At the international conference Next Generation Business Models on 2 October 2015 hosted by the International Business School of Hanze University of Applied Sciences in cooperation with the foundation ‹Our Common Future 2.0› and ‹Samenwerkingsverband Noord Nederland (SNN)› the work and development of the Future Laboratory CreaLab and its spin-off interspin as an ‘interspinular’ model for cooperation between research, education and business was presented in a workshop by Julie Harboe.
The conference as a whole was an intense day with a flow of keynotes and workshops taking place in the new building of the Energy Transition Centre (EnTranCe) in Groningen built in collaboration between Hanze UAS and the Energy Academy Europe. Both the place (which is so new that it is yet to be inaugurated) and the theme and discussions of the conference clearly indicate the turn in approach and forms of collaborations in business developing globally.
The workshop about the CreaLab interspin included representatives from chambers of commerce as well as teachers, researchers and independent consultants. It stressed how a drive for a change in values and forms of collaboration is happening in spaces shared by all these parties and that a shift in values is taking place and CreaLab interspin is a good example. The conference as a whole presented an overview of the fine nuances in the approaches from cities such as Amsterdam implementing the ‘circular economy’. On another level Uber, Air B’n’B and other large platforms supported by the technological possibilities bring change to the service industry. Most importantly and game-changing is the dissolution of categories that lead to initiatives where the entrepreneurial drive is not about ego-focused financial gain. The exchanges during the day made it is easy to imagine how collaborative open design business models bridging to education may soon do more than tickle the clay feet of the corporate world and develop an dynamic knowledge ecology.