Let’s Co-Innovate the Next Big Thing Next Week at Web Summit

Next week, about 50,000 innovators will be abuzz with new ideas as they converge in Lisbon, Portugal for Europe’s most spectacular technology marketplace.

It is the annual Web Summit, Nov. 7-10.  Innovation leaders from around the world at Fortune 500 companies, startups, venture capital firms, academia, government and other fields will network on how to accelerate the most disruptive emerging solutions.

Cisco is thrilled to be there as a Web Summit partner. Please join us for one or more of our many planned experiences.

Many of our top strategic innovators, including Helder Antunes, senior director of corporate development technology, will look, listen, learn and—most importantly—engage with the most promising innovation pioneers. We want to team up, start up and scale up the best ideas for our digital age.

In a word, let’s co-innovate!

How? First, we invite you to stop by our booth (#872, in the Enterprise Stage Area), introduce yourself and ask. The Cisco team will be on hand to answer questions and show how we co-innovate for success at any stage of development. From startups that are just an idea on the back of a napkin, to full-fledged, revenue-generating companies, Cisco can help bring your ideas to life.

At the booth, you can also check out our latest innovation developments or have some fun with our interactive map of nine Innovation Centers worldwide. The map displays the latest business solutions built on our digital platform that leverage the Internet of Things. We are co-developing these disruptive, game-changers alongside customers, partners and our growing innovation community.

If you want to know why, “Every country will be digital,” attend this keynote by the always charismatic John Chambers, Cisco’s Chairman of the Board, on Nov. 8, 111:20a.m.

We are also igniting co-innovation through our annual Innovation Grand Challenge. This year, the challenge culminates at the Web Summit on Nov. 9 with selection of three ultimate winners from a field of 5,500-plus entrants in more than 150 countries. You can read more about the challenge and our six finalists in my blog last week.

Seating for the finals will be very limited, so I urge you to reserve a place as soon as possible here. This will be our third annual Innovation Grand Challenge, and the final live showdown is always intense, exciting and rewarding for everyone.

Finalists will make “Shark Tank” style pitches before spectators and a panel of prominent industry judges, who will quiz them before declaring the three winners on the spot. The finalists will compete for $250,000 in prize money, resources, access to our Innovation Centers and strong co-development support.

The finalists are:

CloudMedx, United States: AI platform simplifies, scales and automates delivery of healthcare

Dedrone, United States: Automated, 3D aerial security platform identifies unauthorized drones, protecting critical installations.

Gestoos, Spain: Artificial intelligence for cameras that can see people’s movement and understand their behavior.

L7 Defense, Israel: Self- and machine-learning intelligence platform lessens DDoS attacks with little user interference.

ProGlove, Germany: Smart, wearable gloves link workers to digitized systems, improving speed, quality and data.

Streamroot, France, Centralized video optimization network improves speed, quality of service, and global reach.

Innovation can come from anywhere, and we know the Web Summit will attract a world full of creative talent. Wherever we operate, Cisco focuses on five pillars of innovation (Build, Buy, Partner, Invest and Co-Develop) and my colleagues are on standby to tell you more next week.

In Europe alone we:

Build – with 19 research and development centers in 12 countries, focusing on collaboration, security, and applications.

Buy – more than 20 acquisitions with headquarters in Europe.

Partner – create with partners like Ericsson and Philips.

Invest – direct and indirect investments with startups and entrepreneurs like AdBrain and InterSec.

Co-Develop – work with customers, developers and decision makers on new, industry-changing ideas built on the network. We do this in our Innovation Centers, which you can learn more about in our booth.

Cisco has too many co-innovation programs to mention here, but Cisco DevNet is another worth highlighting. This global program, which has already helped nearly 400,000 developers, enables companies to scale and monetize their ideas through an online toolkit, sandbox environment, test platform and online courses.

The Web Summit will prove to be a treasure trove of ideas and partnerships for co-innovation. Follow our action on Twitter #CiscoInnovates. Better yet, stop by our booth and find out why there has never been a better time to co-innovate with Cisco.

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