From the title, you might be wondering, “Innovation night” what is it really about? An exhibition for young entrepreneurs? Remember my post on “raining opportunities” at KTH? This is one of those opportunities.
Tekniska Högskolans Studentkår (THS) has been organising various events all leading to the biggest fair at KTH – ARMADA. (You would get more details on Armada later;)). The innovation night was one of such events. I was so glad I was able to attend this. Keep reading to know why.
The event started with various speeches from different company representatives. The first speaker started with INNOVATION AS A MINDSET. These are the things I learnt:
- Be curious
- Be passionate: Nothing comes cheap. You have to put in a lot of hard work if not, you would lose focus once the slope hits.
- be determined: Listen to people but sometimes, you have to go with your guts.
- Do not be afraid to fail
I like the fact that these points were not just listed but Amir Sharifat shared details from his experience as the co-founder of Flic to prove how these points would help you keep your head above the water if you choose to become an entrepreneur.
The other speakers talked about their various companies (what they do and how they started) and then Niklas Arvidsson (an associate professor at KTH), pointed out the need for innovation in the area of payments.
So, after an hour thirty minutes of listening to the speeches, we divided into groups for the case study workshop. For the case study workshop, we were divided into four groups to work together with either Sogeti, Karma, MAD or KTH Innovation. I worked with KTH Innovation.
The next session after the case workshops was a panel discussion with Andrew Hennigan, Niklas Arvidsson, Emelie Ekblad, Johan Båth and Gustaf Josefsson Tadaa.
In between this session, students presented the different cases they worked on during the workshop. It was very good to see that in a short time, students came up with awesome ideas and you could easily tell the role diversity can play in brainstorming for the best ideas.
I really loved the panel session as it was an eye-opener to the world of innovation and personally, I feel its main purpose was to juggle our minds to always think outside the box.I loved the way Gustav moderated this session – asking questions that were very relevant and making the panellists address core issues.
Then, it was time to mingle. An opportunity to network with all the speakers and share your ideas! This event surpassed my expectations and I can tell you I had a great evening.
Some keynotes as I round up the post:
- Find your passion and do not let money get in the way of it
- Always have an open mind
- When building your team, find someone smarter than you; bring someone with a different knowledge and hire for attitudes also.
These are some pictures from the event;)
