‘In the Studio With Zao: Innovation Connect’ is a series of invite-only roundtable events. We bring together our intrapreneur and entrepreneur community and broader client networks to collaboratively discuss pressing topics in the innovation space.

Current & Previous Participants

Innovation Connect Sessions:

19th November 2024

Testing Ideas: How to experiment practically using data?

This session of "In The Studio With Zao: Innovation Connect", held in collaboration with Philip Morris International explored how to strategically approach experimentation, select the right experiments, and evaluate their outcomes effectively. The discussions led to valuable insights on: 

  • How to Embrace the Risk of Failure

  • How to Frame the Experimentation Results

  • How to Align Stakeholders Expectations

17th July 2024

Could AI Copilot Join Your Innovation Team?

This session of "In The Studio With Zao: Innovation Connect", held in collaboration with Pearson, tackled the critical question: "How can AI Co-pilot enhance the way organisations approach innovation?”. The main discussion points explored:

  • Skills and Behaviours for Future Innovators

  • Risks, Concerns, and Limitations of AI tools

  • Impact of AI Tools on Innovation Activities

22nd May 2024

Intrapreneurship: Democratising Innovation.

This event was co-hosted by Places for London, TfL’s property division. We discussed the importance of collaboration in maximising innovation performance, how to overcome the key challenges that restrict the success of innovation collaboration and the strategies that can be leveraged to optimise their benefit.

  • Why, how and where to find the right partners to elevate innovation

  • What does successful collaboration look like? How can you make that happen, practically

15th February 2024

Innovation Collaboration: How to leverage partners, clients and ecosystems to boost innovation

This event was co-hosted by Places for London, TfL’s property division. We discussed the importance of collaboration in maximising innovation performance, how to overcome the key challenges that restrict the success of innovation collaboration and the strategies that can be leveraged to optimise their benefit.

  • Why, how and where to find the right partners to elevate innovation

  • What does successful collaboration look like? How can you make that happen, practically

13th December 2023

A Collaborative Approach: How to Embed Customer Centricity in Innovation

In this session, we discussed how to embed customer centricity earlier on in the innovation pipeline, moving away from viewing customer centricity as purely
process-based. We explored the following questions:

  • How might we create working innovation relationships with customers?

  • How might we help decision makers in our organisations to be more open to genuine customer feedback?

24th October 2023

Innovator Experience: Unblocking Pathways for Innovators to Make Innovation Happen

In our recent roundtable of change makers, innovators and enablers, we discussed how to create innovation pathways with a human-centred focus, off the back of our Innovator Experience (IX) webinar. We explored the following questions:

  • How might we overcome the ‘capacity’ blocker for innovation in organisations?

  • How might we create more human-centred innovation pathways?

Roundtable Sessions:

Opportunities for Generative AI in Commercial/Medical Affairs

30th January 2024

In this session with Healthcare Innovators, we discussed the diverse opportunities for Generative AI in Commercial operations and Medical Affairs. The discussion focused on two critical aspects:

  • Identifying the highest-value use cases of Generative AI in commercial/medical affairs

  • Understanding the blockers to making these use cases a reality

What is the role of HR in Innovation?

21st September 2022

In this session, we discussed how HR leaders are able to garner a sense of best practices and opportunities for improvement in innovation. HR is often challenged in helping build innovation capabilities across the workforce but the question is:

  • What is really the role of HR in innovation?

  • How can HR leaders best enable people, and therefore the organisation, to innovate?

How Can Leaders Drive Higher Return On Innovation By Mastering The People Factor?

11th May 2022

In this session we discussed some of Innovation Leaders’ most pressing challenges in innovation within large organisation. We focused on two main theme areas, in the context of the people factor of innovation,

  • Senior Leaders: the sponsors and senior stakeholders who are backing innovation

  • Innovation Talent: the people who are actually doing and delivering innovation propositions

How Can Intrapreneurship Programmes Go Beyond Canvases, Post-its, Interviews and Pitches?

9th February 2022

In this session we explored some of the most pressing challenges Innovation Leaders encounter when developing and deploying Intrapreneurship programmes. We discussed three main areas:

  • Alignment on problem briefs and opportunity areas

  • Return on Innovation (ROI)

  • Identifying, developing and retaining the right talent

UPCOMING EVENTS

UPCOMING EVENTS

January 15

Venue
New York, NY

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sounds like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest.

February 15

Venue
New York, NY

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sounds like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest.

March 15

Venue
New York, NY

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sounds like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest.

Do you want to join the next session?

Let us know whether you are interested in joining future sessions and become part of our community of innovators.