Innofest 2019: Celebrating Innovation at the Fund
The second annual Innofest showcased staff creativity and innovation as embodied in cutting-edge, problem-solving projects from across the Fund. Missed it? See the highlights in this 35-second video:
MD Speech
Learning Coin
The Price to Stop Climate Change
Lightning Talks
The Innovation Lab (iLab) hosted the second annual Innofest (Innovation Festival) on December 9-12. The four-day event featured workshops and 10-minute TED-style “lightning talks” on innovation projects across the Fund. Topics included pitching ideas to your managers, design thinking, the Vulnerability Exercise upgrade, and SWIFT nowcasting.
Vitor Gaspar (Director, FAD) and Ralph Chami (Assistant Director, ICD) delivered keynote speeches. Vitor presented the latest research on how to fight climate change through carbon taxation, and Ralph presented his ground-breaking study on whales’ ability to store massive amounts of carbon.
From walking dinosaurs to virtual reality, dozens of staff members from across the Fund showcased their innovative work at over 30 booths in the HQ1 Lagarde Atrium. At the “Visual Insights” workshop, staff from five departments featured nine data visualization projects using cutting-edge technologies.
Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva launched the Fund’s 2020 Innovation Strategy at the Innofest and recognized the i-Sponsors and i-Champions. “It’s critical that we build on this very positive momentum and continue to focus on empowering staff to innovate, as well as collaborating and supporting the implementation of good new ideas,” she said. Watch her remarks.
Launched in Fall 2017, the iLab was created to foster a culture of innovation and collaboration at the IMF. As a catalyst for creative change, the iLab serves as an enabler and accelerator to cultivate innovative projects from inception to execution. The iLab has held more than 400 workshops and events and has provided training to more than 250 staff members on leadership, design thinking, and more. iLab’s eight innovation challenges have attracted more than 900 idea submissions from 6,700 participants, with 30 teams selected to join the IMF Accelerator Program.
