On Tuesday, 4 November 2008, Strukton held its first Innovation Conference at De Fabrique in Utrecht. The organisers are a group of colleagues who have set themselves up as the Innovation Forum. The aim of the conference is to inspire employees and clearly point out that Strukton offers scope for innovative minds.

Strukton employees were invited to attend the conference, together with a business contact, customer or partner. Some 180 innovative minds turned up, in search of inspiration in the presentations held by speakers including Tjeu Smeets (Innovation Manager at Dutch Rail [NS]), Joost Schrijnen (Programme Director of the Delta Council) and Medy van der Laan (former State Secretary for Education, Culture & Science in the Balkenende II government). In addition, participants had a choice of attending one of the eight interactive workshops on various topics, including corporate social responsibility (CSR) and public transport in the future. The participants were also taught to think out-of-the-box, or view and resolve a problem from various perspectives and on the basis of different interests.

During the breaks, the participants were encouraged to describe not only their innovative ideas, but also impediments, on a special innovation wall. Terms such as ‘passion’, ‘courage’ and ‘knowledge dissemination’ were commonplace among the messages committed to the innovation wall. And this was exactly what the organisers had hoped for. “This conference is the beginning of a new movement. We consider it crucial that our employees innovate, which should lead to innovative products and processes. It is even more important that they comprehend that they are permitted to innovate, while taking the initiative to create their own scope for innovation and grasping the opportunity to pursue their personal ideas with passion, pleasure and tenacity. The rest will then follow naturally,” said Frank Hoekemeijer, Chairman of the Strukton Innovation Forum. “The Strukton Innovation Forum will of course continue to drive and encourage innovation within the organisation. The conference also gave us the opportunity to introduce ourselves and our objectives to the rest of Strukton.”

The day’s proceedings concluded with the presentation of the first Challenging Clients Award. Strukton established the award as an incentive to the person or team responsible for the most innovative and distinctive project of the year 2008. The winning project should also contribute towards corporate social responsibility, while remaining distinctive, innovative and in accordance with Strukton’s core values and creating added value for both the customer and Strukton itself. This year’s winner was the AMFORA (the Dutch acronym for Alternative Multi-Functional Underground Space in Amsterdam) project team. The AMFORA concept – which comprises six levels of living, working and parking space – aims to provide an additional area of some 1,000,000 m² beneath Amsterdam’s canals. Bas Obladen, the initiator of AMFORA, accepted the award on behalf of the project team.