The first ‘Green Symposium’ was held recently in Bangor, Gwynedd with 28 experts from the green sector sharing their ideas and thinking. During the day they worked to generate ideas for new products and services, exploring the potential of new ‘green’ business opportunities supported by digital technology.
The symposium was hosted by Inventorium and in association with the Green Innovation Future Technologies (GIFT) project. To start the day there were presentations for industry experts in the key GIFT focus areas of green tourism, green technology, waste management and the knowledge economy, with presentations forming the focus for the rest of the day.
The next part of the day saw small groups exploring ideas for ‘green’ businesses, and these were then presented back to the rest of the delegates at the end of the afternoon.
The ideas that were generated were as follows:
- E-Collect Wales – annual electronic collection day
- Hotel Waste – recycling the food from hotels
- Future Fuel – recycling of farm waste into bio fuels
- Re-Source Wales – using resources or co-products from one company as raw materials in another
- Veggie Share – a web supported vegetable growing community
“We work with start-ups, existing businesses, social enterprises, institutions and individuals who want to make innovative ideas into profitable ones. We need mechanisms for expert knowledge sharing; companies need technical and market place expertise to create new business streams – Inventorium offers the platform to exploit this expertise and develop new business models. Our ‘Green Symposium’ delegates explored new ideas for businesses in their green sectors using the advantages of digital technology. We hope we can take the business ideas from the day onto the next stage,” says Caroline Thompson, Business Liaison Manager for the Inventorium project.
The Inventorium team are now looking for SME’s and innovators to attend a one day festival on Wednesday 23 November at Tŷ Menai, Parc Menai, Bangor. Speaking at the event ‘Innovation in a Small Nation’ will be John Thackara described by McKinsey Quarterly as ‘a global expert on innovation and the green economy’, Walter May founder of the LinkedIn Groups ‘Welsh Entrepreneurs’ and ‘Mentors for Welsh Entrepreneurs’, Garrick Jones, London School of Economics and Political Science and Professor Sian Hope, Bangor Univeristy/Pontio.
“The object of the day is to think, innovate and take action to build new businesses. The day is suitable for innovators from the private sector, public sector and universities,” said Caroline.
Register for the Innovation day at www.inventorium.org or call 01248 675 013 to find out more.
Inventorium is funded by the Economic European Union’s Ireland Wales Interreg IVA programme. The GIFT project is funded by the Economic Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg IVA programme.
