By Attabik Awan & Ana Orelj
Welcome to WOIC Insights
You’re reading the second edition of WOIC Insights—your bi-monthly update on WOIC 2025, the latest in Open Innovation (OI), and key industry insights—all in one place.
📌 In this issue:
📢 Call for Best OI Practice
🎓 WOIC Doctoral Consortium - Mark Your Calendars
🎉 WOIC is Returning to Bilbao
🎤 Keynote Spotlight: Vinit Parida
🎙️ New Episode of WOIConversations
🎥 Stay Connected with the OI Community
📢 Call for Contributions from Practitioners
Share Your Insights from the Industry with the Open Innovation Community and win the Best Practice award.
Are you an Open Innovation practitioner with a process, tool, framework or success case worth sharing? We invite you to contribute to our upcoming feature showcasing real-world experiences from the field. Submissions can take one of two formats: a PowerPoint presentation (up to 10 slides) or a written document in Word or PDF (up to 2 pages). Whether it's a successful collaboration, a hard-earned lesson, or a bold new approach, we want to hear from you.
To be considered for inclusion in the conference program, individuals and teams are invited to submit their application via our dedicated submission portal (see our website for details). The portal opened on June 2, 2025, and the deadline for submission is June 30, 2025.
👉 For more details, see the full Call for Best Practice.
📌 For further information, including tips for a successful submission, read the FAQ on our webpage.
🎤 Curious what excellence looks like?
Check out the interviews below with last year’s winner of the Best Practice Award, Florian Montel, and finalist Attabik Awan. They shared their experiences at WOIC in Berkeley, reflecting on how the recognition led to increased visibility, new collaboration opportunities, and a stronger presence within the global innovation community. Their stories offer valuable insights into what makes a winning submission—and how it can open new doors.
Curious to hear more testimonials from previous winners and finalists of the Best Practice award? Go to our YouTube channel.
🎓 WOIC 2025 Doctoral Consortium – Mark Your Calendars!
Mark your calendars for November 4, 2025! The WOIC Doctoral Consortium returns to bring together doctoral students and early-career researchers in Open Innovation, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship for a full day of mentorship, feedback, and community building—right before the main conference kicks off.
This year’s program features:
Research mentoring by top scholars
Paper development workshops
A networking dinner and roundtable sessions
A social media challenge (win a copy of The Oxford Handbook of Open Innovation)
A guided visit to Bilbao’s local innovation ecosystem
Interested?
Keep an eye on our LinkedIn page and website—the official Call for Applications will be released soon!
🎉 WOIC is Returning to Bilbao!
We’re thrilled to announce that after two years, the World Open Innovation Conference is coming back to Bilbao—and we couldn’t be happier!
The conference will take place in early November 2025, which is a perfect time to enjoy Bilbao’s mild autumn weather. Expect average daytime temperatures around 17°C, with cooler mornings and evenings—just enough for a light jacket.
Located in northern Spain, Bilbao is the largest city in the Basque Country and a vibrant hub of culture, innovation, and architecture. It’s also home to one of only four Guggenheim museums in the world, making it a must-visit for art and design lovers.
Surrounded by green hills and just a short distance from the Bay of Biscay, Bilbao offers a unique mix of urban energy and natural beauty. With its rich culture, world-class food, and welcoming atmosphere, it’s the perfect backdrop for connecting with the global open innovation community.
Check out the previous WOIC Bilbao experience in this video:
🎤 Keynote Spotlight: Vinit Parida Joins WOIC 2025
We’re excited to announce that Vinit Parida (Chaired Professor for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Luleå University of Technology) will join us as a keynote speaker at WOIC 2025 in Bilbao!
Professor Parida is a globally recognised expert in entrepreneurship, innovation management, and digital transformation. As Chair of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Luleå, Associate Editor of the Journal of Business Research, and a scientific leader in several national and EU-level innovation programs, his work bridges cutting-edge research and industry impact.
His extensive research spans topics like servitization and business model innovation, industrial ecosystems and circular economy, digitalization and AI as enablers of transformation, and innovation in resource-constrained environments
With over 200 peer-reviewed publications and collaborations with firms like ABB, Ericsson, Volvo, and Scania, Professor Parida brings deep academic insight and real-world relevance to the WOIC stage.
📌 Stay tuned for the full keynote lineup—more speakers to be announced soon!
🎙️ In the new episode of WOIConversations
Marcel Bogers talks with Wim Vanhaverbeke in a rich and insightful conversation exploring the evolution of Open Innovation. They discuss how the concept has developed over time, key success factors and pitfalls for both large companies and SMEs, and reflect on the lasting legacy of Henry Chesbrough. One standout quote from the episode:
“The smaller you are, the greater the opportunity for open innovation!”
▶️ Subscribe & listen to Episode 2 on your favourite podcast platform:
Youtube | Apple | Spotify
Got a topic in mind or someone we should feature? Reach out to Salar Alizad Poursaeidi —we're building this together with the community.
🎥 Stay Connected with the Open Innovation Community
Want to stay up to date with the latest in open innovation? Subscribe to our YouTube channel for event highlights, expert interviews, behind-the-scenes content, and inspiring talks from the WOIC network.
Here you’ll find videos from past WOIC conferences, including keynote speeches by some of the leading voices in the field, like the father of open innovation, Henry Chesbrough, from WOIC 2024 in Berkeley:
And another open innovation superstar, Carliss Baldwin, sharing her insights:
Thanks for reading WOIC Insights.
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