Ideas Mining in 2008

In 2008, was again heavy demand for Ideas Mining on the part of various companies, scientific institutions and municipalities. Altogether, AFO held 18 Ideas Mining workshops this year, dealing with various problems. AFO was particular pleased about the collaboration with Cologne/Bonn Airport and the Tchibo chain of coffee shops. As previously announced last year, AFO is working on a cooperation with Prof. Wolfgang Sander from the ‘Media Pedagogics Office at the Institute for Educational Science to use Ideas Mining for school-related issues. The pilot project in cooperation with the Annette Grammar School in Münster ended successfully in November 2008. A stronger cooperation is planned in 2009. AFO is eagerly anticipating the 16 Ideas Mining workshops on local government issues which will be conducted for the NRW.BANK in 2009.

Ideas Mining has been given a new design: logos and ideas reports have been changed in line with the new WWU corporate design.

The Ideas Mining facilitator training is popular with students and external participants and was conducted twice in 2008.

Ideas Mining - Dortmund Business Start-Up Groups

The collaboration with Dortmund Technical University, the University of Applied Sciences in Dortmund and the Science on Site (Wissenschaft vor Ort) Association, as part of the Dortmund Business Start-Up Groups project (Dortmunder Hochschulgründerverbünde) was successfully completed during the summer of 2008. Altogether, AFO conducted ten Ideas Mining workshops as part of the project for business start-ups and young entrepreneurs and helped to get their business ideas off the ground. The experiences AFO made were very positive, so in 2009 it offers Ideas Mining to business start-ups from the University of Münster.

Effects of one Ideas Mining workshop in Bergkamen

During the winter term of 2008/2009 a student’s project group from the Geosciences Department worked out recommendations for a new organizational structure for city marketing in Bergkamen. The cooperation between the City of Bergkamen and the bachelor students, all in their 4th or 5th semesters, resulted from an Ideas Mining workshop, conducted on behalf of the City of Bergkamen in October 2006. This practice-related task of providing consulting services to a municipality offered exciting insights into future job areas for the students taking part. At the same time, the participants from thr City of Bergkamen were able to discuss creative ideas away from their everyday administrative work and, together with the students, gain new perspectives on communal organizational structures.