SUMMA SUMMARUM 2014

In its fourth year of oper­a­tion, ACADEMIA SUPERIOR dealt with numer­ous issues that are of great impor­tance for the future of Upper Aus­tria. They were dis­cussed in var­i­ous events and for­mats, processed aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly and sum­ma­rized. One impor­tant inno­va­tion has been the relaunch and expan­sion of our online pres­ence, which makes the find­ings avail­able to all inter­est­ed par­ties and invites every­one to get involved.

Events

ACADEMIA SUPERIOR start­ed the new work­ing year with the SURPRISE FACTORS SYMPOSIUM, which focussed on the top­ic „Beyond Bor­ders — The Strength to Emerge from Crises” in 2014 and was dis­cussed from dif­fer­ent angles with inter­na­tion­al experts from sci­ence, sports and politics.

Two DIALOG events in May and Decem­ber attract­ed a large audi­ence to come to the south wing of Linz Cas­tle and fol­low the con­ver­sa­tion between Markus Hengstschläger and his dis­tin­guished guests. In numer­ous work­shops, pan­el dis­cus­sions and round­ta­bles, issues rel­e­vant to the future were defined, devel­oped and delved into with nation­al and inter­na­tion­al speak­ers of var­i­ous disciplines.

Topics

The focus of the fourth year of work of ACADEMIA SUPERIOR was on four major themes, which the Insti­tute for Future Stud­ies viewed and worked on from dif­fer­ent angles:

Beyond Borders

Bor­der expe­ri­ences are a part of our lives. If con­scious­ly exploit­ed, they can pro­mote inno­va­tion but also result in crises if not rec­og­nized in time. ACADEMIA SUPERIOR ana­lyzed the chances and risks of extreme expe­ri­ences and devel­oped ideas for pol­i­tics on how neg­a­tive bor­der expe­ri­ences can be rec­og­nized in advanced and ide­al­ly be avoided.

To deal with the future also means to rethink bound­aries, to draw new ones or to over­rule them. — Markus Hengstschläger

Entrepreneurship

Strength­en­ing the entre­pre­neur­ial and inno­v­a­tive spir­it in soci­ety is essen­tial to stim­u­late diver­si­ty and dynam­ics and to cre­ate com­pet­i­tive advan­tages. An affin­i­ty for risk-tak­ing, pro-active­ness, per­se­ver­ance and exhaust­ing cre­ative poten­tial may help to iden­ti­fy mar­ket oppor­tu­ni­ties, to find inno­v­a­tive solu­tions and to fuel „entre­pre­neur­ial spirit”.

Innovation — vision

Inno­va­tion means progress. Only those who break new ground as pio­neers seize the oppor­tu­ni­ty to shape the future. On the key top­ic of inno­va­tion, ACADEMIA SUPERIOR dis­cussed how new ideas can be eval­u­at­ed accord­ing to their sus­tain­abil­i­ty and espe­cial­ly how inno­va­tion can be fur­ther pur­sued in improved prod­ucts, process­es or services.

Location factors

ACADEMIA SUPERIOR worked intense­ly on issues relat­ing to the busi­ness loca­tion of Upper Aus­tria in 2014. In an eco­nom­ic con­text, the most impor­tant loca­tion fac­tors and qual­i­ties for Upper Aus­tria were iden­ti­fied. Rec­om­men­da­tions were devel­oped for mak­ing them more attrac­tive for com­pa­nies to strength­en the eco­nom­ic base for the future.