I attended the World Open Innovation Conference 2025. It was my first time attending any academic-business conference, let alone one centered around open innovation, a field I’m still very new to.
What surprised me most wasn’t the presentations or the structure of the conference (although those were impressive on their own). It was the people. I met researchers, managers, innovators, professors, entrepreneurs, people with decades of experience and still, everyone talked to me. Everyone made space for me. It’s rare to be in a room filled with experts and not feel small.
The highlight of this was meeting Henry Chesbrough, the father of open innovation and the central figure of the entire conference. You’d expect someone in his position to be distant or rushed, but he was the exact opposite. He asked me what I thought, how I felt, whether I understood everything, and if I was enjoying it. He treated my perspective as something that mattered, which, when you’re new, means everything.
I absolutely loved was seeing open innovation in action across such an absurdly wide range of topics. South Korea using open innovation as a tool of diplomacy. Companies using it to reshape their digital strategies. Even researchers applying it to Dungeons & Dragons. It made me realize how flexible and powerful the concept really is, how it’s more than a management idea and closer to a mindset, a way of seeing collaboration everywhere.
Overall, WOIC 2025 was an incredibly positive experience for me. It made the future feel a bit bigger, a bit more open, and a lot more exciting. And if this is what the world of innovation looks like, curious, collaborative, generous, I’m glad I stepped into it.