcorp, dedicated to incubating small businesses in Africa.
The summit will also examine the burgeoning possibilities offered by the latest technology, from social networking to biomimcry to the thrilling prospect of quantum computing which will be explained by theoretical physicist Dr Frans Petruccione.
In line with the Innovation Summit’s commitment to indigenous creativity and eco-friendly products, each delegate will receive a bag filled with the fruits of local innovation, including exquisite hand-made felt slippers produced by FLOCK, women in the dusty dorp of Petrusville.
This year’s event will be hosted by the IDC, a leading partner in the Innovation Summit through its Support Programme for Industrial Innovation (SPII). The IDC said it was confident this year’s summit would provide “a significant launching ground for many iconic projects”.
Other major partners, FNB, Anglo American and Gijima, BMGi were equally enthusiastic.
Michael Jordaan, CEO of FNB, which is rated South Africa’s most innovative bank, said ‘We relentlessly drive the message of innovation throughout the bank. This is not simply an internal slogan; it is a primary way of working in the bank.’
Anglo Platinum described its involvement in the event as ‘an ideal opportunity to communicate with innovators and the innovation community’.
To stimulate the development of commercially-viable technology Anglo’s new development fund is offering a R300,000 prize for the most promising new application for platinum group metals.
The Innovation Summit also depends on a number of other committed supporters, namely Novixo, the Development Bank of SA, and Lemnis Lighting, one of the 10 top innovation companies in the world according to a recent survey.
The Innovation Summit is jointly owned and organised by Sense2Sense and the Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (RIIS).
Dr. Audrey Verhaeghe, CEO of RIIS and Itha Taljaard, CEO of Sense2Sense, joint organisers of the Innovation Summit said this year’s event takes innovation capability building to new heights in South Africa. The Summit offered an open call for papers and the public response was overwhelming. The variety and quality content is unparalleled in South African conferences.
The 4th SA Innovation Summit takes place at the IDC Convention Centre in Sandton from August 30 to September 1st.
For more information or to register, visit www.innovationsummit.co.za
For more information, interview requests et al:
Suzette Heydenreich
PR, Marketing
C: +27 72 774 2206
T: +27 28 514 3152
E: suzette@sense2solve.co.za
Featured News
Cape Town Business Building...
The Business Building 2012 Workshop Series with a ICT and Mobile focus presented over two days in Cape Town on 30 & 31 May 2012. All sectors welcome to attend.
Latest Events
Business Building Workshop 12 June 2012 Pretoria
12 June 2012 at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria -‘Preparing Yourself for the Entrepreneurial Journey’ by Coen Bester and ‘Future technologies and Business modelling for your business’ by Dr Anthon Botha and ‘The role of ICT within SME’s in Gauteng and the Knowledge Economy’ by Lloyd Modimogale.
Cape Town Business Building Workshop with ICT and Mobile focus 30 & 31 May 2012
The Business Building 2012 Workshop Series with a ICT and Mobile focus presented over two days in Cape Town on 30 & 31 May 2012. All sectors welcome to attend.
