Early September, the Faculty of Business hosted the 10th International Continuous Innovation Network (CINet) Conference. As conferences are usually held in Europe, it was an honour for the Faculty to be chosen to host this international event.

Around 80 people attended the conference from as far afield as UK, Scandinavia, Iran, Netherlands, Italy and a range of other countries. The papers presented at the conference covered a wide array of topics including new product development, HRM for innovation, open and network innovation, and capabilities for innovation.

The keynote speaker for the conference was Professor Roy Green, Dean of Business, UTS. There was also a lively presentation from an industry panel including Samantha Goddard (Urban Circus), John Kochanski (Prodigy +), Ben Phillips (CEVA Logistics) and Richard Stevenson (Research International/TNS). The panel was chaired by Professor John Bessant, Director of Research and Knowledge Transfer, Exeter University.

Although hosting many accomplished and recognised academics, CINet is also very committed to developing the next generation of researchers. As a part of the conference, there was an intensive workshop conducted for PhD students, and a meeting of early career academics with a special presentation from Professor Per Davidsson, Assistant Dean of Research, Faculty of Business, QUT.

Outstanding papers were recognised during the conference. Best paper awards went to:

• The John Bessant Best Paper Award: “Ideation Capabilities for Continuous Innovation”, Jennie Björk (Chalmers University, Sweden), Paolo Boccardelli (Luiss University, Italy) and Mats Magnusson (Chalmers University, Sweden)
  • Highly Commended: “Human Resource Management and Innovation: What are Knowledge-Intensive Firms Doing?”, Frances Jørgensen (Aarhus University, Denmark), Karen Becker (QUT, Australia) and Judy Matthews (QUT, Australia)
  • Highly Commended: “High-End Disruptive Technologies with an Inferior Performance”, Christian Sandström (Chalmers University, Sweden)
• Best industry paper: “Improving Competitiveness by Adopting a Creative Approach to Product and Process Innovation”, Dennis McKeag (University of Ulster, Northern Ireland)

However it wasn’t all serious business with many opportunities to network and socialise. Professor Lisa Bradley, Head of School of Management, welcomed delegates to Brisbane at the cocktail reception and Professor Peter Little, Executive Dean of Business addressed delegates during the conference dinner. During his presentation, Professor Little made particular mention of the two Faculty research groups who sponsored the conference (the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Cluster and the Infrastructure Management Research Group) and the industry partner, QMI Solutions.

A good time was had by all, feedback from delegates was extremely positive; particularly those from Europe who were most envious of the weather provided for the event. Delegates look forward to the 2010 conference in Zürich Switzerland.