Innovation Portal

The Event

The Innovation Showcase attracted business from Dundee, and further afield, wishing to increase their business competitiveness through innovation. As well as presenations from leading figures in the world of business the event showcased cutting edge technology and expertise from the University of Dundee, University of Abertay Dundee and the Scottish Crop Research Institute.

Speakers

• Ken Keir,  Honda (UK) Managing Director and Snr VP Honda Europe
• Jim Mather MSP, Minister for Enterprise, Energy & Tourism
• Peter Day from BBC Radio 4's In Business

Exhibition

• 20 units offering cutting edge expertise and facilities available for business.
• Relevant expertise for Food & Drink, Life Sciences, Medical Devices, Digital Media, and Engineering sectors

Full Programme

Delegates attended either a morning or afternoon session

Morning Session

Networking Lunch

12.15 - 1.30
Lunch for morning and afternoon delegates and networking in the exhibition zone.

Afternoon Session

Networking and drinks

4.30 - 5.30
Afternoon delegates meet our academics and discover what technologies, services and expertise are available. Drinks and nibbles provided.

Speaker Biographies

Peter Day

Peter Day is the BBC News' Business Correspondent and presenter of BBC Radio 4's In Business and Global Business on BBC World Service. In Business aims to seek out trends which will influence the working world.

Peter hosted day 1 of the Innovation Showcase; speaking about global innovation and the potential of relationships between academia and business; and facilitating the question and answer sessions.

Ken Keir

Ken Keir is the Managing Director of Honda UK and the Senior Vice-President of Honda Motor Europe. He made the journey to his hometown of Dundee to be our keynote speaker.

Mr Keir's hands-on approach has played a considerable part in Honda (UK)’s recent car sales success. He instigated a complete management restructure of the company, placing more emphasis on customer satisfaction as a means of achieving long-term sales goals - and therefore exploiting untapped corporate sales potential. With these changes the marque has doubled its British car sales volume during the period between 1990 and 1999, with a consequent increase in turnover and profitability of the business. 

Mr Keir is responsible for all Honda (UK) Corporate Matters, Cars, Motorcycles and Power Equipment. In 2002, he also became the first European to be appointed as Executive Vice-President, Honda Motor Europe with additional responsibility for the development of the European sales networks.

Jim Mather

Jim Mather, Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism opened the afternoon programme with an Innovation address. Mr Mather also answered questions from afternoon delegates.

Tom Inns

Tom Inns is Professor of Design at the University of Dundee and Director of the AHRC & EPSRC funded Designing for the 21st Century Research Initiative.

In 2000 he was appointed as Professor of Design Research at the University of Dundee. Between 2001 and 2004 he was Head of the School of Design and helped establish the University of Dundee's pioneering new programmes in Innovative Product Design and Interactive Media Design.

He has a strong research interest in the future of design and the way design is used as a strategic tool within business. He leads a portfolio of research projects in this area and runs postgraduate modules in design led product & service innovation and product development at both the University of Dundee and University of St Andrews School of Management.

Colin Burns

Colin runs a one-man agency, Martach Associates, as a hub to a network of leading innovation professionals and consultants. He is a pioneer in Transformation Design, a methodology that harnesses user-led creativity to create new strategic business and social value.

Colin has spent most of his career working at IDEO – the international design and innovation consultancy, famous for it’s user-centred, interdisciplinary approach.  During his 10 years at IDEO he worked in California and Germany, as well as the UK. He held posts during this time as IDEO’s Global Head of Interaction Design and the Managing Director of IDEO London.

Colin has worked globally for companies such as Vodafone, Prada, Procter & Gamble, Egg, British Airways, Nokia, the BBC and the Design Council.  He is currently Visiting Professor of Innovation Product Design at the University of Dundee.

Graeme Campbell

Graeme is the SMART:Scotland Programme Manager. He provided information about the innovation funding available to Scottish SMEs from the Scottish Government.

The SMART:Scotland programme  provide financial assistance to SMEs to help support projects, which represent a significant technological advance for the UK sector or industry concerned.

Steve Wood

Steve is the Business Development Director at the semiconductor company, Elonics Ltd. and has over 30 years of extensive experience in the semiconductor industry, particularly in custom business.

Before joining Elonics, Steve was Imaging Business Manager for Wolfson Microelectronics plc, where he developed lasting relationships with customers, managing contract negotiations and securing future business.

Steve’s talk was drawn from his twenty years experience of managing innovative programmes from concept to product launch and of working with government funding programmes such as SMART and SPURplus awards.

Expertise Exhibition

Academics from the University of Dundee, University of Abertay Dundee and SCRI showcased their expertise in an exhibition running throughout the day. 

Please keep reading for a list of exhibitors. A PDF document is available for each with further details.

Biomathematics and Statistics (BIOSS) - expertise in bioinformatics, image analysis and training
Click here to download the BIOSS expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 527.66 KB] 

Business @ Abertay- facilities and expertise in a wide range of business fields and for all sectors
Click here to download the Business @ Abertay expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 385.83 KB]

Concrete Technology and Structural Engineering - research facilities and expertise for the construction sector
Click here to download the Concrete Technology and Structural Engineering expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 589.51 KB]

Computer Vision - software development for the analysis and understanding of images and videos 
Click here to download the Computer Vision expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 610.2 KB]

Digital Creativity @ Abertay - digitial expertise and creative technologies
Click here to download the Digital Creativity @ Abertay expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 413.88 KB] 

Engineering - expertise in tissue engineering and biomechanics
Click here to download the Engineering for Business expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 466.06 KB] 

Environment @ Abertay - expertise in water supply, effluent control and ICT scanning systems for 3D structures
Click here to download the Environment @ Abertay expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 405.48 KB] 

Food and Health @ Abertay - multidisciplinary expertise for recipe development, nutritional analysis and infection control 
Click here to download the Food and Health @ Abertay expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 329.9 KB] 

Human Identification - facial imaging and biometric expertise
Click here to download the Human Identification expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 389.52 KB]

IMSaT - expertise in developing emerging medical technologies with strengths in surgical instrumentation and imaging
Click here to download the IMSaT expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 383.88 KB]

Innovative Product Design - services for businesses to improve products and processes
Click here to download the Innovative Product Design expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 457.68 KB]

Institute of Motion Analysis and Research - expertise related to ergonomics, biomechanics and motion analysis
Click here to download the IMAR expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 619.68 KB]

Isotope Analysis - expertise in analysis of compounds to reveal origin and counterfeit materials
Click here to download the Isotope Analysis expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 562.6 KB]

Plant Products and Food Quality - expertise in assessing health benefits of phytochemicals and anti-oxidants
Click here to download the Plant Products and Food Quality expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 475.13 KB] 

Psychology for Business - expertise in neuroscience and developmental nutrition
Click here to download the Psychology for Business expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 435.04 KB]

Security @ Abertay - expertise and strategies to keep businesses secure and alert
Click here to download the Security @ Abertay expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 284.34 KB]  

Software for the management and analysis of microscopy image data
Click here to download the Open Microscopy Environment expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 435.71 KB]

Soil Biodiversity - expertise in sustainable soil use and indicators of soil health
Click here to download the Soil Biodiversity expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 399.48 KB]

Soil Bioengineering - expertise in the study of how plant root systems reinforce soil slopes
Click here to download the Soil Bioengineering expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 677.3 KB]  

The University of Dundee's Drug Discovery Unit - facilities to translate basic biomedical research into potential therapies
Click here to download the Drug Discovery Unit expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 333.97 KB]

TMRC - The Translation Medicine Research Collaboration lab will showcase their expertise in genomics, proteomics, immunoassay and bioinformatics
Click here to download the TMRC expertise profile. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 449.99 KB]

Location

The Innovation Showcase was held at the Dalhouise Building, University of Dundee. The Dalhousie Building is number 15 on the University campus map.

• University of Dundee city campus map
• University of Dundee travel information (including parking)

Feedback

We asked delegates what they thought of the event. If you attended and did not get around to providing your feedback in the days following the event you can still download the Feedback Sheet [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 82.31 KB] and return it to us with your comments.

Statistics

Forms recieved so far reveals that of the delegates who provided feedback:

• 100% thought the event was excellent or good
• 100% rated the event as very relevant or relevant to their organisation
• 75% found the exhibition very useful, useful or somewhat useful
• 100% thought the event format was excellent or good
• 100% rated the event organisation, information and venue excellent or good

Comments

Some of our delegates took the time to provide their thoughts about the event:
"Excellent all round event"
"Really good events - speakers of an excellent standard"
"Illuminating, particularly Colin`s two graphs indicating the change of thought processes in business required forward and customer focus being the start and the end of all decisions as outlined in Ken Keir's speech."
"I enjoyed the afternoon and met some very interesting business people and academics."
"Was impressed at the turnout."
"More time to visit the stands would have been ideal"

Event Image Gallery