Periodic Reporting for period 1 - IndTech 2022 (EUROPEAN EVENT ON INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES - INDTECH 2022)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-03-01 al 2022-11-30
The overall objective of the project was to execute IndTech 2022 as a high level conference that brings together stakeholders from research, industry, students, policy makers and the general public to present and debate the most pressing issues facing innovators today. The goal was to position IndTech 2022 as one of the most well-known events targeting the European research landscape of industrial innovation. IndTech also sought to provide the most important showcase of technological developments stemming from projects financed by the European Commission’s research framework programs. Helping to ensure that these R&I activities may be translated into sustainable products and services addressing societal challenges was a major priority for the organizers as they should provide a boost to industrial innovation. The conference also targeted younger generations of future innovators by providing a forum to network and build future projects to address upcoming challenges.
The primary venue was envisioned to be easily accessible from the Grenoble train station and with enough capacity to accept at least 800 people. The venue also needed to be compatible with a hybrid or full digital event, in case the Covid situation required a switch away from a person-to-person event. The selected main conference site was the Maison Minatec in Grenoble.
Early in the project, a Steering Committee brought together all of the required skills to respond to the requirements of the project. Continuous interaction with the various stakeholders, including the European Commission and the French ministries, provided the validation loops required for moving forward at each critical step in the process. The nomination of recognized experts to the Advisory Board provided high-level visibility for identifying speakers and putting together attractive sessions.
One of the main challenges in the speaker selection process was to respect equality of gender, diversity of nationality and provide a good mix of research, education, policy makers and industry leaders in each session. The iterations of the selection process took significantly more time than originally expected, but the result turned out to be highly rewarding with an excellent and diverse panel. The final selection produced an agenda with 93 speakers and chairs, of which 48% were women, across 3 plenary and 16 parallel sessions.
Promotion of the event was critical for achieving a high number of attendees and extensive exhibitors in the networking area. Links with the Commission website and existing industrial associations such as EMIRI, EFFRA, A.SPIRE ECP4, Polymeris and others were instrumental in relaying the announcements and promoting the event. The visibility of the event on the partners’ websites, each having its own followers, was one of the most essential elements of the event marketing and made it possible to draw participants from many countries and affiliations.
The contribution of event partners to the social media attention was also important, where exhibitors presented their stands and welcomed their followers to visit them, speakers announced their engagement in the sessions, and participants who simply reported their presence at the event for their network to see. The best measure of a successful event can be derived from the comments of the participants.
A calculation of the carbon footprint of the event estimated that the event generated 183 tons of CO2, of which 80% were related to participant transportation to and from the event.
The impact of current and future research programs financed by the European Commission were highlighted during the plenary and parallel sessions, and further supported by the presentation of results in the exhibition area, particularly in the villages. The discussion and debate provided keen insight into the challenges faced by industry in navigating the green and digital transitions.