“My expectations are generally quite low for such conferences, but this one far exceeded them.”
That’s just one of the many comments I’m hearing today from our participants at CoDev ’09 (8th Annual Congress on Open Innovation and Co-Development) last month! The conference is sponsored by Management Roundtable (MRT) and the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA).
I was so honored to personally connect with so many attendees. Of course it’s always great to be in Scottsdale, Ariz., in the middle of winter.
I was especially excited to be back chairing this great event, which was titled, Building Open Innovation Capabilities for Higher Value Business Opportunities.
If you want to listen to any of the interviews I gave before and during the conference, click here:
Planning will soon be underway for ext year’s 2010 event, and if this year’s feedback is any indication, it’s a can’t-miss event:
“Many of the presenters are highly educated and accomplished and effectively share their knowledge.” (Bissell Homecare Inc.)
“Helps to open up your eyes on what is possible.” ( Pro Actuate)
“If you are new to Open Innovation, or if it is happening on an ad hoc basis in your organization, this conference helps you organize thoughts and provide structure to bank on power of Open Innovation.” (National Starch Food Innovation)
“If you have ‘innovation’ or ‘open innovation’ in your job title or in your job description you need to be at CoDev 2010. It doesn’t matter if you are an expert or a beginner, this conference is very relevant.” (Pure Insight)
Even though the economic forecasts continue to be dim for 2009, it was encouraging to see that leading companies consider open innovation and co-development efforts imperative at this time. Together top experts and advanced practitioners of Open Innovation, Henry Chesborough and I gave high level insight and practical applications for how companies can foster environments that allow open innovation to thrive and integrate multiple business models to achieve greater returns on their open innovation investments.
We had great dialoge with these experts, including open innovation practitioners from General Mills, Weyerhaeuser, Sara Lee and Kraft Foods, P&G, The Clorox Company, Honeywell International, HP Labs, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Burrill & Company Booz & Company, WD-40, Cadbury, R.J. Reynolds, JohnsonDiversey, Frito-Lay, UBS Investment Research, Colgate-Palmolive, Unilever, and many more.
Hope to see you next year!