Polish-American Innovation Week Comes to Berkeley, Nov. 19

The UC Berkeley Center for Executive Education (CEE) at Haas will co-host a day of events Nov. 19, intended to promote growing economic and scientific opportunities in Poland and advance cooperation and collaboration between the two nations.

The event, which is part of Polish-American Week, will be held at Memorial Stadium. The day's schedule kicks off with a panel, The Ecosystem of Innovation in Silicon Valley and Poland, moderated by Natasha Kapil, of the World Bank’s private and financial sector development group of the Europe and Central Asia region. After, about 200 scientists, scholars, and business innovators will take classes in topics including corporate entrepreneurship and European Union venture funding, and participate in breakout sessions in areas such as healthcare, engineering, and the creative industries.

The annual event is designed to help Polish innovators commercialize ideas in areas including clean tech, life sciences, and financial services.

The program began in 2012, when UC Berkeley’s Center for Executive Education developed a partnership with the government of Poland and some of its top academics, scientists, and entrepreneurs through the Top 500 Innovators Program. Program organizers aim to invite 500 Polish innovators to participate by 2017.

The ongoing relationship between Berkeley-Haas and Poland has proven a success. Since its inception in 2012, the Top 500 Innovators program has led to the creation of 13 start-ups and four spin-off companies, set up and run by program alumni who were instructed and inspired by entrepreneurs, researchers, and scientists from Berkeley-Haas and other top universities. It's also led to scientific conferences, fellowships and workshops in Poland in collaboration with scientists from Berkeley-Haas. PAX Water CEO Peter Fiske (MBA 02), for example, led an innovation workshop in Toruń in Northern Poland, and Haas lecturer Clark Kellogg directed a workshop on design thinking in Kraków.

The Nov. 19 event is part of the Polish-American Innovation Week that features conferences, debates, and lectures from Nov. 16-21 at locations including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Palo Alto. Innovation Week is sponsored by Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in cooperation with its Ministry of Science and Higher Education, National Research and Development Center, and other institutional partners.

For more information visit http://www.paiw.pl/en/o-paiw.

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