Bidiversity

There are some great sources of information about innovation online, and the increase of platforms like blogs and Twitter. This article, about what is happening in Germany comes from Stephan Lindegaard. 

The BMW Group has launched the Co-Creation Lab, which is a virtual meeting place for individuals interested in car related topics, eager to share their ideas and opinions on tomorrow’s automotive world with one of the leading car manufacturers.

Their first initiative is the BMW Group Idea Contest in which you can share your ideas for innovative mobility services in cities and metropolitan areas of the future. You get the opportunity to discuss and evaluate the ideas of others and win great prizes. By the way, the great prizes are not really that great, but perhaps real great prizes will just attract lots of junk ideas. Perhaps quality input comes from people who care more about kudos and recognition?

After a well-executed campaign, 3M in Austria and Switzerland launched the Zukunft Innovation initiative; a German-language platform that helps companies – not just 3M –get in touch with creative minds who want to help solve problems.

I like how 3M promoted the initiative through frequent pre-launch updates and a short video that demonstrated the initiative. This is another example that communication efforts are becoming increasingly important on innovation initiatives.

I can’t help notice that German-speaking countries seem to have many interesting open innovation-like initiatives. I look forward to visiting Germany soon in order to learn more. One company to visit will definitely be HYVE that pointed me to the BMW initiatives as well as other initiatives in the past.