Workshop on 3D Printing on the 14th of November

Finally, we met our Spanish colleagues for the first time on Friday on the 14th of November. The working day started with the presentation of 3D Tech Oy's CEO Tomi Kalpio. Then, we were divided into groups to work with the help of innovation tools that we had been looked up for the class. First tool we used was some kind of word association tool. Working with that tool was pretty easy: we chose the first word that someone suggested and everyone said out loud words that were associated with this word and those words were written down. Our word was "food" and we came up with a long list of words. However, this list of words didn't lead to any practical innovations and we ran out of time. We realized that some other working method could work better than this random word association method.

For the next exercise, we decided to combine our efforts and work together with the other two groups. I presented the next tool which was Lotus Blossom Technique. We chose 3D printing as the focus and then all groups gave 8 industries which 3D Printing could be related to. Then the industries were divided between the goups. We took clothes and playgrounds. The plan was to invent 8 ideas for each 8 industries.

Some circles were left empty so the groups decided to help each other to fill in the blanks with new ideas. I think that the Lotus Blossom Technique was a very good method for working on this case because we were able to come up with so many ideas on how 3D printing could be used in different industries.

After the exercises, we decided to continue working together with other groups to brainstorm on the challenge of creating a 3D printing trend.

 Basically, what we suggested was different ways of increasing the awareness on 3D printing in order to enhance its attractiveness among both businesses and consumers. For the business market segment, the main emphasis ws on sales representatives going to companies to present the benefits of 3D printing for industries and organizing seminars for companies. Similarly, consumers could be targeted with different awareness raising campaigns, such as presentation in fairs where consumers can try out 3D printing for free. For the consumer market, the main emphasis would be on offering 3D printing as a service instead of selling the printers to households.

Elina