University Alliances at SAPPHIRE Forum Shanghai ,3rd – 4th July 2014

[Former Member]

SAPPHIRE Forum Shanghai 2014, connecting people and ideas by “Innovation through Simplification”, was held during July 3^rd - July 4^th. The event attracted more than 5,489 physical attendees and 40,307 unique online attendees viewed the keynotes on July 3^rd .

University Alliances invited 30 professors from 18 universities to attend this event, among which were Fudan University, Tongji University, Nanjing University, East China Normal University, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai University ,and Xidian University, etc.

During the two days, after warm welcome from UA managers, teachers attended Keynotes, listened to Innovation through Simplification by Mark Gibbs, President of SAP Greater China, from which they learnt much about SAP HANA, Big Data, and Cloud Computing.

After keynotes on July 3^rd, Josie Guan and Benny Sun from UA leaded the teachers to visit show floor. In Show Floor, there were nearly one hundred showcases. “SAP Match Insights” soccer solution based on SAP HANA platform attracted many people, like Mr. Zhu from Tongji University kept asking questions to the presenter and took many photos of the amazing show.

In the afternoon, We are very honored to invited to Mark Gibbs made a welcome speech in the of “Design Thinking for Social Innovation” session. professors invited by UA attended it and which  engaged more than 110 China social innovators (Thought Leaders, NGOs, University professors and Young Entrepreneurs) to exchange ideas, inspire millennial entrepreneurs and experience the innovation magic of design thinking.

As one of the biggest supporter and contributor to this event, UA China not only get involved in the early    stage for planning, but also made volunteering contribution to the Design Thinking for Social Innovation  mini-workshop, and among whom Jenny Yang and Josie Guan acted as group facilitators while Benny Sun and Monica Zhang acted as assistants. As a result, with support from UA, Design Thinking has become quite aware and welcome among attendees in social sector.

Heartiest thanks to Linda Fu, China CSR Lead, and Dr. Lu Bainian of the Design Thinking’s trainer from Internal  to support this session as well we other volunteered SAP colleagues to bring all the wonderful ideas  come true!