Digital transformation in focus of the Swedish Innovation Parliament!

The Swedish Innovation Parliament of 2017, organized by Swedish Incubators & Science Parks, and hosted by the region of East Sweden including LEAD, Norrk?ping Science Park och Science Park Mj?rdevi, has come to an end. During three days, 400 delegates met up in Link?ping and Norrk?ping.

Digital transformation in focus

This year the Innovation Parliament addressed the digital transformation focusing on the closer cooperation between corporations, the public sector and the startups & innovative SMEs. Corporate venturing and innovation procurement, were two important ingredients when discussing how to do this.

A strong innovation system

The Swedish Incubators and Science Park association holds 44 Incubators and 31 Science Parks. The stakeholders above that include the innovation support system on a national, regional and local level with organizations such as the Swedish Innovation Agency and the Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, Business Sweden, RISE, ALMI, IVA and Teknikf?retagen. We also had a good representation from the academic system as well as the political system.

It’s quite uniqe for an Innovation Parliament to hold representatives from the national parliament as well as from the regional and local parliaments. The Swedish Minister of Enterprise and Innovation also joined in, to say a few words. “I am not afraid of new technology, I’m afraid of old”, said the minister, as he was welcomed on stage by the robot Elsa, known from the TV show Talang. Mikael Damberg stressed the importance of the innovation system working closely together with academia to secure Swedish competitiveness. The minister also high-lightened the successful match-making event that took place during the Innovation Parliament, where 50 startups where matched to 18 large corporations, in no less than 181 meetings. The match-making event is a part of the Ignite project, run by LEAD, Sting and Things. “Our export will be a success only if we work together; large corporations, startups, SMEs, the innovation system & academia - to capture the possibilities ahead. We need to breed our technical expertise and our ability to adapt new technology, and testbeds are an important instrument to do this”, said the minister.

A wide range awesome keynote speakers

The Innovation Parliament had several key note speakers. Premiere speaker were Darja Isaksson, who entered the stage after 10-year olds Moa Forsberg and Julia Asplund had given us a thoughtful introduction to the digitalization era and the thoughts of the digital native generation. Darja Isaksson pedagogically guided us through the importance of embracing and working with digitalization, the speed of change – and how Sweden, as a small country – no bigger than a city in a global perspective – is absolutely dependant on the good corporation between municipalities and regions. “Our success is determined on our co-creation in building a sustainable society”.

Daniel Forslund, innovation commissioner for the Region of Stockholm, talked about the importance of changing regulations and restrictions – but also about how it’s necessary to disassemble old infrastructure in order to welcome new technologies and solutions in the future. He stressed the importance of political leadership in the digital transformation of the public sector.

Eva Forlund from Google talked about three components to build a successful team; to make everyone in the team feel secure in the group, to develop feelings of empathy with your colleagues and the surrounding network – and to let everyone be heard and have the same amount of airtime. “As a leader – I always put my employees first. And next after that I think about future recruitments”, said Eva Fors.

Leif ?stling, former CEO of Scania, were interviewed by moderator Thomas Frostberg. “Sweden has a lot of advantages; we have no or little hierarchies, we are good at networking and we have digitalization in our DNA”, he said. He spoke about how Scania took lean thinking to Europe, and the importance of taking ideas and developing them further. “A lot of the Swedish welfare is being developed in our SMEs, a lot of the innovation capacity origins from there”, he saud and stressed the importance of the cooperation between large companies and startups.

Corporate Venturing is trending

The Innovation Parliament took place during two days in Link?ping and Norrk?ping. Aside from the keynotes and the match-making events, workshops where arranged focusing digitalization, internationalization and innovation. The program also included panel discussions with politicians and experts in different fields. Magnus Lundin, CEO of the association Swedish Incubators & Science Parks were pleased. “We have had great days here in East Sweden. We have had great discussions and networking. There is a lot going on in Sweden, and the trend of Corporate Venturing is really strong. Swedish corporations want to connect to startups in a wider sense; both nationally and internationally, and we can make this happen by using the structure of Incubators and Science Park – but also by cooperation with Business Sweden and other organizations”.

Personal reflections

A personal reflection after two great days - is that Sweden has a lot to add, and we have during the last years further developed the cooperation between organizations and also between the regions. We have a sense of urgency, and we have high ambitions – but we also have some different views on how to best capitalize on our innovation system.

My personal view is that we should further develop the structure that is successful, rather than to build new structures. We also need to think in a long-term perspective and find a way out of the project jungle that sometimes makes things difficult for the actors in the innovation system, despite of the good intentions from the politicians. I think we need to put co-creation in focus for all of our activities. Doing things by yourself feels somewhat, old-fashion. Co-creation FTW! All of us, regardless if we work for an incubator, Science Park, a research institute, a governmental agency or a industry association – want to build Swedish competitiveness! We are many, we are ambitious and we want to contribute!

Thanks to all of you who participated and made these days a great experience for all of us!

...and we end this week with the conclusion that Sweden tops the charts in just about everything - and we only just got started #SIR17

/Lena Miranda, CEO Science Park Mj?rdevi, Sweden