Thank you to those who came to the first Global Corporate Venturing Symposium and Banquet on Wednesday.
It was great to welcome many of you to London from all round the world and fascinating to learn how you are approaching what Gary Dushnitsky, associate professor at London Business School and keynote speaker, described as "one of the fastest-growing innovation strategies: corporate venturing".
Dushnitsky unveiled some fascinating research showing companies outperform with a corporate venturing unit, while the European Investment Fund and UK’s Tech City stressed their importance to an innovation ecosystem. The other keynote speakers Danny Truell, chief innovation officer at Wellcome Trust (or as one delegate put in his feedback form "brilliant!") and Shelley Harrison (described by another as the reason he came and worth the attendance fee alone) provided the business owners and entrepreneurs’ perspectives, respectively.
The heart of the Symposium remained the three panels of corporate venturers, expertly moderated by Stephen Ziff from Coller Capital, Neil Foster from sponsor Field Fisher Waterhouse and Gerald Brady from sponsor SVB Financial Group. They picked apart why corporate venturing was expanding (technological complexity and cash-rich balance sheets with low interest rates), practical ways to implement venturing and how innovation was developing across sectors and borders. Data from Global Corporate Venturing and sponsor Dow Jones completed the information-fest.
The only regret? Too much information in too short a time. To help sponsor next year’s and extend the sessions and give more time for networking please let me know – and start voting on which city should host it!
The afternoon’s Symposium was finished by a surprise award to Intel Capital from Bob Ackerman, founder of Allegis Capital, as the VCs’ Perfect Partner – after voting by members of the EVCA and NVCA trade bodies.
This led nicely into the gala, black-tie Banquet where, in association with partners Frost & Sullivan, Start-Up Britain and H-I Network, representatives of the best practices and industry awards picked up their certificates of success.
The lessons from the best practices are captured in the Global Corporate Venturing Best Practices and Awards supplement.