If intrapreneurship is the answer – what is the question? This is the line that sums up the Intrapreneurship Conference that took place Friday, the 2nd of december 2011 in the Brussels Hub.
Gathering 10 speakers from different business fields, the conference aimed to explore new ways of creating and leading innovation in organisations, through the use of an entrepreneurship mind set for the employees (Intrapreneurship is the act of behaving like an entrepreneur within a larger organization).
Starting from the premise that innovation in companies has become rigid and that change is becoming more and more the norm and not the exception, a series of study cases were presented by the speakers of the conference.
From the principles that Google is using to foster innovation to the way innovation and sustainable development is combined by EXKI, from how Alcatel-Lucent are using innovation and entrepreneurship as vectors of transformation to how intrapreneurship models have been designed by consultancies, the conference also tackled subjects such as obstacles and enablers for intrapreneurship, how social networking can support intrapreneurship or how can intrapreneurs be supported by the HR departments. More about the content discussion, you can read on Bogdan’s blog and in future posts here (or follow #intrapreneurcnf on Twitter).
An early Christmas present to myself, I have never expected the conference to have such an impact on the participants – and yes, I mean myself. I have to admit that it has been a while since I took part in a conference in which to find so much new and interesting information, presented in an easily digestible way and with plenty of practical ideas.
It has been a while since I took part in an event that had so much to offer, not only in terms of content, but also in terms of the amazing people that I met – thank you!
PS. Because innovation means change – everything discussed there was directly related to my current activities. It also reminded me about a short Connie Podesta clip that I always loved: a three words workshop on change: Change – Deal with it!