Cooperatives lead to the future

Sustainable growth and the creation of work that makes sense for the society are the main driving forces of cooperatives. This is the result of the 18th International Conference on Cooperative Studies (ICCS) from September 14th to 16th in Lucerne, Switzerland.

More than 1.000 participants, leaders of cooperatives and academics from 21 countries discussed current issues about the identity and growth of cooperatives at the highest level. In addition, dialogues were directed between leaders and academics during forums in order to inspire and transfer the latest research to a practical level.

CIBP was invited to contribute to the ICCS by running a Value Innovation dialoque during three days.

“We gathered twenty participants from fiteen different countries. Thank to the variety of backgrounds they have managed to work on radically different perspectives of the cooperative business model”, CIBP project manager Umberto di Pasquo said.

Dr. Fotis Filippopoulos, Director at Shakesteer who was facilitating the innovation dialoque, explained: “We focused on identifiying novel capabilities to drive future business strategies pursuing success and growth within a cross sectoral collaborative economic ecosystem.” He presented the results of the innovation lab at the closing ceremony on Friday.

Besides participating in the Innovation Lab, CIBP Secretary General Dr. Andrea Karner, was involved in the modeartion of one of the panel on “Cooperative Banks and the enabling environment”, sponsored by EACB.

She represented CIBP within the framework of the conference and thanked Professor Dr. Franco Taisch and Professor Dr. Alexander Jungmeister for inviting CIBP to this inspiring international scientific event.

Read more about ICCS: http://iccs2016.ch/en/