Where do innovations come from?

Have you ever wondered where innovation comes from? If "innovating" can be planned? Or how your competitor comes up with this new products and services you did not think of??

My job brings meeting a lot of creative minds, visionaries, and thought leaders with it, and of course, I enjoy it. I've always been impressed by creative people. Big part of it was due to the time I studied Computer Science, during the rise and fall of the New Economy. Back then, not a single day went by without another headline of a startup building another amazing product. Always, so it seemed, driven by the creativity of one or two visionary founders.

But, aside my underlining fascination, I remember asking and wondering how they did it. How did they come op with this ideas out of nowhere. You might relate to this feeling, but the moment I heard of an idea, it made sense and the question came: "why didn't I think about this?" At first, it appeared that some people are super creative while others are not. Over the years, however, I started to see a pattern. I could't describe it, or articulate it, but I saw some patterns. My questions got more detailed: "What are the success metrics and requirements to measure innovation and good products?" "What are the different approaches and are there approaches or concepts with a higher likelihood to success than others?" Of course, the biggest questions of all: "can creativity for innovation be learned?" and "can I become an innovative creator?" That was the moment it made click. The starting point when I went on an adventure to learn how I can be creative, innovative, and how I can help designing and developing products people love and use with this skill. Today, roughly 20 years later, I truly believe that the likelihood of success to be innovative and creative can be increased with fairly easy process. (Fairly easy, of course, doesn't mean simple!)

Gather to Communicate and to Share.

Early June last year I attended the Ecosystems2030 Technology Summit in A Coru?a, Spain. The event is organized and chaired by an excellent team lead by Omar Hatamleh, renowned author and visionary innovation and transformation expert.

His vision is to “Creating a place where the shapers of the ecosystems of the future can connect and share their best practices in a casual yet highly selective summit. A think-tank, a practitioner forum, a meet-and-greet with maximum 150 speakers and attendees."

The program was packed with keynotes and breakout sessions related to the Metaverse and its applications in a variety of industries. We heard about cybersecurity, analog space missions in Oman, how the Metaverse will change how we consume and buy (anything), and how SAP is utilizing IT to empower clients in becoming sustainable. A broad variety, yet highly focused on ecosystems use and building. This cross-industry innovation perspective and the multi-disciplinary highlights are the key ingredients and success factors of Ecosystems2030.

Be Selective: Ecosystems 2030, 150 individuals, that's it.

Speaking of success factors, one rule implemented by the chairman of Ecosystems2030 is to strictly limit the amount of attendees. Each summit, 150 individuals, that's it. 50 speakers and 100 attendees is the maximum and as the caliber of the speakers is quite impressive, so are the attendees. Like the speakers, attendees are typically hand-picked by the committee based on merit and the relation to innovation, ecosystems, and community after applying for a ticket. With this, an admittedly high bar, the organisation guarantees the highest possible level of attendees and a huge value. Looking around, everyone is senior management or above, most are director or VP level executives. But its not an super elitist event, and early career stage participants have the chance to attend, if their motivation delivers value for the event as a whole. The mission: figuring out which ecosystems are relevant in the future, how to connect them today, and develop a process to utilize the ecosystems to build creative solutions with future impact.

Innovation comes from ...

Now, back to the initial question, where does innovation come from: In my experience it comes from interactions with a broad and diverse group of engaged individuals with a shared interest in creating better products and services, to create value for many.

True, everyone has its personal best approach and way to get inspired, however, events like Ecosystems2030, are a place to get an extra kick. I am not the most creative if it comes to new approaches, but I am super creative connecting known approaches to solve challenges. Innovations come from identifying a need or possibility to re-create an existing solution, that's my strength. What I need for this, is lots of conversations. And the Ecosystem2030 summit offers exactly this. The concept is literally based on encouraging and supporting interactions between the attendees. The breakout sessions, the networking between the keynotes, excellent opportunities to connect with attendees, exchange ideas and thoughts and share experiences. One can start listening to a keynote, and actively listen to the opinion of a Fortune 500 CEO or share thoughts with leading industry experts. Collaboration of all kinds are are encouraged and facilitated. The speakers are a part of the program, and they don’t only stay, much more, they actively participate in breakout session, talks, and the joint-dinners and tours.?The boat-tour, the Michelin star dinner, and walk-exploration of A Coru?a, just some of the many opportunities to connect and build relationships with likeminded executives.

"The sky is no longer the limit, when we work TOGETHER to solve some of our COMMON challenges..."

Dr. Omar Hatamleh during the Opening of #ES2030

My work is all about innovation, looking at fundamental concepts for circularity and material reuse, and how they can be applied in the space industry. Lots of amazing people working to solve big questions and problems. Of course, one of the most important ones: how can we enable a sustainable long-term use of outer space? Fascinating, isn't it? For me, there is no doubt, communication, knowledge sharing, joint-reflections, all tools and methods increasing the odds of success to be innovative, and to find solutions for grand issues. Creativity, to some extent, can be learned. It's events like Ecosystems 2030 that can pave the way, that encourage an open exchange, and that empower attendees to think different, while working on answers for a multitude of questions.

Cross-industry innovation meets Cross-industry inspiration. You're invited.

So, next time you see your competition with a great product, one reason might be that they attended an Ecosystems2030 summit, or, of course, any other event. I am a true believer in person-to-person interactions that can and will pave the way for more innovation and "human-advancement-encouraging" ecosystems. I hope you see this post is your opportunity and consider attending the next summit in 2023, which is planned for early May in A Coru?a. Put action to your voice and join innovation leaders from all over the world. With this being said, I want to send my special thanks to Rami Zebian and Annabelle Morton for helping me to order my thoughts for this article, Lynne Henkiel to stay always happy, funny, and engaged despite the missing luggage, and of course the great presentations of Adipat V. , Tejpaul Bhatia , Flavia Tata Nardini , Michael Lewrick, Ph.D, MBA , Steve Rader , Karen Florschütz and everyone else at last year's Ecosystems 2030 .

This is the Real Power of Opportunity!

Send me a DM for more information and the ticket application procedure.

About: Ecosystems 2030 is the premier interdisciplinary forum for top executives, senior engineers, thought leaders, innovators and futurists to explore the ecosystems emerging over the next 10 years from technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Systems, Fintech, 3-D Printing, Robotics and Virtual/Augmented Reality. In our second chapter of 10 conferences to be held across the next decade, we will focus on the upcoming opportunities and challenges these technologies present and offer important insights on how to transform your organization and remain relevant in the next decade.

About: Berny is an Ohio based space business advisor, currently working towards a PhD in Product Innovation and Spacecraft Reusability at Lule? University of Technology. His research aims to provide an alternative to spacecraft disposal. For this, he investigates how circular economy concepts in other industries can be applied in space, including mapping technical requirements to capture, disassemble, reuse, or remanufacture of spacecraft as well as the economic implications of spacecraft reuse. Berny is a strong advocate for multidisciplinary ecosystems, intercultural exchange, and cross-industry innovation.

Follow Ecosystems2030 here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/ecosystems2030

Follow Berny here: https://lnks.at/bernd-linkedin or https://lnks.at/bernd-twitter

Follow the Creaternity Space Lab here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/creaternityspacelab/

Learn more about my research: https://lnks.at/bernd-ltu-eng