On Wednesday, Suitable for Business hosted this year’s pre-event, a so-called Innovation Battle held at Pumpehuset in central Copenhagen. The point of the evening was to explore the concept of innovation; what is innovation? How do we create innovation? How can innovation create value for society as a whole? Can we combine education and innovation? How can students become more innovative?

On the first day of this year’s conference we are very excited to be presenting a panel debate on how the social sciences and humanities can create value in future business life. Suitable for Business truly believes that people from such fields of study as the humanities and the social sciences have lots to offer in terms of skills and engagement.

Throughout the conference we will explore the concept of value creation through the lens of the humanities and social sciences and the role of these kind of skills in modern business life. But how can the lessons from these discussions get YOU closer to a concrete idea of what it means to apply your academic skills in the real world? March 21st 10.30-12.00 Suitable for Business 2012 brings you two inspirational stories on how you move from the ivory tower of abstract academia to new ways of thinking business.

Suitable for Business is proud to reveal the name of the second keynote speaker of this year’s conference: Francesco Avvisati from the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD. He will be speaking on the 21st March.

Suitable for Business is proud to reveal the name of our first keynote speaker: Professor Henry Etzkowitz from Stanford University.

Kære Læser,

Suitable for Business´ ambition er at belyse hvordan human- og socialvidenskabelige studerende og kandidater kan bidrage til samfundet, herunder erhvervslivet. Det sker på to måder; via en case-competition hvor 50 studerende fra hele Norden skal vise hvad vi dur til, samt konferencen, der på forskelligvis diskuterer emnets udstrækninger.

Af Troels Bjørn Thorn

Hvilken værdi skaber humanister i erhvervslivet? Dette væsentlige og uafklarede spørgsmål tager konferencen, Suitable for Business, op. Initiativtagerne erklærer: “[…] we want to challenge and develop the modern business world in order to prepare it for a future within the knowledge economy.”

Af Maibrit Dessau Borkfelt Mogensen, Founder of HumEnzym

Da Jaque Kerouac rejste fra New York til San Francisco i slutningen af 1940’erne, var det begyndelsen på en ny kultur, der skulle ende med at overtage verden. I de efterfølgende år fulgte kunstnere, homoseksuelle, forskellige etniciteter og til sidst den nye teknologis avantgardekunstnere – computernørderne. I 70’erne gik denne skæve blanding af mennesker på de samme colleges i San Francisco området. Her diskuterede de med hinanden og skabte det skønne sammensurium af kreativitet, historiefortælling og nyskabende teknologi, der lagde fundamentet for dét globale samfund, vi har i dag. Det var her internettet og princippet om open source software blev skabt.

Hvordan promoverer man humanistisk og socialvidenskabelig viden? Hvordan sikrer man en højere grad af videndeling, såvel som vidensanvendelse med afsæt i universiteterne i hvad vi kalder det moderne videnssamfund? Og endelig, hvordan opkvalificerer vi en ungdom til intelligent at kunne tage vare på fremtidens forretnings- og samfundsliv?