18th EBU Academy Assembly
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Innovation to drive the digital transformation of public service media
Academy Assembly explored how PSM can target innovation by design
“Keep innovating. Be first. Be quick.”
These were the words of LRT’s chief technology officer, Arnas Zuikis, who delivered the opening remarks at the 18th EBU Academy Assembly in Vilnius on 5-6 October. The theme of the event, hosted by the Lithuanian broadcaster, was how innovation can drive the digital transformation of public service media. The event brought together almost 80 participants from 26 countries.
The programme offered a stimulating mix of practical examples of innovative projects from around the EBU Membership, alongside theoretical frameworks and innovation approaches. The opening keynote from Jeremy Myerson of the Royal College of Art provided one such framework, explaining how Design Thinking can act as a bridge between creativity and innovation. For PSM organizations, Design Thinking in practice usually means starting from an audience-centric perspective.
Culture of innovation
Another strong theme to emerge was the importance of creating an innovation culture within an organization. Director General of Yle, Lauri Kivinen, stressed the importance of ensuring staff have meaningful jobs, working according to a common vision built on transparency and collaboration. “It’s not always about resources,” he said, “it’s about smart solutions and thinking in a new way.”
The chair of the EBA Academy Committee, RTBF’s Frédéric Olivier, said that the Assembly demonstrated clearly the urgent need to invest in the people who work for PSM organizations. He said that Learning and Development managers “need to understand the vision and the needs, where are companies going to, and how we can translate the needs into training programmes which are really relevant.”
Content outline
Day1: Innovation in practice
- Keynote 1: Design thinking, a framework for innovation by Professor Jeremy Myerson, Royal College of Art, London
- Session 1: Design thinking in application
- Session 2: Trying design thinking yourself! Ideation, prototyping, divergent-convergent thinking
- Session 3: The learning afternoon
Day 2: Innovate, the way forward
- Keynote 2: Beyond the article, frontiers of editorial and commercial innovation by Kevin Anderson
- Session 4: CEO challenges to implement innovation
- Session 5: Three innovations/predictions that are going to impact your job
- VRT: Entreprise architecture
- RTBF: Big Data
- BBC Three: Start-up mode - From innovation team to innovative content
