Be innovative and future-proof

Shortly before the start of the first Innovation Gym workshop, a two-hour introductory workshop took place on 26 January. Due to the current Corona situation, the innovation experts Laura Krawietz and Tassilo Bossmann from launchlabs Berlin, together with our project managers Kevin and Sebastian, converted the entire workshop series into a digital format. All participants could be connected in advance without any technical problems and were excited and motivated about what to expect in the next two hours and weeks. At the beginning, the main aim of this session was to introduce the tools that will nevertheless create an exciting and interactive cooperation and learning experience over the next few weeks. The familiar Microsoft Teams will be supplemented in the workshop sessions by creative work with the visualisation tool Mural as well as the chat programme Slack for exchanging ideas with each other. The first exercises for an even understanding were combined with the introduction of the participants and their companies and organisations. Wishes and expectations for the new workshop format were asked as well as the individual's goals for the workshop series. In addition to the idea of networking, which was mentioned by all as immensely important and which is an important milestone for the future innovator community, the implementation of the innovation process in the respective companies and organisations, the learning of new tools and approaches, the development of new products and business models as well as the raison d'être and future viability in constantly changing and increasingly digitalised markets are the main focus for the participants.

Strengthened with a lot of euphoria and anticipation as well as a similar attitude of expectation, the first full-day workshop on the topic of megatrends started on Friday after getting to know each other. The 30 or so participants were also given a short outlook and a homework assignment.