Conference smoothes the road to innovation

The 2008 Innovation Conference – organised by Cranfield School of Management and the magazines Eureka and New Electronics – will take place on 14 May 2008 at the Woodland Grange Hotel in Leamington Spa. It aims to help design-led companies embrace innovation and use it to improve performance. At the event, proven innovators – including Innovation & Design Excellence Award winners Altro and Crowcon – will share their insight and experience to help delegates negotiate the road to an innovation culture. Other topics on the agenda include open innovation, improving new product development and innovative design techniques. Altro will explain how it regained its leadership in safety flooring – and met challenging new sales targets – by introducing an innovation culture, while Crowcon details how it exploited its electronics platform technology to boost sales from new products. There is also a chance for delegates to hone their entries to next year’s Innovation & Design Excellence Awards – by talking directly to members of the judging panel. A new feature of the event – interactive workshops – will guide delegates through key concepts in innovative design, while Professor Keith Goffin of Cranfield School of Management (pictured) illustrates the challenge of creating an innovative organisation using several case studies. For more details on the 2008 conference, contact Maggie Bridge at Cranfield or Kerry Wilkins at Findlay Publications.