After a half year of interesting coffee meet-ups where a lot of networking took place, the Young Innovatives took their initiative to the next level. On Wednesday 14 October the first session focused on a specific topic was organised. This time the theme of the session was Business Model Innovation and the session was organised at the Innovation Factory office in Amsterdam.

Patrick van der Pijl, founder of Business Models Inc., gave a very interesting insight on  new ways to look at business models and ways to revise existing business models. This was exemplified by presenting the Business Model Canvas and specifically the development process of their book “Business Model Generation”.

Tim de Roode, founder of Duraserve, told us about his experiences of setting up a virtual organisation by utilising IT to let vital company activities be performed in other parts of the world. He told about the resemblance with outsourcing, but also that a virtual organisation is one step further than ‘mere’ outsourcing.

Both speakers went into an in-depth discussion with the participants on all the input and questions they raised before the session. Because of this interactive approach and based upon the reactions of the participants, we can state that this first Young Innovatives session focussed on a specific topic was very successful and asks for continuation. This is exactly what we plan to do. So next to the monthly coffee meet-ups, every three months a session based upon an innovation theme will be organised. Keep an eye on the LinkedIn group for updates on these sessions.