"Create, Design, Innovate" - Enhancing Business Performance

Industrial Symposium: 21 & 22 September 2006, Downing College, Cambridge, UK

Download pdf file version of the flyer for this event (includes booking form)

Background to the Symposium

Organised by the University of Cambridge Centre for Technology Management, this annual two day Symposium, now in its twelfth year, is a firm fixture for those at the forefront of new ideas and practical application in the field. Aimed principally at an audience of senior technology and innovation managers from companies of all sizes, it draws on leading practice and research to address the current key issues in an international context.

This years theme: Create, Design, Innovate

Businesses must continuously innovate to bring new products, business models and processes to market. The importance of innovation to both firms and the wider economy was recently highlighted in the Chancellor's Pre-budget Report (5th Dec 2005); "the UK's economic success will depend on its ability to create new knowledge and translate it into innovative goods and services". Indeed, Innovation is widely viewed as one of the key drivers for sustained economic growth.

If innovation involves the exploitation of new ideas, then an organisation's creativity is the engine room in which those ideas are generated. Firms are increasingly paying attention to their culture, processes, management style and approach to solving problems to ensure that the creative spark is given every chance to fire.

In his report to the Chancellor, Sir George Cox, Chairman of the Design Council, described design as linking creativity and innovation to shape "ideas to become practical and attractive propositions for users or customers". There is also growing evidence that those firms that take a wider view of design are being successful in the market place. Considered strategically, design issues should encompass all internal and external communications, products and environments in a coherent manner.

The Symposium will explore these issues from the perspective of managers in small and large firms. This will include provocative examples from practice and recent research, along with guidance on how to implement new approaches. It will also consider how governments might positively influence innovation, design and creativity.