PDMA.NL to collaborate with Swedish company Innovationsledarna

PDMA.NL will collaborate with Innovationsledarna, the Swedish Association for Innovation Management Professionals (https://www.innovationsledarna.se/). This is the result of an initiative taken by Egbert-Jan van Dijck (wnd chairman PDMA.NL) and Magnus Karlsson (Chair Innovationsledarna SE) at the beginning of 2021. The slogan of the PDMA Connecting Innovators Worldwide does not exclude that there are contacts with other associations. In addition to their board positions, Egbert-Jan and Magnus are also members of ISPIM and ISPIM SIG (Special Interest Group) Body of Knowledge and see international contacts between innovation professionals as a huge opportunity. Sweden is an important source of inspiration in Europe. According to the European Innovation Scoreboard 2021, Sweden is the EU Innovation Leader, followed by Finland, Denmark and Belgium (https://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/policy/innovation/scoreboards_en). PDMA.NL and Innovationsledarna also have the theme of Sustainability & Innovation high on the agenda. The cooperation means that the members get mutual access to the English-language meetings, meetings can be organized together and exchange of knowledge and experience can take place at administrative level. It starts with the possibility for members of PDMA.NL to participate in the Swedish meetings. These can be found at Calender — Innovationsledarna. In the spring of 2022, Innovationsledarna will have a larger meeting in the planning with the theme Sustainability & Innovation. PDMA.NL has been invited to contribute to this. We would like to come back to this later because ideas are very welcome.

At the same time, Egbert-Jan contacted John Dekker, Innovation Attachee of the Dutch Embassy in Stockholm. He has also responded very enthusiastically to a proposal for cooperation. There is a commitment to come to a meeting in which John will explain what the Innovation Attachee Network (IA network) is and what it can mean for organizations and people interested in international activities in the field of innovation and R&D. The intention is to organize this meeting together with Innovationsledarna. As soon as more information is available, we will put the meeting on the agenda. This also applies to more meetings that have often been postponed due to the corona pandemic but will now be organized on-line and possibly off-line. Hopefully we will meet again in the coming period.