Corporate Innovation Invite-only Summit

In a dynamic and fast-changing world today’s major corporations must continually challenge themselves to adapt and thrive. This roundtable discussion brings together corporate leaders, change agents and tech innovators to explore the opportunities and challenges of incorporating innovative tech to make transformation and often highly disruptive change.

Leaders in corporate innovation must be constantly attuned to new developments in deeptech which can deliver new capabilities. They must match these emerging capabilities to their business’ core activities and customer needs and they have to decide how to harness and combine research and engineering through partnerships, investments or internal R&D. All of this amidst competing demand for resources and talent within their own corporations.

This invite-only session offers an exclusive forum to mix with other global leaders in corporate innovation to exchange experience and insights about how we tackle these issues to provide the future growth engine for our businesses. The event will be a mix of hearing from some of the leading lights in corporate innovation, mixing with peers over focussed business roundtables and relaxing together over drinks to build new senior relationships.

Agenda  

4.00pm – Arrival and networking  

• Build relationships and share insights with peers in similar ‘senior innovator’ roles in an initial drinks and networking session.   

4.20pm – Welcome to the Corporate Innovators Summit  

• Tim Ensor, EVP & General Manager – Intelligent Services, Cambridge Consultants   

• Tim Passingham, Chairman, Cambridge Management Consulting  

4.30pm – Spot that opportunity! – panel and group discussion  

• One of the most important aspects of innovation is having the ability to successfully match emerging technology advances with your own business goals. This session will spark discussion on how best to navigate the tech landscape and find that big opportunity. Led by Alexandra Rehak, Head of Industrial & Energy Innovation at Cambridge Consultants, the session will start with a panel before evolving to a wider group discussion. The initial panel includes:   

• Alex Harvey, Chief Engineering Officer at Ocado Technology 

• Howard Watson, Chief Security and Networks Officer, BT   

• Paul Williamson, SVP, General Manager, IoT Line of Business at Arm 

5.10pm – Turn concepts into business growth – panel and group discussion  

• There’s a long and challenging road from “big idea” to creating a new business. This session, led by Tim Passingham, will follow a similar format as the first, starting with a panel, before opening to a group discussion. The group will share insights, experiences and various approaches that can be taken to turn concepts into business growth, covering IP creation and skills development, to cultural change and go-to-market strategies. The initial panel includes:  

• Tom Donaldson, SVP, Creative Play Lab, The LEGO Group    

• OP Skaaksrud, VP Operations Technology Innovation, FedEx Services 

• Petrina Steele, Global Head of Emerging Technologies, Equinix  

6:00 – 9:00pm: Deep Tech Drinks Reception and Dinner in the iconic dining hall of Pembroke, one of the oldest colleges in Cambridge.