For Innovation Origins, 2019 was the year of the European breakthrough. In 2018, we took our first tentative steps in Germany, but now, just over the edge of 2019/20, we can report with a certain amount of pride that our journalists are covering nine European countries – and that this growth will continue this year. Thanks to them, we can tell a variety of stories every day about relevant innovative developments from all parts of Europe – and thus inspire others to build their own innovations on those ideas.
We would never have been able to do this without the support of our donors, our partners and our customers. We would shout out a huge THANK YOU to all those parties and individuals for that. In order not to disappoint them in 2020, we have a number of steps in-store to further improve Innovation Origins. But at the same time, we would like to ask everyone who visits us to share their ideas and suggestions with us. You can do that with this form (it only takes 5 to 10 minutes and you help us enormously).
Our goals for 2020 focus on:
- more countries
- more in-depth reporting
- more channels
- more turnover
So more of everything? No, we’re not going to make more stories: we think that the 5 to 8 stories we currently make on average per day are enough to provide a good and diverse picture of the ‘state of innovation’ in Europe. However, those stories will go a step deeper more often than they do now. For example, we are going to bundle the knowledge contained in all our stories into a number of dossiers. Once a month we will devote a whole week to a particular development, with an extensive dossier on Friday in which all aspects of this development will be analysed again.
Our mission is to tell as many people as possible the story of innovation and to explain to them the technologies that will determine our future. In order to do this in the best possible way, we will make a number of changes to our websites next year, for example, to make our four podcast series a little more visible, or to create a separate place for our weekly explainer videos. In addition, you will find us in more places: on additional media types (podcasts, books, videos for example) and through other media brands (we are the ‘raw material’ for the platforms of third parties).
Events
Our events will also get an upgrade. In the past year, we have already organised the sixth edition of the Gerard & Anton Awards and put ten promising start-ups in the spotlights. Now that Innovation Origins is becoming more and more European, this beautiful event can no longer be left behind. In the coming year, we will be presenting the Gerard & Anton Awards to start-ups from all over Europe. In addition, we are thinking of a monthly start-up event, in line with our ‘start-up of the day’.
Finally, we want to increase our turnover by expanding and broadening our revenue models. The experience of 2019 gives us the confidence that there is still room for this. But we are very aware that this will only succeed if we are able to achieve our content goals. Follow us to find out if we can!
A warm greeting from all IO colleagues across Europe – and don’t forget that survey!
