Ustinov Travel Awards Conference Report 2

By Gabriel Plata

In July 2022 I presented a paper in the 29 conference

IPDMC: Innovation and Product Development Management Conference, Hamburg, Germany. I attended along with another PhD student from Durham University, who was presenting another paper, and my supervisor. The conference extended for 4 days and reunited people from around the world to discuss about a main topic: “innovation in the era of climate change”.

My presentation was in the morning of 19 July within the Session: “Social and frugal innovation”. I presented along with 2 other representants to a total of 3 papers, (1 from France and 1 from Germany) and one moderator. The audience was about 20 people, mainly PhD students, senior researchers and supervisors. I started the session with a 20-minutes presentation plus about 10 minutes questions and comments. Overall, comments were supportive and constructive. One of the presenters highlighted the point of how economic development in Europe has been aligned to the concept of social innovators, while other economic regions in the world have lacked or require this essential type of actors, with further strength within their social development frameworks. I attended to remaining sessions and presentations in which you were able to choose from an interesting variety of topics.

Overall, the level of contributions displayed was very relevant, these topics and ideas will help us to further understand innovation, immersed in a challenging planet.

On a more relaxed note, the city was very welcoming, and the host university (Hamburg University of Technology) offered nice facilities and services, even though the summer was extreme during most of the days. I would like to thank Ustinov College for awarding me the Travel Awards as the resources helped me to be there.