This year’s Velvet Innovation Conference will be held on 14 November 2024, at the Passage Hotel in Brno, as in previous years.
The conference, now in its fourth year, began in Brno in 2021, bringing together companies, public and research institutions, universities, NGOs, and the creative industry, with the aim of making innovative people meet.
This year’s theme is ambition, under the title “Ambition (Un)locked”, focused on strategies that ensure sustainability and resilience.
“Ambition is one of the engines that drives society forward,” said David Uhlíř, director of strategy at the JIC innovation agency which is organising the conference. “On the one hand, these are the individual ambitions of each of us – fulfilled, unfulfilled, modest or, on the contrary, dangerously high. And on the other hand, they are the ambitions of the entire company. Do we have anything in common? How do we want to function sustainably as a company?”
The conference will feature industry leaders discussing how ambition can lead to positive outcomes in various fields. These include John Elkington, a consultant on corporate social responsibility and sustainable development and the world-renowned author of the “Green Consumer Guide”, responsible for key initiatives such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, the Global Reporting Initiative, and B Lab UK.
Other key guests will include Erinch Sahan, an expert on social enterprise and alternative business design, Kaija Pöysti, a so-called angel investor and business coach with more than 40 years of experience founding and growing deep tech companies, and Denny Royal, a design practice leader focused on human-centred design approach.
The program will feature various blocks and topics, covering, among other things, transforming industries, sustainable solutions in niche markets, pioneering startups stemming from academia, the future of women in tech, the importance of the health-tech and well-being business, and a final section portraying stories of success from the South Moravian region.
Another fundamental part of the conference is the Startup Showcase, which provides a platform for selected startups, projects or companies with new products, no more than one year on from their launch/first units sold.
Tickets for participating in the conference can be found here. The entry fee is CZK 990 until 30 June, and CZK 1,490 after that.
More information about the conference and its speakers can be found here.
