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'Forget your industry' at Vlerick Expat Event on 29 November

01:16 24/11/2017
The Brussels branch of Belgium's leading business school is hosting a free event on innovative convergence and an international networking reception

Depending on the industry in which you work or have started a business, innovative convergence might be a dream come true, or the bane of your existence. If you want to learn more – or find out what the phrase even means – reserve a spot at Vlerick Business School’s upcoming Expat Event.

The Brussels branch of Belgium’s leading business school is hosting the free event on 29 November, which features a talk by professor Dirk Buyens, the director of executive education programmes, a keynote address on innovative convergence and an international networking reception.

Vlerick professor Fredrik Hacklin (pictured) happens to be an internationally recognised expert on innovative convergence – when companies turn traditional services on their ear and blur boundaries between industries with the introduction of new technologies.

The merger of IT and telecoms, such as Skype and smartphones “is one of the most prevalent examples of convergence,” Hacklin once told the audience at a management conference in India. “It’s about technologies being able to substitute other technologies in previously disparate industries.” Firms, he said, are now able “to generate revenues through previously unrelated industries.”

While innovative convergence made giants out of some companies like Apple, it appears to be destroying others. “What will this result in?” Hacklin asks. “Will industry boundaries even prevail?” The title of the keynote, ‘Forget Your Industry’, offers a clue to what Hacklin thinks.

Hacklin’s talk is followed by a networking reception, where internationals can meet and converse and also exchange ideas with Vlerick faculty.

29 November 18.00-22.00, Vlerick Business School, Avenue du Boulevard 21, Brussels (Saint-Josse). Talks are in English. The event is free, but registration is required

Written by The Bulletin