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Consumer Centricity – How to become an insight-led business?
Starting from the consumers’ perspective Tom de Ruyck calls upon the industries capability to identify consumer insights and activate consumer buying behavior. How to apply digital technologies and data in our innovation pipelines and portfolio’s? An inspirational and hands- on introduction to Insights Activation!

Tom is an expert in understanding and collaborating with consumers, creating consumer-centric-thinking organisations & preparing organisations and their employees for a future full of technological change, societal challenges and tremendous business opportunities. He gives over 100 keynote speeches, workshops and in-company presentations every year. Tom is a Managing Partner at InSites Consulting where he is responsible for innovation and advising global brands. He is also teaching as a Professor at different business schools in Europe and on the board of several (industry) organisations. He is co-author of ‘The Consumer Consulting Board’ and published over 65 white papers, articles in academic journals, business books and trade magazines. Besides that, he is an influential blogger and tweeter (@tomderuyck).

Retailers like Albert Heijn participate in co-creation processes with their suppliers by facilitating Pop-up Stores and Concept Labs. How can food ingredients producers liaison with retailers and co-create with consumers innovative product concepts?

Innovator and strategist Bart Fischer (1970) has spent his entire working life working on innovation within manufacturers and Albert Heijn. At Albert Heijn, he was first responsible for the product innovation team, but for the last 5 years he was responsible for formula development at Albert Heijn. He was responsible for the development of formula differentiation, layout, look & feel, new modules such as sushi, picking garden, deli kitchen, bakery, and also for new urban supermarkets. Bart started last year with his own agency www.7bft.nl, which focuses on delivering the vision through innovation and strategy. At 7BFT, Bart Fischer has several international retailers and manufacturers as customers and regularly speaks about the future of food retail throughout Europe.

In the Blockchain workshop you and your team members form a Blockchain with Traders, Hubs and Miners to experience how a Blockchain can work. In addition, you try out whether it is possible to hack the system or steal items that are recorded in the Blockchain. You learn how a decentralized system offers new possibilities to deal with information.RDM Next is a creative space in the middle of the Innovation Dock, combining a group of companies in the field of IoT, Machine Learning, 3d printing, robotics etc.

RDM Next is the next chapter in the development of RDM Makerspace, which started in 2013 to stimulate innovation by starting new initiatives and by sharing knowledge. In the first five years dozens of start-ups were welcomed to start their business. Examples of initiatives are the RAMLAB, the IoT Academy, Cyber ​​Central, Dent and Captain AI. Knowledge gained from these initiatives is now the base for workshops and creative sessions. Their motto? We don’t talk, we do!

Innovation methods Design Thinking and Agile Acting are proven tools to be used in the IT industry, but how can they be implemented in the food processing industry? What are false perceptions and true pitfalls? How can food ingredients companies and food manufacturers apply Design Thinking and Agile acting?

Jan Vaessen and Theo van de Poll provide an insight in redesigned and integrated innovation processes in food.

Theo van de Poll is a seasoned innovator with almost 30 years of experience in product- and process innovation, mostly in the arena of consumer goods. For many years he operated within a complex environment of Unilever R&D (within the various Categories: Foods, IceCream, Beverages, HomeCare). “When working to find solutions for various challenges and quests, I normally ‘start with the consumer in mind’, understanding the real problem first, and then work myself back to find a (technical) – sometimes bold and unorthodox – solution.”

Pragmatic, purposive, analytical, accessible, intelligent … some words that can be used to describe the professional facilitator Jan Vaessen (1969). After gaining his doctorate in Chemical Technology, he started his career in 1996 as a researcher with Unilever. He soon moved on to a position as a project leader, specialising as a facilitator for innovation projects from 2000 onwards. In 2008, he received certification from the International Association of Facilitators (IAF). He also has licences for a number of specific tools.