„Innovation in the Icelandic marine sector“ was the headline of a stakeholder meeting hosted by fisheries companies (Þorbjörn hf and Vísir hf) in Grindavík. The event was organised by Innovit and University of Iceland (ASCS and SSRI) as part of two projects InTerAct and Nordic Marine Marketing funded by the Nordic Innovation Center.
Innovit, an Icelandic innovation and entrepreneur company has conducted numerous workshops to promote innovation by analysing opportunites within companies. At the workshop held in Saltfisksetrið in Grindavík, the participants were trained in using the “Business Model Canvas” methodology, which is a strategic management template for developing new, or documenting existing business models.
The scope of the workshop was the value chain and the Business Model Canvas was applied as a visual chart to describe the current status and identify opportunities and ways to enhance innovation. By focusing on the main themes: education, primary production (wild catch and aquaculture), processing and retail and using the elements describing value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances of the seafood value chain, the participants were inspired to come up with new ideas and express their opinion.
The workshop motivated good discussions among the participants who came from companies, education or research assosciated with the aquatic food value chain. The results will be analysed by the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) at UoI and used further for assessment of how well the educational content of the new Nordic master AQFood – Aquatic Food Production fits the need of the marine sector, as well as giving valuable input to strengthen education at all levels and motivate innovation in the marine sector. See photos
