Supporting the Research Triangle's product development community

On Friday, April 25, Trig Innovation participated in the Product Development and Management Association’s fifth annual Innovate Carolina conference in support of the area’s product development community.

Held at rotating venues across the Carolinas, Innovate Carolina 2014 took place at Research Triangle Park’s North Carolina Biotechnology Center. The event attracted dozens of professionals representing product design and engineering firms, innovation consultants, as well as a strong group of product manufacturers.

Trig Innovation was proud to participate as a platinum sponsor of Innovate Carolina 2014. Ty Hagler, founder and Principal at Trig, attended the event along with industrial designer Drew Brisley and brand strategist Brian Castle. Hagler currently serves on the board of directors for the PDMA’s Carolinas chapter and offered logistics and promotional support to the chapter for the event.

The theme for this year’s event was “Building Your Career Toolkit:  Innovative Paths for Innovative Development.” The one-day conference featured multiple speakers, breakout sessions, and recognition for students of innovation at area universities. Jeffrey Phillips of Ovo and the PDMA Carolinas board of directors served as the conference chair, and the keynote speaker for Innovate Carolina 2014 was Dr. Keith Sawyer, a scholar and author in the area of educational innovation and the power of creativity. Sawyer’s talk featured multiple points from his books, including his most recent release, Zig-Zag: the Surprising Path to Creativity.

The breakout sessions featured mini-workshops in multiple areas of product development, including market research strategy and planning, leading innovation teams, intellectual property strategy, strategic portfolio management, understanding future trends, and life cycle management.

This year’s Innovate Carolina took place at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s RTP campus, home to the country’s first state-sponsored biotechnology development initiative. Past hosts for the annual conference include the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business, the Belk College of Business at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Raleigh’s Long View Center, and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro.

According to Hagler, this year’s Innovate Carolina picked up on the success of past events and didn’t disappoint. “For our company, this has long been a can’t-miss event on the conference calendar. Innovate Carolina brings multiple benefits to a company like Trig. We get brand exposure to manufacturing professionals and potential partners from around the region, and we get to know the bright young students who will be raising the bar in product design and engineering when they enter professional life. Most of all, we learn—I can honestly say that my team adds knowledge and tools that ultimately benefit our customers with each successive year we attend Innovate Carolina together.”

For related case studies in the industrial design and product development of consumer products, check out our work with startup, SEAL SwimSafe

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