WOIConversations: The Story Behind the WOIC Podcast — Two Seasons and Counting

Published on July 11, 2026 at 7:50 PM

Some of the best ideas in open innovation never make it into a journal article. They surface in the margins of a conference, in a hallway conversation between a CEO and a PhD student, or in the moment when someone says, "Actually, in our company, that's not quite how it works…" These are the conversations that change how we think. The question we asked ourselves a few years ago was: how do we capture more of them—and share them with the wider community?

That question is how WOIConversations was born.

Why a Podcast?

Like much of what we do around the World Open Innovation Conference (WOIC), the podcast started from a simple observation: the conference itself only happens once a year, but the community is active all year round. Researchers and practitioners are working on fascinating questions every single day, and many of them never have the chance to share their thinking with a broader audience in an accessible way.

We wanted to lower the barrier. Not another formal seminar. Not another paper. Just a conversation—structured enough to be useful, informal enough to be human. As we like to describe it: "A video session, a podcast, and a good time to share and learn together." 😊

My co-host on this journey has been Marisol Menendez, and anyone who has followed WOIC over the years will know why this partnership made sense. Marisol's background—from her time leading open innovation at BBVA to her current work with her own company, Bilakatu—brings exactly the practitioner perspective that the podcast needs. I bring the academic lens; she brings the industry lens. The whole point of the show is that these two perspectives need each other.

Getting Off the Ground: Thank You, Jakob

A podcast is much easier to dream up than to actually produce. We're very grateful that Jakob Pohlisch—then at TU Berlin, and a long-time member of the WOIC community—stepped in to make the first season happen. Jakob was our producer for Season 1, and without his energy and technical skill the whole thing would have stayed an idea on a notepad. He's the reason we have a podcast at all, and a great example of how WOIC works: someone in our community sees a gap, raises their hand, and helps make it real.

A Fresh Start: Welcome, Salar

After Season 1, life happened. The podcast went quiet for a while as conferences, research, and the rest of our day jobs took priority. But the idea kept tugging at us, and at the start of 2025 we decided it was time to bring it back.

For the relaunch, we were lucky to welcome Salar Alizad Poursaeidi from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) onto the team. Salar has taken over the production and organization of the show, and his energy has been essential in turning what was once a sporadic project into something with a real rhythm. The "back" episode of Season 2 is actually the three of us—Salar, Marisol, and me—talking about why we're returning, what we want to do differently, and where the podcast fits within the broader WOIC ecosystem (alongside formats like OI Thursdays and the Berkeley Open Innovation Seminars).

What We've Covered: A Map of the Conversations

Looking back over the two seasons, what stands out to me is how the topics naturally trace the contours of the open innovation field itself—from the big societal questions, through the organizational and ecosystem-level mechanics, all the way to the personal journeys of the people who shape the discipline.

Season 1 (2021–2022): Foundations

Season 1 ran from September 2021 to December 2022 and consisted of seven episodes that, in hindsight, read like a curated tour through the field. And as a special bonus, the YouTube videos even show my long COVID beard. 😆

  • Episode 1 — Open Innovation and Grand Challenges (September 2021) A star-studded pilot with Henry Chesbrough, Anita McGahan, and Miguel Arias in the main conversation, plus Academic Insights from Agnieszka Radziwon and Industry Insights from Graham Cross. It set the tone for everything that followed: how open innovation can help address the biggest problems facing society.
  • Episode 2 — Innovation Ecosystems (October 2021) Another remarkable panel: Carliss Y. Baldwin (Harvard Business School), Dyan Finkhousen (Platform Strategy Institute, formerly of GE), and Hans de Jong (until recently CEO of Philips Benelux), with Krithika Randhawa (UTS Business School) as our expert from academia and Oana Maria Pop (HYPE Innovation) from industry. The theme: why no single organization—however large or smart—can solve complex problems alone, and what that means in practice.
  • Episode 3 — Ownership (March 2022) Our final experiment with the bigger panel before moving to a smaller one in the next episode, tackling one of the thorniest issues in open innovation: who owns what when many parties co-create value? With Rudi Bekkers (TU/e), Ingrid Willems (DataScouts), Marianne Weile (Circular Food Technology), and Markus Nordberg (CERN), joined by Ioana Stefan (Mälardalen University) as our expert from academia and Alberto Tornero Suárez (PwC) from industry.
  • Episode 4 — Communities for Digital Innovation (October 2022) With Hilary Carter (VP Research at The Linux Foundation) on how digital platforms and communities are reshaping the way innovation happens.
  • Episode 5 — Crowds & Individuals: A Social Dimension of OI (October 2022) With Ann Majchrzak (University of Southern California) on the often under-appreciated human side—motivation, identity, and the social fabric of open innovation.
  • Episode 6 — The OI Mindset in Ecosystems & Organizations (November 2022) Featuring Salima Douven (Henkel) on what it actually takes—culturally and structurally—to embed an open innovation mindset.
  • Episode 7 — The Value of Open Source (December 2022) Recorded live at WOIC 2022 in Eindhoven, with Henry Chesbrough, Hilary Carter, and Ann Majchrzak—a great example of bringing the conference into the podcast and vice versa.

Season 2 (2025): The Relaunch

Season 2 launched in March 2025 and so far includes six conversation episodes, with each guest pushing the discussion in a new direction.

And as a fun bonus, the season closed with a creative piece from our community: "Finally!" — Marcus Holgersson ft. Dr. Suno (November 2025), an AI-assisted song celebrating WOIC 2025. A nice reminder that creativity in our community doesn't have to come dressed in a journal article.

You can find all episodes—video versions included—on our YouTube playlist, or follow the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. For more videos from our community, check out the WOIC YouTube channel.

What I've Learned from Doing This

A few reflections from sitting in the host's chair across two seasons.

The best episodes start before we hit "record." The most rewarding conversations are the ones where the guest and the hosts have already done some thinking together. The podcast just gives that thinking somewhere to land.

Mixing voices matters. When you put a senior scholar and a senior practitioner in the same conversation, they tend to surface things neither would say alone. That's the open innovation principle applied to the podcast itself: not all smart people work in the same room.

Format is freedom, not a cage. We've done deep solo interviews, three-way conversations, live recordings at the conference, and short pieces. Each format reaches different listeners and serves different purposes. Don't over-engineer the format—let the conversation lead.

Community produces the best ideas. Every guest on this show came through the WOIC community in some way. The podcast isn't separate from the conference, OI Thursdays, or the Berkeley seminars—it's another way the same network expresses itself.

Latest Episode: Asta Pundziene and the Road to Kaunas

Our latest episode is out, and it's a good illustration of what this podcast is for.

We speak with Prof. Asta Pundziene (Kaunas University of Technology and UC Berkeley), and the conversation ranges from the deeply personal to the institutional:

    • Catching the OI virus. How sitting next to Henry Chesbrough at UC Berkeley sparked Asta's open innovation journey—and why she believes the best research questions are born in practice, not in the literature.
    • Platforms, healthcare, and AI. How her research bridges digital platform dynamics, medtech, and the evolving role of artificial intelligence in open knowledge flows.
    • The KTU ecosystem. What makes Kaunas University of Technology and its Santaka Valley a living example of open innovation in action.
    • A sneak peek at WOIC 2026. What to expect in Kaunas, Lithuania this November: keynotes, an ecosystem visit, the PhD colloquium, and the grand opening of KTU's new Open Innovation Center.

    The big takeaway for me: open innovation isn't only something an organization does—it can be the organizing logic of an entire ecosystem. Kaunas is proof of that.

    Listen or watch: YouTube · Buzzsprout

    Looking Ahead

    We're not done. More episodes are in the works, and we'll keep aiming for the mix that has served us well: leading scholars, hands-on practitioners, conversations recorded live around the conference, and the occasional surprise. With WOIC 2026 heading to Kaunas, there will be no shortage of things to talk about.

    If you have ideas for guests, topics, or formats—or if you'd like to be a guest yourself—please reach out. WOIConversations is a community project as much as anything else we do at WOIC, and we'd love to hear from you.

    And if you haven't yet, subscribe to the podcast, explore the back catalogue, and let us know which episodes resonate with you. The conversations don't end when the recording stops—that's rather the point.

    Learn more about WOIC at worldopeninnovation.com.

    Marcel Bogers is a Full Professor of Open & Collaborative Innovation at the Eindhoven University of Technology and a Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.

    He speaks, writes, and advises on how organizations can create and capture value through openness and collaboration.

    Blog posts written with some help of AI! 🙂

    « 

    Add comment

    Comments

    There are no comments yet.