Driving Innovation and Ecosystem Support at the 11th IEO Forum

The 11^th IEO Forum held on 2 September 2022 at ITE College Central saw 77 participants from local Innovation and Enterprise Offices (IEO) and enterprise development agencies in attendance and encouraged a meeting of minds. This is, by far, one of the largest groups the community has seen since it was started 5 years ago, in September 2017.

With an exciting agenda centred around innovation and ecosystem support, IPI Head, Strategy, Marketing and Communications Alvin How kicked off the Forum agenda by sharing the newly created IEO Community LinkedIn Group, to facilitate continued discussions and sharing of information within Singapore’s IEO community. This was followed by Enterprise Singapore Senior Development Partner Logaiswaran Chandrasegaran providing updates on the upcoming Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) flagship event which will be held from 25 to 28 October 2022.

Forum attendees were offered insights on how enterprises can potentially leverage technology and innovation in their growth journeys by Enterprise Singapore. This was followed by a sharing session by A*STAR on the urban solutions and sustainability domain in Singapore, and how this contributes to helping the nation overcome its resource constraints. National Robotics Programme and ITE College Central also went on to provide more information on the National Robotics and the Technology Development Center (TDC) initiatives respectively.

The forum culminated with IPI Chief Technology Officer Dr Sze Tiam Lin thanking the outgoing co-chairs for IEO Forum 2022 for their support in the bi-annual forums since 2017: Singapore Polytechnic Director, Department for Technology, Innovation & Enterprise, David Chai and ITE College Central Director, Technology Development Centre, Dr Lee Teck Kheng. Two new co-chairs for IEO Forum 2023 were introduced: National Healthcare Group Director, Group Research Centre for Medical Technologies and Innovations (CMTi), Louis Ang and Singapore Institute of Technology Director, Innovation & Technology Transfer, Vivien Chow.