Innovation Pioneers Summit — November 19–20, Stockholm
Welcome to Epicenter STOCKHOLM, Malmskillnadsgatan 44A, for the 2025 Innovation Pioneers Annual Summit
DAY 0 – Check-in snackas/hang out | 18:00 – Not too late
We meet for a glass of wine and some snacks at our own cost. The restaurant is next door to Epicenter, Bistro Tartine (Malmskillnadsgatan 42)
DAY 1 — November 19
Building the New Normal of Innovation
The rules of innovation are being rewritten — fast. AI is reshaping how customers discover, decide, and connect. Supply chains are learning to anticipate disruption instead of reacting to it. Cyber resilience is no longer a technical issue — it’s a leadership skill. And across every industry, teams are experimenting, prototyping, and hacking their way toward smarter, more adaptive systems.
Day 1 dives into the new operating logic of innovation — where creativity meets data, agility meets resilience, and human insight drives technology forward. Expect deep dives from Framna, Scania Innovation Lab, OutSystems, Max Matthiessen, and Hanna Linderstål, as they share how leading organizations are navigating the next frontier of digital transformation — not by predicting the future, but by building the capacity to thrive within it.
Coffee (60 mins) | 08.00 – 09.00
Guided tour of Epicenter (20 mins) | 08.30 – 08.50
Welcome from our partner Epicenter (10 mins) | 08.50 – 09.00
Edgar Luczak / Epicenter – How Epicenter, Sweden’s largest innovation House, drives innovation by supporting and partnering with Innovation Pioneers.
Opening (20 mins) | 09.00 – 09.20
Roland Williams & Albert Bengtson at Innovation Pioneers — setting the tone for two days of connection, curiosity, and creative collision, and launching Innovation Pioneers Academy with content. The Academy is based on a collaboration with the new Erigo learning platform and HiStreamers . They present how companies can get more value out of all their events — from workshops and internal meetings to large conferences — using smart, autonomous video technology. (20 mins)
Rewriting the customer journey: Competing in the age of AI – Framna | 09.20 – 09.50
Framna (one of our news enterprise members). Consumers are no longer starting their discovery on Google; they’re asking AI assistants for recommendations, skipping traditional touchpoints entirely. This shift changes how customers interact with your brand, and it’s only the beginning. (30 mins)
Recent advancements from OpenAI and others point toward a future where your brand can no longer control every part of the customer experience. Customer journeys will increasingly flow between humans and AI agents, and between your owned digital channels and emerging AI platforms. (30 min)
Breakout Session (120 mins) | 10.20 – 12.20
Framna – Shape your next-generation channel strategy through hands-on frameworks
Dr. Ruben Puentedura – A Deep Dive into Black Swans and Antifragility Today
Max Matthiessen – Discover how to energize future-ready organizations that can adapt faster, perform better, and care deeper.
Kairos Future – Catch the future ahead! Get hands-on experience how to prosper the future. Start with weak signals – end with a clear picture of your wanted future!
Lunch (45 mins) | 12.20 – 13.00
AI Baren | 13.00 – 13.15
Sophia Båge and Bengt Wessborg discuss with Albert Bengtson what happens to brand value when transitioning from e-commerce to AI-commerce. (15 mins)
Mega Trend Watch | 13.15 – 13.35
Niklas Madsen / Superlab. Where is innovation really headed? From AI acceleration to human-centered design, our experts decode the forces reshaping the world. (20 mins)
Cyber Bootcamp — Hanna Linderstål | 13.35 – 13.55
Hanna Linderstål – An interactive drill on resilience and response in the age of cyber complexity. Recently nominated as the AI person of 2025, together with Anton Osika (Lovable) and Marcus Wallenberg, by Tech Sweden… (20mins)
Happy Business – the secret path to innovation | 13.55 – 14.15
Ola Ahlvarsson – “Happy Business – The Secret Path to Innovation” is a radical but deeply human approach to rethinking how organizations innovate. Instead of treating happiness as a side effect of success, this concept places it at the very heart of the innovation process. It suggests that when people feel safe, inspired, and connected, they’re not only more productive—they become naturally more creative, more daring, and more collaborative. In this sense, happiness isn’t a fluffy bonus; it’s the emotional infrastructure that enables innovation to flourish. (20 mins)
Break (30 mins) | 14.30 – 15.00
The survival of the smartest | 15.00 – 15.15
Mats Lindgren / Kairos Future – The future isn’t what it used to be. Uncertainty and information explosion require AI-powered foresight and innovation to stay ahead – or even survive. (15 min)
Intentional leadership | 15.15 – 15.30
Soledad Piñero Misa / Part of More – How can leaders create more genuine trust among humans while navigating the AI era? What role do values and vision play in creating sustainable success? Intentional Leadership is a human-centered leadership approach that draws from neuroscience research, tech industry experience, and social innovation to facilitate environments where inclusive human potential can flourish alongside purpose-driven innovation and common wellbeing. The Intentional Leadership Lab offers evidence-based tools that enable leaders and changemakers to navigate worldly uncertainties while creating intentional paths for common progress.
(15 min)
Breakout Session (120 mins) | 15.30 – 17.30
Framna – Shape your next-generation channel strategy through hands-on frameworks
Dr. Ruben Puentedura – Reinventing the Learning Organization in an AI World.
Max Matthiessen – Discover how to energize future-ready organizations that can adapt faster, perform better, and care deeper.
Kairos Future – Catch the future ahead! Get hands-on experience how to prosper the future. Start with weak signals – end with a clear picture of your wanted future!
Summary Q&A — Your Highlights & Takeaways from Day 1 (15 mins) | 17.30 – 17.45
Reflect, recharge, and connect the dots before we move into evening mode.
Dinner (4 hours) | 19.00 – 23.00
Now the real networking and innovation transfer comes to a point. We walk, take the tube, or in other way transport ourselves to the harbor, where MS Märtha will host us. She is docked at Söder Mälarstrand, Kajplats 16 – https://www.msmartha.se/
___________________
DAY 2 — November 20
Designing Human-Centered Futures
As technology accelerates, one truth becomes clearer than ever: the future must still be designed around people. Day 2 explores how empathy, emotion, and collaboration are driving the next wave of innovation — from financial wellbeing to civic transformation. We’ll dive into happiness as a performance metric, discover how hackathons are reshaping public innovation, and learn how organizations can become antifragile — thriving in uncertainty through trust, creativity, and shared purpose. Expect perspectives from Max Matthiessen, the City of Stockholm, Green Cargo, OutSystems, and Dr. Ruben Puentedura, as they reveal how human-centered design, low-code tools, and collective intelligence are powering smarter, more resilient systems. This is innovation with a heartbeat — where technology amplifies what makes us human.
Coffee (60 mins) | 08.00 – 09.00
Welcome – Designing Work That Humans and AI Can Thrive In | 09.00 – 09.20
In this opening session we look at how AI, hybrid work and innovation pressure are reshaping the real workday for innovators and middle managers. Henrik Järleskog shares his journey as an AI augmented executive and introduces a simple lens for designing work systems where superworkers, teams and workplaces can thrive instead of burn out. A fast and honest start to Day 2 that sets the tone for human centered innovation all the way to the closing Q&A.
Henrik Jarleskog / North Fox Ventures – (20min)
Designing energy: The New superpower of future-ready organizations (20 mins) | 09.20 – 09.40
Stefan Moritz, Max Matthiessen. In a world of constant disruption, the greatest source of competitive advantage is not technology – it’s human energy. Examples and inspirations on how leaders can design organizations that adapt faster, perform better, and care deeper — where wellbeing and performance reinforce each other. Drawing on foresight, design thinking, and behavioral insight, Stefan reveals how to turn uncertainty into a strategic advantage by creating cultures of purpose, participation, and resilience. This is a call to energize the future of work – helping people and teams flourish while building organizations that thrive amid change. (20 min)
Scania – From strategy to impact | 09.40 – 10.15
Jesper Blomster / Scania. How can a company turn strategy into measurable impact – fast? Jesper Blomster shares Scania’s journey to build a new way of working: from strategy to execution, connecting people, process, and data into one method that drives change. The talk focuses on how Scania developed its approach to Process Intelligence – bridging strategic goals, operational challenges, and real business impact within Order-to-Delivery. (35 mins)
Break (15 mins) | 10.15 – 10.30
Breakout Session (120 mins) | 10.30 – 12.30
Framna – Shape your next-generation channel strategy through hands-on frameworks
Dr. Ruben Puentedura – Partnering with AI in Scenario and Game Design for Learning
Max Matthiessen – Discover how to energize future-ready organizations that can adapt faster, perform better, and care deeper.
Kairos Future – Catch the future ahead! Get hands-on experience how to prosper the future. Start with weak signals – end with a clear picture of your wanted future!
Lunch (60 mins) | 12.30 – 13.30
The City of Stockholm Home Edition Hackathon Story | 13.30-13.50
Ariane Bucquet Pousette and Marie Östblom. How the City of Stockholm used a hackathon-driven approach to reinvent its off-season strategy — bringing together tech minds, designers, and citizens to co-create bold, data-powered solutions that redefined urban engagement and sparked new momentum for the city’s innovation ecosystem. (20 min)
Check-in: Antifragile Innovation | 13.50-14.10
Dr. Ruben Puentedura – Chaos is inevitable — the question is how you use it. Dr. Ruben Puentedura shows how organizations that embrace complexity gain a decisive edge. By training teams to understand each other’s thinking and communicate clearly, companies can turn disruption into strength — becoming less fragile, more adaptive, and ready to seize the opportunities hidden in every Black Swan event. (20 min)
OutSystems | 14.10 – 14.20
Chris Shields / OutSystems. Why low-code platforms are powering the next generation of AI hackathons. (10mins)
How to dodge the No-sayers in the AI discussion | 14.20 – 14.40
Jonathan Hammander / Aitomation – Most pushback isn’t about AI itself — it’s about fear, control, and uncertainty.
Show small, tangible wins that make their day easier, and the resistance starts to crack.
And when someone says “it can’t be done,” ask them to name one moment in history improved by standing still. AI (20 mins)
Innovation Pioneers Home Editions Hackathons (20 mins) | 14.40 – 15.00
Albert Bengtson / Innovation Pioneers. A fresh look at why hackathons matter — and examples of how structured creativity can unlock exponential innovation.
Summary Q&A — Your Highlights & Takeaways from Day 2 (30 mins) | 15.00 – 15.30
Henrik Jarleskog / North Fox Ventures
After event mingling (30 mins) | 15.30 – 16.00
The event is powered by Epicenter