Instructions for Decentralized Escalation: Underdog Expertise as a Driver for Innovation

Jakob Jochmann

Creative work should not be an underdog story – and yet it is often the "small" creatives who make structural change happen. The article asks how life experience, diversity and expertise from solo self-employed people to SMEs can be systematically incorporated into urgently needed innovation and R&D projects.

At the centre is a strategy of "shockwave riding": scaling effects are distributed across many shoulders, experiments become possible quickly and pragmatically. One example shows how small paradigm shifts can be trialled in the wake of the AI hype and large funding projects – with the aim of anchoring more added value on a broad basis.

This programme item is part of "Funding Futures: Funding that Makes Creative Ideas Possible".

At our participative Stage K4, we combine impulses with networking. Come along at the beginning of the session and take a look at all the projects. After a short project presentation, you will have the opportunity to network intensively with the people behind the projects and find out more about their work.