The International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) is a global network of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers interested in innovation management. Founded in 1983, ISPIM organizes annual conferences and symposiums to facilitate networking and knowledge sharing around innovation. Recent challenges included making events more relevant and improving networking opportunities between academics and corporate delegates. ISPIM looks for centrally located venues that can accommodate hundreds of attendees, include facilities for breakout sessions, and support social functions in the evenings.

1. HEADQUARTERS 9
HQ: Could you
briefly present
ISPIM?
Iain Bitran: The
International Society for Professional
Innovation Management (ISPIM) is a network
of researchers, industrialists, consultants
and public bodies who share an interest in
innovation management. Founded in 1983
by Professor Knut Holt in Norway, ISPIM is
the oldest, largest and most active innova-
tion association in Europe. It produces
scientific and educational material and
events to help people understand and
share thinking and experiences on how in-
dividuals, organisations and society can be
better organised to create and distribute
new products, services and processes to
make the world a better place.
HQ: What kind of challenges
has the Society overcome in
recent years?
Iain Bitran: Our network includes
practitioners as well as academics. There
are a number of corporate innovation
events that already exist where delegates
that we spoke to said that the series of
events was not really evolving in terms of
content or numbers and the lack of social
networking events and high-end pricing
(GBP 2,450 in 2012) was causing
increasing dissatisfaction.
These comments were the inspiration for
ISPIM to put on a new event for innova-
tion thought leaders that we are calling
“Innovation for Business”. This event will
last for 1.5 days and will run alongside our
conference and will include around 18 high
level speakers from companies such as
IBM, Yahoo!, Kodak, Phillips, Nokia, P&G,
ABN AMRO, Alcatel-Lucent, Tata, Unilever,
etc. By including the event in our confer-
ence, delegates from industry will be able
to freely mix with academics, consultants
and policy makers also interested in
innovation management as we will have
many joint sessions such as the plenary (our
headline keynote is Henry Chesbrough),
roundtable discussion sessions and our
famous social networking events.
HQ: What kind of events do
you organize?
Iain Bitran: We run several international
events per year including our annual
flagship Conference, held in Europe each
June, and our innovation symposium,
held outside Europe each December. The
ISPIM audience reflects ISPIM’s diversity.
Delegates will be predominantly a mixture
of European and local/regional, although
about 60 countries will be represented at
our conference.
Iain Bitran is the Executive Director of ISPIM
and has overseen the Society’s growth since 2003.
We asked him to tell us about how the organization
works and what kinds of challenges it had to
face over the years.
Effective networking with the
International Society for
Professional Innovation Management
HQ> A ssociation P ortrait
Iain Bitran
4TH
ISPIM Innovation Symposium

2. HEADQUARTERS 10
Delegates include researchers, practitioners,
independent and well-known consultants,
regional and national policy-makers as
well as science parks, innovation agencies
etc. Profiles range from CEOs and VPs to
mid-executives, from full professors to
PhD researchers, and from independent
researchers and consultants to global com-
panies. 2012 is set to be a growth year for
ISPIM. We have just received submissions
from 550 authors from 53 countries for
the XXIII ISPIM Conference in Barcelona,
which takes place in June, just 6 months
before the Seoul Symposium in December.
HQ: What is the association's
decision process concerning
the organization of your annual
meeting?
Iain Bitran: The Board of ISPIM decides
where to hold our events. Criterion include
attractiveness of the host city, availability
of local support and identification of a
local host. As a not-for-profit association
we rely heavily on a local host to be able
to provide a local venue for our event at
no cost to out association.
HQ: What kind of venues do you
need and what criteria must
they satisfy?
Iain Bitran: We are looking for the following:
+ Event Venue: A centrally located venue
with a plenary room for up to 500
delegates (200 for the symposium) plus
7 breakout rooms for up to 50 delegates
(3 rooms for the symposium). All rooms
should have AV facilities and an onsite
technician.
+ Social Event Venues for the following
3 evenings: Welcome Reception (for a
1.5 hour cocktail and canapé reception);
Gala Dinner (for a 2.5 hour seated/
served dinner in a venue with some
historical significance); Social Evening
(for an informal 3.5 hour buffet dinner
and drinks in a fun venue)
+ Hotels: A 4 star property near to our
event venue. We will only offer one event
hotel and expect to receive a special rate
for our delegates that includes free WiFi.
In addition we expect to receive 1 free
room for every 30 room nights booked
by our delegates.
+ Airline partners
+ Technology providers
HQ: How would you summarize
new trends in the association
congress world?
Iain Bitran: The trend is definitely towards
more relevant events where effective
networking can take place. We believe
by having a mixture of academics and
practitioners we offer a unique environ-
ment in the innovation management field.
HQ: Any memorable destination for
one of your events? If yes, why?
Iain Bitran: Definitely Barcelona. It’s a
vibrant city with a great deal of culture
yet very innovative at the same time.
www.ispim.org
> A ssociation P ortrait
ISPIM’s events
2012
5TH
ISPIM Innovation Symposium
Seoul, Korea
XXIII ISPIM Conference
Barcelona, Spain
2011
4TH
ISPIM Innovation Symposium
Wellington, New Zealand
XXII ISPIM Conference
Hamburg, Germany
2010
3RD
ISPIM Innovation Symposium
Quebec City, Canada
XXI ISPIM Conference
Bilbao Spain
2009
2ND
ISPIM Innovation Symposium
New York City, USA
XX ISPIM Conference
Vienna, Austria
XXII ISPIM Conference
The trend is definitely
towards more relevant events
where effective networking
can take place
In Bilbao, for the XXI ISPIM Conference
XVIII ISPIM Conference - Warsaw, Poland (2007)