7 November 2018
In October and November, like in the years before, SparkOptimus hosted six Round Tables for CEOs and senior executives on topics that are currently relevant for them. Under the theme ‘Drinks, Dinner & Digital Inspiration’, our guests get inspired to think about what digital disruption means for the way they run their business, and discuss this in an informal setting of 20-30 peers over dinner.
The Round Table season was kicked off with an intimate setting for a smaller number of CEO’s in the wholesale business (eg. Eriks, Royal Lempkes) to get inspired by the amazing change story of Kramp. Lively discussions filled the evening, focussing on the specific challenges in a B2B dominated business.
Over the weeks following there were a three more retail and pure player oriented round tables, where on different evenings Piet Coelewij of Wehkamp, Pieter Zwart of Coolblue and Joris Beckers of Picnic shared some of their insights and experiences on scaling up digital businesses. With around 30 CEO’s present on each of these evenings, we worried we might be keeping the neighbours up deep into the night as a result of the discussions and sharing of experienced that followed on each – it was amazing to see the depth of experience and knowledge all the participants brought into the discussion!
November has just started, with two evenings aimed at CEOs of industries focussing on services rather than products (energy, telco, finance), with a mix of CEO’s of large incumbents on the one hand (e.g. ING, Nederlandse Loterij, NUTSgroep) and more relatively recent ventures on the other hand (e.g. Peaks, Lancyr, Greenchoice). Michel Schaeffer and Hans Böhm shared on different evenings their view on what it takes to get a successful venture off the ground, complemented by Wim Nieuwenhuijse sharing the story of growing Evi. This sparked insightful discussions about the parallels and differences between ventures in these different areas and amongst other things the role of the regulator in the success of those. The mix of industry specialists with great speakers again proved to be a recipe for discussions with great depth and insight.
And the season is not yet over – 3 more round tables will follow in 3 more weeks to come! We’ve been inspired by the evenings and discussions thusfar, and without exception CEO’s and speakers alike have given us the same feedback. We’re excited about the round tables to come – watch this space to find out how they went!