Your 2-day corporate innovation intensive.

If you have innovation in your title, this is your tribe.

Join a curated group of 250+ corporate innovators from across industries and from all over the Americas for two full days of in-depth conversations, relevant connections and quality content.

✅ You'll dive into best and next practices on strategy and governance, culture and capabilites, intrapreneurship, venture building and open innovation and much more.

✅ Also, you'll hear from 20+ cross-industry innovation leaders the ins and outs of their approach (and lessons learned along the way). Plus, you'll meet and mingle with local innovators during field trips exploring the local ecosystem.

✅ Most importantly, the program is designed for you to work on any topic or get feedback on any challenge that's on top of your list, guided by experts and supported by peers. You'll have in-depth conversations with a select group of other innovation leaders and do-ers who speak the same language, and establish relevant connections that you actually want to follow up with after the conference.

This is not just another conference, where you'll be forced to listen to talking heads on stage all day long. At Innov8rs conferences, you'll actively engage and actually learn, so you'll leave with actionable insights to implement.

APPLY TO JOIN

Work with the best.

A first overview of innovation leaders and experts confirmed. More coming soon... stay tuned!

The agenda.


Get a glimpse of what your two days will look like... No worries, you'll get a detailed agenda and instructions for RSVPing of the sessions of your choice in due time.

Wednesday, April 10th

9am-10:15am PDT

Opening / Peer Pods


Connect with other participants and talk about relevant trends and topics... A great way to meet others with similar interests.

10:15am-11:45am PDT

Trending Topic Talks


Hear from subject matter experts what's working now and what's coming next for corporate innovators across industries.

AI Is Eating the World: Time to Innovate for a AI-First World

Generative AI is now the fastest growing technology in the world. In this riveting keynote, world-renowned futurist and eight-time best-selling author Brian Solis shares why now is the time to reimagine your business for an entirely new future. Solis argues why automation is the norm, not a goal.

In this session he demonstrates how augmentation becomes the key to differentiation for enterprises that are at the inflection point of thriving or perishing in the age of AI. With the mind shift that this session will initiate, leaders will be able to unlock a new future toward becoming an exponential business.


Brian Solis

Author & Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow

Building a Capability for Strategic Innovation: Is it Worth the Effort?

Leaders demand to know the Return on Investment of any strategic initiative, and building a Strategic Innovation capability is no exception. Yet evidence has been accumulating that demonstrates, without a doubt, the benefit of developing and institutionalizing a Strategic Innovation capability.

Professor Gina O'Connor will showcase research findings, case studies, and industry benchmarks that quantify the tangible benefits of a well-developed innovation capability.

Gain insights into how to effectively advocate for long-term innovation within your organization and convince stakeholders of its financial merit.


Gina O'Connor

Professor of Innovation Management at Babson College

Unlocking Growth Starts with a Mindset Shift for Corporate Leaders

Growth is existential. Finding new growth is essential. The key? Venture driven growth.

In this keynote, learn how to build a growth engine. Understand the necessity of developing a growth mindset internally and how to leverage the 'Mothership' advantage.


Ed Ross

COO at Mach49

11:45am-12:30pm PDT

Enlightening Exchange


How Corporations can be Catalysts for Energizing Regional Innovation Ecosystems

Innovation leaders from City National Bank, Kaiser Permanente, and Edwards Life Sciences discuss how they effectively stimulate regional innovation while also advancing corporate innovation agendas through direct engagement with startups and researchers.

Learn how tapping into early stage ventures and breakthrough research from leading universities significantly enhances their talent pipeline and creates a more vibrant and sustainable innovation ecosystem in Southern California.

This session will provide concrete examples and strategies for building these vital relationships, offering attendees a roadmap for successful collaboration between corporations, startups, and academic institutions.


Andy Wilson, Greg Smith, Farzad Azimpour & Tadashi Funahashi

Executive Director at Alliance for Southern California Innovation | SVP, Digital Banking - Banc of California | Senior Vice President, Advanced Tech at Edwards Lifesciences | Chief Innovation Officer at Kaiser Permanente

12:30pm - 1:30pm PDT

Networking Lunch


Good food, great conversations... or maybe a short stroll outside?

1:30pm - 3:30pm PDT

Innovators Insights


Ready for some stories from the trenches? Hear first-hand from cross-industry innovation leaders about their approach and lessons learned, so you can compare notes and benchmark your performance.

Of course, there's ample time for Q&A and discussions so you can understand what you might consider tweaking in your approach.

Disruptive Collaboration at Goodyear

Change happens every day. The transportation, automotive and tire industries are not immune to the disruptions and opportunities emerging with new mobility trends, technologies and business models. These developments are driving organizations to rethink how they operate, and the skills and mindsets needed to be successful.

During this session, Erin will highlight the benefits of external networks, how to build thriving partnerships and how these relationships can help solve big problems, from early stage to scaling, and all the challenges in-between.

Hear how Goodyear has successfully expanded its network and made significant strides towards solving big problems like addressing the company’s ambitious carbon emission goals with sustainable materials and enhancing the vehicle’s connection to the road with “smarter” tires.


Erin Spring

Senior Director, Materials Science at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company

Recipe to Engage Employees and Generate High Value Innovation Ideas

Innovation starts with ideas born from the need to solve business issues, before they get selected and join the PPM (Project Portfolio Management) process.

Laurence will share how to overcome challenges, and the recipe to create outstanding engagement and generate high value ideas.


Laurence Halimi Cige

Customer Insights and Global Innovation Lead at Johnson & Johnson

Foresight, Venture Client Unit and Soft Power: The Future of R&D in a Brave New AI Era

In this session, Catherine will share perspectives on how to align leadership teams, from the executives to R&D, in a highly volatile and uncertain world, shifting R&D strategy from a linear and static value chain to a dynamic and distributed ecosystem offering a new form of soft power in support long-term growth, resilient supply chain and access to talent.

Among other topics, the discussion will cover
- Strategic foresight & behavioural insights for resilient innovation in some of the oldest industries, aerospace & defense
- Stories and lessons learned from deploying a venture client unit in the mid of AI and the rise of digital sovereignty.
- The future of R&D is distributed, combining hard and soft power in the new era of AI.


Catherine Roy

Design Centers Network Leader at Thales

Breaking Boundaries: Cultivating Innovation in Big Healthcare Organizations

Learn how a large healthcare system is building a culture of innovation, supporting innovation from its employees, and forging strategic partnerships to develop and bring products to market.


Kip McCoy

Vice President - Innovation Studio at OSF HealthCare

The Unique Attributes of the lululemon Innovation Structure Driving Success

Hear from Chantelle the unique attributes of the innovation structure, driving success at lululemon. She will highlight:
- how their structure links and integrates a service model for the business
- Innovation priorities that span incremental business drivers and create space and opportunity for upstream innovation that remains intimately linked to (or adjacent) to the core business and growth drivers
- their “ideas come from anywhere” model creating an invitation to participate in innovation from all seats in the organization
- their framework for success and clear identification of the value proposition and return on investment of an innovation


Chantelle Murnaghan

VP Research and Product Innovation at lululemon

Supply Chain of the Future

Multinational companies approach innovation from multiple angles, ranging from innovation labs and centers of excellence to tasking each functional unit with keeping a pulse on the latest technologies impacting their part of the business.

This session will focus on PepsiCo's unique approaches to identifying, testing and scaling the latest innovative technologies and business models.


Anna Farberov

General Manager, PepsiCo Labs at PepsiCo

Building $1 Billion Business Units for a Global Corporation

Join William Barkis, Director and Head of Ecosystem and Grand Challenges as he shares insights into the journey of building high-valuation business ventures for LG Electronics, a global leader in smart home solutions. LG Electronics’ North America Innovation Arm, LG NOVA, is re-envisioning corporate collaboration with startups by creating a unique methodology for launching new corporate ventures - as corporate startups with the backing of an innovation ecosystem from investors and government partnerships to corporates and other partners.

Learn about successes, setbacks, challenges, and opportunities encountered in innovation. Throughout the session, gain insights on attracting startups, entering new markets, navigating governance and decision-making, engaging external investors, finding strategic partnerships and more.


Will Barkis

Head of Grand Challenges & Ecosystem Development at LG NOVA & Director, Technical Business Development at LG

Navigating Challenges to Success at the Maersk Innovation Center

Join Kseniia Poiarkina from Maersk Innovation Center Talk to delve into the journey of overcoming huddles to achieve success.

Explore the challenges they faced, from resource constraints to technological complexities, and the innovation strategies they employed to surmount them. Discover firsthand the resilience, collaboration, and creative problem-solving that drove their progress forward.


Kseniia Poiarkina

Product Innovation Manager at Maersk

Academic-Corporate Partnerships: Driving a Win-Win for Everyone

The United States is the world’s leading economy, in large part due to the strength of its research, industry and investment communities. Our economy is most competitive when those 3 sectors are aligned around common outcomes. How then do we build partnerships that drive wins for everyone- particularly the product users and patients?

We, collectively, tend to treat innovation as a linear exercise- each sector working in semi-isolation and handing off technologies to the next, when apparent opportunities arise.

This is the most ineffective form of innovation. It should be a continuous conversation between market needs, product development capabilities and creative solutions. Paul will share a few case studies of partnerships that try to remove the linear from innovation.


Paul Roben Ph.D.

Associate Vice Chancellor of the Office of Innovation and Commercialization at UC San Diego

Bridge the Culture Gap Between Your Venture Team and the Mothership through Values Alignment

Working with the core business can be both a blessing and a curse for a venture team. How do you help your venture team to work efficiently and harmoniously with the people from the core business, without sacrificing innovation and agility?

One way to bridge the gap and create common ground when your venture team and the core collaborate is to align on values and expectations for feedback. Feedback is crucial for learning, improving, and innovating, but it can also be difficult and uncomfortable to give and receive. Different people may have different styles, preferences, and assumptions about feedback, which can cause misunderstanding, frustration, and resentment.

Jeannine will share a simple method for establishing common ground and for creating a shared understanding and expectation of a feedback culture; a culture that specifically fosters a growth mindset and the entrepreneurial behaviors your innovation team promotes.


Jeannine Walsh

Head of New Ventures at Beca

Getting Innovation Impact from Strategic Technology Intelligence

The acceleration and diffusion of technology means that companies must have mature technology intelligence capabilities. Innovation practitioners and technology scouts are routinely charged with providing technology intelligence, but these efforts often fail to get the desired impact.

Poor strategic alignment, lack of processes to explore future opportunities, and ineffective intelligence gathering are just a few of the failures that diminish the innovation impact of technology intelligence.

Through case studies drawn from dozens of client projects we will share best practices for building technology intelligence strategies and functions that help companies to inform and inspire innovating from fuzzy-front end explorations through to downstream execution.


Tom Culver

Senior Innovation Advisor at RTI International

4pm - 5pm PDT

Enlightening Exchanges


Pick from several un-conference style sessions. Prefer an in-depth discussion, more active co-creation session or an inspiring talk? You choose the topic and format for a energizing end of day 1.

Corporate Exploring in the Age of AI: Building New Ventures in Established Companies

Get an insider’s look at how to convert customer insights into thriving, profitable ventures in the age of AI. Strategy advisor and author Andrew Binns will share insights from his latest book “Corporate Explorer Fieldbook” and lead a discussion with the innovators that are making this happen inside corporations today.

Session participants will learn:
• How to develop scalable business ideas that open new areas of growth
• How to overcome internal resistance to build a coalition of support inside the enterprise
• How to navigate the pain points and pitfalls of corporate venturing; and
• How innovators are building value propositions based on AI

Join us for this opportunity to learn from leaders who have been there, done that, and gain practical insights you can apply immediately to your own efforts.


Andrew Binns, Yoky Matsuoka, Yusuf Jamal & Balaji Bondili

Director and Co-Founder at Change Logic & Co-Author of Corporate Explorer | CEO at PanasonicWELL | Senior Vice President at Skyworks Inc. | Former Partner at Deloitte Pixel

CxO Whisperer - How to Bend the C-Suite to Your Will

Many companies struggle to capture the gains of their innovation strategies and R&D investments because they don't go 'far enough' in the pursuit of non-core business opportunities.

In this session, Paul discusses the role of leadership in reframing company assets and business processes to match the requirements of the new business model through a process called Deconstruction-Reconstruction.

Corporate executives and innovation leaders use the Deconstruction-Reconstruction process to disassemble a company's current business model and reassemble it to pursue a new business. Innovation leaders learn which functions and processes create unnecessary barriers to business creation, with specific examples from Paul's journey that include examples in Finance, HR, Supply Chain, Go-to-market, and much more.

Specific tools, like CFO Whisperer, list exactly the jobs to be done by Finance that accelerate growth.


Paul Campbell

Principal at Start-Up Genie, LLC

Building a Capability for Strategic Innovation: Is it Worth the Effort?

Leaders often view innovation as an expense with uncertain returns. This session challenges that perception.

Building on the concrete evidence presented in her morning keynote talk, Professor O’Connor will facilitate discussion among participants to consider the best ways to use the evidence to build support for investing to build a Strategic Innovation capability.

In addition, Professor O’Connor will offer a useful system for setting realistic objectives and metrics, gaining alignment and commitment to them, and measuring progress against them.


Gina O'Connor

Professor of Innovation Management at Babson College

5pm - 7pm PDT

Networking Drinks


After the sessions is when the real talk starts typically... Join for drinks and mingle with other participants - outside!

Thursday, April 11th

8:30am - 9:30am PDT

Enlightening Exchanges


Pick from several un-conference style sessions. Prefer an in-depth discussion, more active co-creation session or an inspiring talk? You choose the topic and format for a fresh start of day 2.

Beyond the Hype: A CPG Company Experiments with AI to Drive Growth

How does a leading CPG beverage company leverage AI for innovation? In this fireside chat, Rachel Gordon, a growth & innovation advisor at Triple Agent will interview Nate Mahan, an experienced tech and innovation leader who has kicked off this journey in his organization.

Nate will share how he approached introducing AI into the innovation agenda and how he has engaged stakeholders in this effort, identified and prioritized potential use cases in the business, and launched proof of concepts.

We will also talk about the unique challenges of this work in CPG and how to set up systems and structures within the enterprise to enable AI experimentation to flourish.


Rachel Gordon & Nate Mahan

Founder at Triple Agent | Technology Innovation Manager at a Leading Energy Drink Brand

Driving Leadership Alignment on Innovation

In this session, Alasdair will share perspectives on how to align leadership teams on the need for innovation, shifting innovation from a “nice to have” to an essential component of the long-term growth strategy for an organization.

Among other topics, the discussion will cover
- Tools and techniques to help shape a consensus perspective on the future environment
- How to reframe innovation in the language of the CEO and CFO
- An interactive exercise to ensure you walk away from the session ready (and comfortable) to use these tools


Alasdair Trotter

National Managing Principal, Growth Advisory at Grant Thornton

How to Bet on Open Innovation

You know open innovation is critical, but resources are limited and there are so many options! Should you be running an accelerator? Setting up a Corporate Venture Capital Arm? Running proof of concept projects? Partnering with peers or universities? What's a venture studio anyway?

In this highly interactive workshop, you and fellow innovators will test your firm's requirements against the opportunities offered by each type of partnership engine. You'll walk away knowing which engine (or engines!) your firm should pursue, and new instincts for what kinds of partnership make sense.


Diana Joseph

CEO at Corporate Accelerator Forum

9:45am - 1:15pm PDT

Workshops


Roll up your sleeves and get to work in these interactive sessions focused mostly on application and implementation. You pick the sessions covering the topic you're keen to dive into.

AI-Powered Venture Building

In this session, Sean will unpack powerful lessons and insights that the team at U+ has learned in the past 14+ years of building and launching 100+ new ventures inside large organizations, while delivering $2B in value for Fortune 2000s.

In today's dynamic market, innovation remains the key to growth and market resilience. However, a staggering 95% of innovations fail. Find out how leading-edge companies leverage AI to unlock a 5x larger venture idea funnel and make 2x more astute choices.

Discover the crucial need to gather a group of initial customers who not only support your product but also become its biggest fans, speeding up the process of finding the right market. Instead of trying to sell, concentrate on finding early users who believe in your idea, giving you important feedback to make sure it's on the right track.


Sean Sheppard

Managing Partner Americas at U+

Innovation Accounting: When the CEO Questions Your ROI

We're launching new products. We've got a governance process. We're trying to disrupt ourselves. But how do we show ROI on innovation? Business plans are guesses, but the CEO isn't going to accept "I don't know" for an answer and the CFO is having a fit. We need to explain how our ideas can produce real returns.

This session is an interactive, live demo going from an idea to a financial or impact model. We'll calculate our odds of success and the probable outcome of the project. Then we'll compare two projects to make a pivot-or-persevere decision. Only then we can justify funding our project (and our innovation department).


Tristan Kromer

CEO and Founder at Kromatic

Securing Your Innovation Budget: Strategies for Thriving in Tight Economic Times

In the face of tightening budgets for innovation—highlighted by the recent public news of layoffs at IDEO, cutbacks at Google X, and the closure of Walmart's Store No. 8—there's a palpable shift in how companies approach their innovation strategies.

Amidst an environment of high interest rates and looming recession, the question arises: What are companies prioritizing when it comes to their growth budgets?

It's evident that many large organizations are channeling their investments towards reinforcing their core businesses and enhancing their brand equity, or seizing quick, value-driven opportunities that promise near-term revenue returns.

A pragmatic approach is becoming the norm. While fostering a culture of innovation remains crucial, businesses are exploring cost-effective means to disseminate this ethos. A notable example is Amazon's Isengard, an experimental platform that empowers employees to develop innovative products with the potential to evolve into standalone enterprises—a genesis story akin to that of AWS.

So, how can innovation functions meaningfully contribute to growth agendas without succumbing to superficial measures?

- Intrinsic Motivation Platforms: Create environments where employees can experiment and innovate based on internal motivations.
- Recognition and Rewards: Implement incentive programs that acknowledge innovative contributions.
- Prioritizing Impact Over Vanity Metrics: Focus on metrics that measure genuine progress, such as adoption rates and revenue impact.
- Business Expertise Leverage: Adopt a flexible 'rotating door' policy to integrate diverse business insights, akin to Walmart's Store 8 concept, but with a hybrid approach.

Growth and Innovation platforms will become normalized with the introduction of AI to accelerate test & learn capabilities. Join this workshop to learn how you can build yours.


June Barrage

Global Market Leader - US & Middle East at Disruptive Edge

What is a Venture Studio Anyway?

Everyone seems to be talking about venture studios. What is a venture studio? Should your company have one?

Come learn from High Alpha Innovation, the leading corporate venture builder, about what a venture studio is, what it is good for, and when venture building makes sense as an alternative or complement to CVC, M&A, partnerships, or traditional accelerator programs.

This session will address hot topics like:
- How to decide whether to build a venture internally or externally
- How to use venture building to unlock more innovation funding
- When to work with an external venture builder versus building alone
- How to recruit world-class founders to run new ventures
- How to get the governance, incentives, and deal structures right to dramatically dial up the success rate of new ventures
- Common failure modes to avoid


Elliott Parker

CEO at High Alpha Innovation

World Exclusive: FutureFit 2024 - The Results

In 2023, we began our corporate innovation benchmarking report – FutureFit.

The aim was simple: to conduct the largest-ever study dedicated to understanding what sets the best innovation teams apart from the rest based on insights from diverse geographies, industries and companies and to share the analysis with ambitious changemakers like you.

In this session, we'll give you an in-depth view of how successful innovation teams are run by revealing the latest performance benchmarks, including budget allocation, rewards & compensation, performance metrics and portfolio performance and look at commonalities in the challenges they face, their innovation strategies, top priorities and ways of working.

Join us to be the first in the world to hear and discuss the results, plus get exclusive access to a brilliant lineup of innovation icons taking part in our panel.

By attending, you will find out:

- What percentage of revenues do top-performing companies allocate to their innovation activities?
- How are the world's leading teams recognised and rewarded for their work in building new products and services?
- What significant obstacles have your peers overcome this year, and what do they foresee over the next 12 months?
- What are the key reasons that some companies outperform others when it comes to corporate innovation?
- What KPIs do leading companies use to measure, manage and improve their corporate innovation performance?
- Where are companies focusing their innovation efforts over the next twelve months, and what bets are they making?
- Why do some companies generate higher returns from their innovation investments than others?
- How are companies and teams organising to drive better outcomes, and what methodologies are they relying on?


Jacob Dutton

Co-Founder & CEO at Future Foundry & Creator of the Velocity™ Innovation Method.

Venture Building 2.0: Past Mistakes, New Principles & a Path to Delivering Meaningful Growth

From external accelerators to internal incubation programs and corporate venture capital funds, companies have invested billions in over-hyped innovation programs that have mostly failed to deliver tangible innovation outcomes.

Now, a new generation of Corporate Venture Building Models is overcoming past mistakes to provide a new set of principles, methodologies, and governance structures that are finally capable of delivering meaningful near-term growth.

This session will take a hard look at what it really takes to build high-impact ventures, addressing some of the most challenging questions innovation leaders face, such as:

- What are the fundamental principles of successful venture building?
- Is it really possible to build new ventures internally?
- What does a successful venture process really look like?
- How are successful ventures funded and governed?

Incorporating the fundamental principles into your growth innovation strategies and answering these questions can dramatically accelerate new ventures development and deliver more meaningful revenue growth.

If you want to move on from endless cycles of experimentation to in-market activations and from “valuable lessons” to tangible growth outcomes, this session is for you.


Jon Corshen

Co-founder / Chief Solution Strategist at Pilot44

Embedding Sustainability in Your Innovation Governance and Portfolio Management Approach

During this workshop, you will learn about how to establish sustainability as a part of your decision-making processes.

You will learn how companies are performing sustainability assessments throughout the product development lifecycle and how they are using such assessments to make better, more informed product
investment decisions.

You will also learn how they view and report their innovation portfolio from a sustainability perspective to demonstrate and validate alignment with company sustainability goals.


Paul Heller

Chief Evangelist at Sopheon

1:15-2:30pm PDT

Peer Pods Lunch


We'll meet again in small groups of peers to have lunch, and to reflect on learnings from the conference, identify next steps and align on actions.

2:30pm - 5pm PDT

Field Trips


Finally, here's your chance to explore the booming SoCal ecosystem. Hop on the bus to various innovation hubs and innovative places in and around the city, and meet with local innovators sharing their stories.


Several slots during both days

Showcase Sessions


Innovation teams need proper tools and support services to be successful at the speed and scale required. If you're curious to see in action some of the market's best tools/services currently available, join these demo sessions.

How Bold Ideas Get Told

Generative artificial intelligence is now a strategic imperative at Global 2000 enterprises – and product and innovation leaders are hunting for use cases that deploy it with responsibility and high impact.

Learn how Narratize is leading to 85% higher effectiveness and 73% increased accuracy in innovation communications and storytelling among R&D, innovation, product, and marketing teams across the world's most innovative industries.


Katie Taylor, Ph.D.

CEO at Narratize

Results From Deploying 100x faster GenAI Venture Building process in Fortune500s

Are you ready to take your innovation to the next level?

U+ Digital Ventures is introducing FifthRow, the cutting-edge GenAI Innovation Operations platform backed by 14 years of expertise. Join us for a demo session, and unlock the potential of FifthRow.

Learn how it revolutionizes the process of research, discovery, validation, and market testing for ventures. With FifthRow, you can identify and test top solutions for any company, in any market, all at a remarkable 10x faster pace—from Intent to Viable New Venture.


Sean Sheppard

Managing Partner Americas at U+

Future Foundry: Accelerating, De-Risking and Systematizing Growth

There has probably never been a better time to grow.

A world of emerging customer needs, blurred competitive boundaries, and disruptive new technologies have created an abundance of opportunity. But, while 84% of CEOs say that innovation is critical to their growth strategy, only 6% of them are satisfied with their organisation’s innovation performance.

The most common blockers are:
- Speed: There simply aren’t enough resources dedicated to discovering and validating new ventures, products and services.
- Risk: While Design Thinking, Lean Startup and Agile are understood at a theoretical level - corporate muscle memory snaps back to waterfall.
- Complexity: Navigating convoluted internal systems, policies, and procedures hampers would-be changemakers.

Future Foundry solves this by giving big companies a superpower - the ability to accelerate, de-risk and systematise the development of breakthrough products and services using the discovery and validation methods of Silicon Valley.

Over the last three years, we've launched over 100 ventures, unlocked $15bn in growth and generated a 300x ROI for clients like Hilton, Walgreens, Experian, Reckitt and Microsoft. The key to our success is our Velocity™ method that distils decades’ worth of venture building down into a systematic, scalable and repeatable way to identify, validate and scale new ventures.

Join us for this 45 minute Demo Showcase to find out how Future Foundry is powering innovation at the world’s leading companies and helping them to:
- Inject more pace into their innovation efforts through proven 2-week sprints.
- Manage risk by gradually increasing investment and experiment fidelity as evidence strength increases.
- Achieve a 90% hit rate for new propositions versus a current average of just 10%.


Jacob Dutton

Co-Founder & CEO at Future Foundry & Creator of the Velocity™ Innovation Method.

AI-Powered Venture Building: Growth On Demand with Shift AI

Get a peek inside Shift AI by Mach49, a toolset for innovators that accelerates bringing new ventures to market. In this demo, you'll learn how Mach49's time-tested methodologies and strategies are now available at the click of your cursor—and at a fraction of the cost.

See how to zero in on real customer problems, cultivate a culture of innovation, and make smart, data-backed decisions for success that scales.


Monifa Porter

SVP & Head of Shift AI at Mach49

Stop Hitting Singles and Start Scoring Touchdowns: A Game-Changing Approach to the Incubation Phase of Innovation

Too many innovation programs spend time on "sustaining" innovation: incremental "base hit" changes that are insufficient to meet long-term business growth objectives.

Even “big” opportunities aren’t actually big enough. It's time to change the game the innovation team is playing so it can put more points on the board. In this session, you'll learn how Innovation Navigator helps teams:
• Know what to work on by differentiating between what is important and what is not;
• Gain funding approval by building a business case using the built-in financial model that incorporates uncertainty; and
• De-risk projects by running experiments that deliver critical evidence to inform the business case.


Doug Williams

Associate Director, Innovation at SmartOrg, Inc.

Introducing Aucctus AI - Your Next Unfair Advantage in Innovation

How is AI changing the way that we innovate? Will we be doomed to keep track of every new fragmented tool that launches? Will AI actually replace the job of a corporate innovator? How can you use AI to make better decisions?

In this session, you'll find answers to these questions and our view on how AI could be used as an unfair advantage for today's innovators.

With a demonstration of our new Aucctus platform, we'll give you a sneak peak at what we think the future of AI-powered innovation ought to be.


Vincent Atallah & Krishan Puvitharan

President of Aucctus | Director of UX and Testing at Disruptive Edge

Understanding the Complexity of Digitizing Your Innovation

There is relentless demand for innovation in every business. Operationalizing innovation is key to success.

You have heard this many times: The right Enterprise Innovation Management system can revolutionize how your organization innovates, streamline processes, improve collaboration, and maximize ROI. But there is more to the story.

The key to success is not (only) about digitizing your innovation and solving your innovation challenges with a tool. It is about reading into the complexity that comes with it.

In this session we will investigate:
- How to put you in control of your innovation efforts and
- Innovation Management best practices

You will walk away with a fundamental idea of the foundation needed to drive collaboration, build a culture of innovation, and make data-driven decisions.


Marco Cristini

Solutions Consultant at Sopheon

Why join?

Gain insights on trending topics and cross-industry best practices from (inter)national thought leaders.

Benchmark your approach and performance with innovators from other companies, sharing their successes, failures and everything in between.

Work on your actual challenges, guided by experts and learning from peers.

Go out and explore the local innovation ecosystem, meeting with movers and shakers and seeing innovation in action.

Leave with an updated toolbox to implement for immediate impact once back in the office.

Feel refreshed and re-energized, having met so many other inspiring innovators, committed to making things happen at your organization.

"What a great event! I learned as much from the attendees as I did from the speakers and hardly ever do speakers stay around to network after their session. I'm amazed by the format, how open, honest and authentic it was. You rarely ever get that with these types of events - well done!"

"This conference was the best in terms of content- carefully curated and very complimentary."

"It was the most useful conference/event that I’ve ever been to. I walked out of every single session having learned something useful."

"What a conference! It's now the 3rd time that I am attending an Innov8rs conference and as usual I have been amazed by the insights, the learning, the energy in the room and the amazing people I have met!"

Everything corporate innovation from A to Z

Regardless of where you are on your innovation journey, and no matter what industry you're in, we've got you covered.

From strategy and governance, to culture and capabilites, and from intrapreneurship and incubation program to venture building and open innovation- you'll dive into the most important themes crucial for innovators across industries.

With more than 30 sessions in different tracks on the agenda, you'll pick the sessions that are most relevant and interesting to you.

Besides the live sessions, you will get access to content and community online before, during and after the conference, to support with implementation once you're back in the office.

Find it hard to choose from all those value-packed sessions on the schedule?

Bring your team to gather insights from all speakers and sessions, and work with experts in dedicated 1:1 sessions to maximize outcomes.

As a team, you can focus on one key topic and get to the bottom of it. Or, you can divide and conquer to catch the best and latest on all key themes and trends. Our team packages get you a great deal on tickets- but even greater outcomes.

With so many issues to tackle and so much change happening so fast, you will benefit from your team  joining too.

APPLY TO JOIN

"Innov8rs is unlike any conference. It’s the only place were corporate innovators and intrapreneurs get vulnerable and real about the challenges facing disruptors today and work together on creating breakthrough opportunities. I try to attend as many as possible. This is my tribe of lifelong learners and do-ers."

"I am blown away with learnings, reflections and new insights. Such an amazing crowd with a true sharing mentality. I have gathered so many cases for best practice on how to run innovation, how to measure it, how to fuel itrapreneurship etc. Further, most people I have met are really down to earth, pragmatic and no-bulshit kind of people that are creating real impact in the companies they work for."

"Connecting with so many other innovation professionals acted as a shot of adrenaline reigniting my drive to transform our organization. Sometimes working at the front-end of innovation can be a lonely place, especially in a large 100-year-old company. Last week was a refreshing reminder that we're not alone."

Loved by participants, trusted by brands.

We're bringing together innovators since 2011. We've hosted more than 25 conferences in global innovation hubs from San Francisco to Stockholm to Shanghai to Singapore to Sydney.

Beyond the high-quality sessions and diversity of speakers, past participants valued most meeting people in jobs like them, for countless and endless conversations. Many stay connected long after the conference, always just a phone call away.

You'll meet cross-industry corporate innovators of all trades, all chasing similar objectives and facing similar challenges, across companies and industries:

  • Chief Innovation Officers, VP's of Innovation, Innovation Leaders
  • Intrapreneurs or Corporate Entrepreneurs
  • Innovation (program) Directors
  • Heads of Labs, Incubators and Accelerators
  • Corporate Venturing, Strategy and Corporate Development Managers
  • R&D and Product Development Professionals
  • HR and Organizational Transformation Leaders

working at companies like

You'll connect, collaborate and co-create with peers. That's how we design the event. That's why we limit the number of participants. And past participants loved it.


Here's what your peers said about their experience.

"That was a terrific event! Thank you for all of your hard work organizing + curating a terrific group of people to attend. I just kept having great conversations over both days."

"All the sessions I participated in were amazing. Honestly, it’s very rare to attend a conference with so much enthusiasm and also the fact that it’s truly peer 2 peer."

"Hands down the best conference I’ve had the luxury of attending. I have so many more great people in my world now and have a brain bursting with new ideas and concepts to explore."

Secure Your Seat

Act fast for the best possible deal... Secure your seat at Fast Mover rates until March 29th, EOD

If you have innovation in your title, this is your tribe. Join Innov8rs SoCal for in-depth conversations, relevant connections and quality content.

What's included?

• Join 30+ sessions with experts and innovation leaders, covering everything corporate innovation A-Z, as well as field trips to explore the local ecosystem
Access to session recordings and additional resources for three months
Engage with other participants via our online platform before, during and after the conference
Connect and network with other participants during the conference dinner and several social events prior, during and after the conference

Member Pass

for current members of Innov8rs Community and up to 5 of their colleagues. Not a member yet? More info and apply via the button below.

$495

for 1 seat

ABOUT INNOV8RS COMMUNITY

Individual Pass

$1995

Fast Mover discount until 29 March 2024 EOD

$1,695

for 1 seat

APPLY TO JOIN

Team Pass - 3 Seats

$4795

Fast Mover discount until 29 March 2024 EOD

$3,995

for 3 seats

APPLY TO JOIN

Team Pass - 5 Seats

$6995

Fast Mover discount until 29 March 2024 EOD

$5,995

for 5 seats

APPLY TO JOIN

The options above are available for corporate innovation leaders and professionals only.

We are not offering seats to consultants, coaches, software firms or otherwise service providers. Only Expert Partners and members of Innov8rs Community with an Expert Pass are eligible to join this Conference. 

Are you a member of Innov8rs Community already?

As a member, you can register for this conference at a members-only discount of $495 per seat. Log in to the community platform or ask our team for further info and instructions.

Need some help?

If you'd like to understand better how participating in Innov8rs SoCal would support you and your team in achieving your objectives, or if you have questions about registration, start a chat via the blue button bottom right or email hans@innov8rs.co

Venue Information

The conference is hosted at Skirball Cultural Center.

Further information and instructions re the venue, available hotels and other logistics will be sent to you after registration.

If you have any questions, just open a chat via the blue button bottom right and we'll get back to you asap.