ECI Roundtable
Erasmus Center for Innovation

Erasmus Center for Innovation, formerly New Business Roundtable, is a European network of executives in New Business Development and Innovation from companies such as Google, KPN, Rabobank, Royal Cosun, ASM, Boskalis, Damen, Bunge, NXP and AkzoNobel.

Jan van den Ende, professor of Innovation and Technology Management at Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University Rotterdam, is the initiator of this. Since 2018, VKOZ events & communication has been organizing the various events. From 2024 under the new name: Erasmus Center for Innovation. The baton has been passed on to Murat Tarakci, professor of Innovation Strategy at Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

ECI has expanded its services. Members can choose from two different packages: ECI Roundtable partnership (as the New Business Roundtable) or ECI Academic partnership (with the aim of creating a better future together with academics and students).

In order to achieve the goals of ECI, innovation managers from large corporates meet four times a year. This happens twice a year during a full day event (in April and October) and twice a year during an interactive webinar (in January and June).

We always invite academic speakers who are specialists in a certain subject (but from different perspectives) and speakers from the business community. Sometimes the members are also speakers. Or we visit the locations of our members during the full day event. Various subjects are discussed that are relevant to the innovation managers. Networking is central to this, so that experiences are shared with each other.

We organized the congress in Utrecht in April 2024 and April 2025, at the beautiful location of Grand Hotel Karel V. With the topics "Agile Portfolio Management" and "Innovating Together" we provided an interesting and informative program. This was put together by five speakers, each with a different perspective.

Discussions were held in breakout sessions, where the innovation managers shared topics from their field of work with each other. The breaks in different rooms ensured that the beautiful location, right in the center, was used well. To conclude, the participants had a drink together during a networking moment while enjoying a drink and snacks.