The 3rd edition of the Luxembourg Cluster Forum, organised by Luxinnovation at Utopolis in Kirchberg on Wednesday, was very well attended and highlighted the major achievements and progress of on-going projects of the various clusters as well as outlined plans for 2017 as it encouraged cross sector innovation and collaboration.
The host for the evening was Laurent Federspiel, Director Sector Development & Cluster Initiative for Luxinnovation. During the evening, he introduced both Luxinnovation’s new event app which, in addition to centralising all the information for events, allows the audience to participate in interactive surveys. Laurent also showed the audience, made up of cluster members as well as people from various industries in the country, Luxinnovation’s new online Luxembourg Cluster Catalogue which will allow members more visibility for their businesses.
Invited speaker, Laurent Probst, Partner, Economic Development & Innovation leader at PwC, gave the opening address which focussed on the EU Gateway Programme, an initiative funded by the European Union which offers opportunities and helps European companies establish business collaborations in Asia.
Keynote speaker, Ramon Vullings, speaker, author and cross-industry expert, was a perfect fit for the event, as it is the stated aim of the Luxembourg Cluster Initiative to encourage innovation, business development and cross-sector cooperation to strengthen the competitiveness of its members. Ramon gave a well-received talk on “Remixing your business – Cross Industry Innovation”, which became the overriding theme for the rest of the evening.
This rousing talk, where everyone was encouraged to look outside of their professions and industries for new ideas, was followed by the annual presentation from each of the cluster managers on the key actions of Cluster Programme 2017.
One of the unique and innovative features of this year’s cluster presentations was that students from the Lycée de Garçons d'Esch-sur-Alzette were asked to create the videos for the individual clusters rather than have them done by professionals. The students were allowed almost total freedom with which to film and they did a fantastic job, and they did this work in their spare time. The crowd gave the boys who attended the ClusterForum 2016 an enthusiastic applause and Luxinnovation thanked them for this extra-curricular effort – something one finds at the very heart of entrepreneurship.
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The evening was concluded with a lively networking cocktail.
