Join business managers, practitioners, researchers and academics in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship, collaborative innovation and university-business interaction!

CONFERENCE TOPICS

"APInno"
Action Project for Innovation
Innovation
Entrepreneurship
Business-University Collaboration
The international conference "INNOVATION - CREATING THE FUTURE" will present the results of the Action Project for Innovation (APInno) under the EU ERASMUS+ Programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport.

The event will showcase the final results of a two-year project where international partners from the UK, Spain, Italy and Bulgaria had been working on developing an experiential learning methodology in the field of innovation management  for fostering the partnership between business and universities.
2014-1-BG01-KA203-001561
Please do keep in mind that the programme is subject to change.
Business leaders agree that the insufficient innovation and entrepreneurial culture is holding back Europe’s economic growth. In this respect innovation management is and will be the necessary tool for businesses to achieve higher competitiveness and better conditions for economic results.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

  • Business owners
  • Business professionals
  • Decision-makers
  • Academics
  • Researchers
  • Policy-makers
  • Students
  • Anyone interested in the topics of innovation and entrepreneurship
READ OUR BLOG PUBLICATIONS ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

SPEAKERS

Picture
  • Dr. Simon Best - Middlesex University, United Kingdom
Simon is a Senior Lecturer at Middlesex University Business School. He is the Programme Leader for the M.Sc. Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship and the Project Leader of EDH@MDX, the enterprise development hub. He is also the university lead for APInno and SBeA, two Erasmus funded projects. Alongside these roles Simon is a Teaching Fellow. Simon has been involved in entrepreneurship on a global scale. Over a period of 30 years he has started businesses in India, Viet Nam, Papua New Guinea and Australia. Simon has also been a consultant to small and medium businesses in Japan, Taiwan, India, South Africa and Viet Nam. More recently he has been delivering workshops and seminars in Hungary, USA and Viet Nam to emerging entrepreneurs.
Picture
  • Dr. Zuleika Beavan - Middlesex University, United Kingdom
Zuleika has more than two decades of experience in the creative industries and she was a senior lecturer in Arts Management at the Arts University Bournemouth, taught on the MA in Cultural Management at the University of Winchester and was a researcher in the Cultural Management Applied Research Group at the University of Greenwich. Drawing on her research focus of work in the music business, Zuleika's PhD was a longitudinal study of musician start-ups. She also has an interest in the effects of technology on the industry and is carrying out a Research Council-funded case study of a Kickstarter-supported album recording and release.
Picture
  • Raluca Pauna - Institute of Inventors and Innovators, South Africa
Raluca is the director of the Institute of Inventors and Innovators and EgoliBio incubator/SEDA in South Africa as well as the CEO of the Global Institute of Accelerating Innovation. Having started her career in Romania working at Government Ministerial Departments and at the Research Institute of Fine Mechanics and Instruments, Raluca took on an international career as a member of the EU Leadership Thinking Tank in Brussels and then onto TECHNONET AFRICA, a network for supporting Africa's entrepreneurs. She is qualified (Stanford, CA) to do Design Thinking sessions and focused training for emerging innovators and entrepreneurs such as Innovation Management, Technical Entrepreneurship, Strategic and Marketing Planning for Commercialisation of Innovation and applied Competitive Technical intelligence methodologies and tools. Raluca has also been an IBM International mentor for the IBM Global Entrepreneurship Programme since 2013 and was a judge in the panel of judges for the Innovation Summit Garage at Cape Town Competition 2014. At present she is also organizing 3D printing training using design thinking methodology in collaboration with VUT.
Picture
  • Prof. Andy Penaluna - University of Wales Trinity Saint David, United Kingdom
An international thought leader in developing enterprising creativity through education, Andy has advised Welsh Assembly and Westminster Governments and is an expert at the United Nations in Geneva. He has led discussions at the European Commission, developed teacher training for 8 countries in South East Europe, and was commissioned by the OECD to write international education policy guidance. Funded by the World Bank, he also led the development of what is believed to be the world’s first integrated (compulsory) school curriculum for innovation and entrepreneurship in Macedonia (FYROM).
Picture
  • Eduardo Díaz - Fundacion madri+d, Spain
Eduardo is currently in charge of the new technology-based firms unit at Fundacion madri+d. He is a former Innovation Manager consultant and university lecturer. Eduardo is an expert in the fields of startups, innovation, regional development, technology auditing, technology transfer and cluster policies and he also has technical and management experience in the electronics and aerospace sectors. Eduardo is coordinating regional, national and international programmes in the fields of Entrepreneurship, Startup Funding, Venture Mentoring and R&D Commercialisation including Innovation and Entrepreneurship studies and publications.
Picture
  • Prof. Dimo Dimov - University of Bath, United Kingdom
Dimo is a professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the School of Management, University of Bath. He has recently been recognised as one of the 100 leading entrepreneurship professors for 2015. Prior to joining the University of Bath, in 2012, Dimo was on the Entrepreneurship faculty at Newcastle University, on the Management faculty at University of Connecticut and on the Entrepreneurship faculty at IE Business School in Madrid, Spain. Prior to entering academia, he enjoyed a career in the hospitality industry with Marriott International and was a finance director for two hotel businesses in Budapest, Hungary.


VIEW MORE SPEAKERS

 DISCUSSION PANELS & GAMES

Innovation in Education
  • Estíbaliz Hernandez - Mondragón University, Spain
  • Pilar Tovar - Demola / Fondo Formación Euskadi, Spain
  • Magda Ropotan - Ropotan Consulting, Romania
Education in Innovation
  • Ruslan Papazyan - Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, Bulgaria
  • Steve Stott - MBS Pty Ltd., United Kingdom
  • Svetlana Lomeva - Sofia Development Association, Bulgaria
READ BIOS OF THE DISCUSSION PANEL SPEAKERS
The APInno project aims at fostering business–university collaboration as one of the key factors enhancing the innovation culture in organisations. The project partners followed an innovative approach, developed and tested a new model and methodology for new skills and knowledge development in the field of systematic management of the innovation process. Moreover, a flexible and holistic model for successful partnership between companies and universities has been developed. Its further use and implementation could help organisations be more innovative and successful.

PROJECT PARTNERS

21 NOVEMBER 2016
Start: 9:45am
Finish: 5:00pm

Registration at the event starts at 9:00
Inter Expo Center Sofia, Musala Hall, blvd. "Tsarigradsko shose" 147
1784 Sofia, Bulgaria.
REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED!