Aix-Marseille-Provence, a source of inspiration for innovation leaders

Executives and managers from diverse sectors participated in a two-day innovation tour co-organized by Provence Promotion

The Club de Paris des Directeurs de l’Innovation is committed to nurturing talent and innovation in the French business ecosystem, and for the first time ever it has brought the members of its development program on a discovery tour outside of Paris. It’s not by chance that they chose Aix-Marseille as their destination, considering that the metro area was elected European Capital of Innovation for 2022. With Provence Promotion providing help organizing a tour of the Aix-Marseille innovation landscape, the Club de Paris team, headed by its President Marc Giget, brought nearly 60 innovation leaders and managers from major companies and research organizations to the territory. The main themes addressed during the visit were decarbonization and the energy transition, the movement of goods and data, the sustainable transformation of the city, and hyperconnectivity. Provence Promotion helped develop the tour in the context of its influence program that aims to showcase the advantages of the Aix-Marseille metro area while facilitating exchanges between key stakeholders and actors in growth and innovation.

"When we focus our resources, we reach our goals,” said Tomasz Krysinski, the Director of Research and Technology at Airbus Helicopters during a presentation to members of the Club de Paris des Directeurs de l’Innovation on Thursday, October 4. He was speaking to the assembled innovation leaders who were touring the Airbus Helicopters site in Marignane outside of Marseille as part of their discovery program entitled “Building and Renewing Global Leadership from Europe.”

“Airbus Helicopters decided to move towards sustainable aviation and set up a Flightlab in 2021 to test disruptive aerospace technologies. The ability to move very quickly from idea to experimentation is essential for us,” explained Tomasz Krysinski. As the world’s leading aircraft manufacturer, Airbus aims to halve the fuel consumption of its aircraft and helicopters over the next ten years. Central to this initiative is the DisruptiveLab, a flying laboratory designed to test technologies destined to improve aircraft performance and reduce helicopters’ CO2 emissions by emphasizing aerodynamics, weight optimization, and engine hybridization.

During the same visit to Airbus, Romain Wino, the Head of the CSR Department at Marseille Provence Airport, presented the airport’s initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint. “Our objective is to achieve a 90% reduction in the CO2 emissions of our terminals by 2030. As part of this, we have a geothermal energy project that we are running in partnership with Airbus Helicopters,” he noted. This type of collaboration was precisely the kind of project that the innovation leaders had come from Paris to learn about. After the presentations were finished, the members were given a guided tour of the assembly lines for Super Puma and the H160 helicopters.

The visit to the ITER site made a huge impact

The second stop on the innovation tour: a visit to ITER, the world’s most ambitious scientific cooperation project. Located in Saint Paul-lez-Durance in Provence, ITER features 35 countries working together to prove the industrial viability of clean energy created by nuclear fusion.

Marc Giget, the President of the Club de Paris des Directeurs de l’Innovation, was delighted to have chosen Aix-Marseille as the destination for their research tour: “It’s an ideal place for innovation, and we feel it’s the right time to be here. Aix-Marseille is a fascinating area and home to major research programs such as ITER.”

The group of innovation leaders were welcomed by ITER Director General Pietro Barabaschi and the role of collaboration in innovation was once again at the forefront of discussions.

Two round-table discussions with innovation stakeholders in Aix-Marseille

Open innovation played a central role on the program’s second day, with a morning of exchanges at Aix-Marseille University’s CISAM innovation and knowledge campus in the heart of Marseille. This site is home to the Accélérateur M start-up accelerator run by the Aix-Marseille Metropolis, CMA CGM’s Zebox incubator and accelerator, and the Obratori seed investment fund run by L’Occitane.

At a round table discussion dedicated to the transformation of goods and data exchanges, CMA CGM, Digital Realty, the Port of Marseille Fos, and Aix-Marseille University shared their perspectives on the evolution of data management in the logistics, blue tech, and IT services sectors. During the discussion that followed, participants raised questions about current trends in data sustainability, artificial intelligence, and environmental impact.

Following a presentation of the Euroméditerranée urban development project, which is creating Southern Europe’s largest sustainable international business district, the delegation was welcomed at the offices of Free Pro for a second round table discussion on the green, connected city. This round table featured speakers from Free Pro, Eiffage, and Helion Hydrogen Power, which is part of the Alstom group.

“I was impressed by the technical quality of the companies, these are leaders in their fields with absolutely outstanding expertise and know-how, some of which is unique in the world. What I really like in the territory is the way people are so welcoming, so open-minded, so willing to consider what others can bring to the table, which for me is essential for innovation,” said Jacques Thollin, Director of Strategic Development and Innovation at EFI Automotive.

A strong female presence in innovation

The active presence of women in the fields of innovation was illustrated by the composition of the delegation, half of whom were women, and also by a special moment at Club Le 29 at the top of the La Marseille Tower, where a panel featured three women leading the innovation departments at Pernod Ricard, L’Occitane, and Newen Studios (TF1 Group).

Laurence Picot, Director of Transformation and Innovation at STEF, was delighted with the program and the evening. “I really appreciated the people we met with and the fact that there were so many women in leadership positions because it puts women at the heart of innovation in Aix-Marseille. It was inspiring to see the strong female presence in the ecosystem.”

About the Club de Paris des Directeurs de l’Innovation

The Club de Paris des Directeurs de l’Innovation was created at the first national meeting of innovation leaders that was held in 2008. The goal was to create a forum for meetings and exchanges that would enable business and research leaders working in innovation to benefit from the experiences of their peers and to keep up to date with the best practices in international innovation and new research, studies, and analyses. The Club de Paris des Directeurs de l’Innovation currently brings together the innovation departments of about a hundred European and international companies, most of them world leaders, as well as public-sector organizations and research centers. Every year, the Club de Paris organizes an innovation training program for selected employees from their member companies. The training program includes events such as the tour of Aix-Marseille.