The Epic Journey for Odyssey Partners 2019
To improve our open innovation program and give our partners the opportunity to learn from each other, Odyssey organized two Connecting Peers events.
At Connecting Peers, our partners, among which Vattenfall, Nutreco, and the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, shared their stories and lessons learned during the last Odyssey season, and explained how, together with the hackathon teams, they made the impossible possible at their organizations.
Update June 23, 2020: note that the event formerly known as Odyssey Hackathon has been moved online and rebranded as Odyssey Momentum. More: https://www.odyssey.org/odyssey-hackathon-becomes-momentum/
Michiel Sintenie — Vattenfall
This season, Vattenfall brought forward two challenges to the Odyssey Hackathon as part of the Fossil Free Future track.
As Michiel Sintenie, Specialist Lead Europe, explained: “We have the mission to become fossil-free within one generation and we also have challenges that we cannot fix alone: that’s where Odyssey comes in.”
For the first Vattenfall challenge, teams had to create a mobile virtual power plant — to help balancing the grid. The team of Porsche, the car manufacturer, eventually won and is now in talks with Vattenfall in Sweden for further development of the solution.
For the second one, Vattenfall ignited a collaboration with Certiq [TenneT], the official Dutch certifier of energy, for the challenge of small producers (households) to have their energy labeled as green. Teams were challenged to get validated data, without putting extra hardware in the house.
Moreover, the consortium formed during and with the Odyssey program became a driver for Vattenfall, Certiq [TenneT], and other partners involved to work together on the acceleration of a broader solution.
Michiel Sintenie said: “We work on this fossil free-future ourselves while dealing with ecosystem challenges, and this is the reason why we collaborate with Odyssey. Now, the possibilities to create solutions for these challenges with blockchain are really well known.”
Winning solutions of the Vattenfall track: http://solutions.odyssey.org/fossil-free-future/
Teresa Debesa — Nutreco
Nutreco joined Odyssey to explore how blockchain and other technologies could impact the way we produce food, and how they could be applied cross-industry.
The complexity of the food value chain leads to inefficiencies with a direct impact on sustainability, food security, and fairness. Nutreco challenged the teams to find a way to streamline and bring transparency to our food production systems. As Teresa Debesa, Corporate Development Manager, said: “Odyssey, the start of an epic journey, is actually what happened to us in the program”.
Teresa also explained that Nutreco wants to connect with a global ecosystem to support the development of new technologies to tackle key issues in the industry. This program is complementary to their internal innovation teams. Nutreco is currently discussing with other partners in the value chain to start a pilot with GoodChain, winner of the Feeding the Future track.
In the end, Teresa noted: “The technology and the systems for tracking provenance already exist. At the hackathon we challenged teams to think about value chain incentives, why does a consumer want to check the provenance, with gamification and token design.”
Winning solutions of the Nutreco challenge: http://solutions.odyssey.org/odyssey-hackathon-2019-winner-feeding-the-future-team-goodchain/
Wouter Welling — Ministry of the Interior
The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations also hosted two challenges at the Odyssey 2019 Hackathon within the Digital Citizenship track where they introduced the “digital-first” approach to government policy.
Wouter Welling, Coordinating Policy Officer, told about their pains and gains from 2019 season: “Planning 5–10 years ahead in governmental IT is planning for your next IT failure. No more projects with a fixed end date. Realize that you are never finished, you work on the Sagrada Familia and the team that works on it will constantly change.”
Wouter also explained that within eGovernment the trend is from “innovation theater (talking about innovation and hackathons and not actually having an impact on your business) towards really working and engaging and finding out how to change the method to operate as a government.”
Regarding the cooperation between the Ministry and Odyssey, he noted: “It is good to be in an ecosystem (Odyssey) where people engage with you and challenge your beliefs and help build better alternatives.”
Winning solutions of the Ministry of the Interior track: http://solutions.odyssey.org/track-digital-citizenship/
If you want to become a partner or challenge-owner at the next Odyssey 2020 season, here is what you need to know.
When do you have a suitable challenge for Odyssey?
Imagine you have a problem and so do your stakeholders. You don’t know what the solutions should look like and therefore cannot ask the market for a (traditional) quote or proposal. Let’s, together with the stakeholders, ask the ecosystem for a solution, so you actually get what you want.
What is the effect on your organization?
Every Odyssey partner ‘has’ the Odyssey ecosystem, shared with others, that helps extend your innovation department with 10.000+ ecosystem members.
How does Odyssey support you?
From co-creating the challenge and helping form the consortium to connecting your management for follow-up budgets and curating the best teams, during the entire program.
About Odyssey
Odyssey connects governmental, corporate, and nonprofit partners with innovative ideas to collaboratively address complex 21st-century challenges. We mobilize a global ecosystem of more than 6,000 members, among whom developers, creatives, startups, corporates, investors, governmental bodies, legal experts, regulators, scientists, and other key stakeholders. The past three physical editions of the event known as “Odyssey Hackathon” have drawn thousands of participants from around the world to Groningen, the Netherlands. The next edition, rebranded as Odyssey Momentum, explores the internet’s potential to unlock new levels of online collaboration and next-gen event experiences.
