“A stimulating afternoon”, “inspiring”, “instructive”, “recognizable”, “a great concept”, “nice bunch of people” were just a few of the reactions from the participants in an acceleration session held on Monday afternoon, 11 May in Utrecht.

People from diverse walks of life had been invited by InnovationNetwork and the Competence Centre for Transitions (CCT) to grapple with the issue of “Who and what is necessary to bring InnovationNetwork’s pioneering concepts to practical fruition”. The “Internodal Arteries” concept had been chosen to serve as an example. An underlying question was whether this “practical fruition” process should be mainly driven by InnovationNetwork or by other organizations or (policy) instruments.

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An acceleration session, as envisaged by CCT, entails that innovation experts from other organizations - active in the same or other domains - are invited to put their minds to an issue raised by one party in order to advise that party on the best way forward. In this case we were the problem owner and, together with CCT, had made intensive preparations for the session.

Designing and implementing these sessions is always a challenging task. Together with René Bruins and Rob Weterings of CCT I was busy polishing and fine-tuning the programme right up to the last moment. We simulated expected lines of discussion, re-checked whether the participants had sufficient information to conduct a constructive debate and formulated the question even more precisely. Together with my colleague Nico Beun, I also went through his presentation on the Internodal Arteries concept to make sure everything was clear.

Knowing that these sessions are not always a success, it was gratifying to see this one go so smoothly. The Internodal Arteries proved to be a well-chosen subject. The participants found it an inspiring concept that provided an excellent basis for addressing the real issue of the afternoon.

One of the conclusions was that you must never think that a concept has been fully developed after one or two pilots, and particularly not a concept like Internodal Arteries. Each environment in which the concept is placed demands its own specific process and design. So development is an ongoing process and you cannot simply carbon-copy former versions. Some found that InnovationNetwork should continue playing a facilitating role after the initial pilots; at present they don’t see any organizations capable of taking over the job. Others suggested the vigorous deployment of marketing instruments and active lobbying among politicians and policy-makers to create a congenial environment for rolling out concepts. InnovationNetwork should not do this itself, but should help to set up a strong organization for this purpose.

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After more helpful recommendations, including some personal advice for Nico Beun, the participants departed. We were the last to leave the building, enhanced by the experience and the many suggestions we had received.