Second iMinds conference on Thursday December 16th

At our second iMinds conference on Thursday December 16th we will reflect on the internet, as it became one of the most critical infrastructures of the 21st century and by supporting social and economic developments will enable a truly knowledge based society.

How is the internet turning classical business models upside down and what are the alternatives?

How will small and large companies stay afloat in this fast globalizing market?

Will new, immersive interfaces revolutionize our user experience and interaction with the world around us?

How can we keep the digital economy sustainable and introduce software solutions to keep other industries efficient, sustainable and as such livable as well?

And how can we use the internet to massively unlock the information now stowed away and gathering dust in archives and learn to manage the loads of information in a sound and efficient way?

We strongly believe that to meet societal challenges like these the technological barriers can only be dealt with by means of a multidisciplinary and open innovation approach.

The renewed success of our INCA competition (INnovative & Creative Applications) shows that it pays off to tackle complex societal themes like e-inclusion with an open mind. The second edition, in which IBBT joined forces with 5 European partners, delivered no less than 45 brand new applications. The awards will be handed over at the iMinds conference and the ceremony will be streamed live.

Other highlight of the event are Silicon Valley executive & entrepreneur Peter Hirshberg’s keynote speech, the testimonials of Andrew Herbert (Microsoft Research), Michel Akkermans (Clear2Pay) and Lieven Danneels (Televic) and the ICON pitch forum where new ideas for Interdisciplinary Cooperative Research Projects will be presented in order to recruit additional research partners. And don’t forget to visit the dozens of demo’s from local and European state-of-the-art research projects!

iMinds is an integral part of the Future Internet week, a series of European events and activities on this theme, coordinated by IBBT.

The crème de là crème of the European research community will gather in Ghent for a whole week.


We hope to see you there as well!

Wim De Waele
CEO