Interview: Philippe Michallon, Head of SPICE

Philippe Michallon, Head of SPICE *

« We want to leverage our showroom  to better promote our technologies »

 
You have several initiatives underway for your showroom. What are their key aims?

Between 5,000 and 6,000 people visit our showroom every year, 90% of them from outside the CEA. It’s been a huge success and we want to leverage that further by staying in closer contact with companies after they visit. Managers usually walk away from our showroom highly impressed and eager to work with us. The showroom also gives CEA researchers a chance to see their colleagues’ developments and prototypes.
 

Your most original initiative is undoubtedly the premium showroom. What was the idea behind that?

The goal is to invite companies to a post-visit debriefing meeting, facilitated by a creativity consultant, to help them identify new customer needs or products based on the services we offer at the CEA. Then we work them to formalize their ideas—for new products or joint ventures, for example—in an “innovation roadmap.” The managers leave the meeting with R&D ideas and a list of the right contacts at our laboratories, and we leave with a better understanding of their needs.

You have also introduced two new marketing tools.

Yes, all our business developers now have a virtual showroom on their laptops. This lets them show contacts our various research topics and prototypes; users can simply click on a prototype to obtain more information. Our other new tool is K’net, an area in the showroom’s entranceway with temporary displays of new technology and prototypes and with videos on the CEA’s know-how and achievements.

* The CEA’s user-centered innovation department (Service Pour l’Innovation Centrée Expérience utilisateur)
 

Contact:

• philippe.michallon@cea.fr
• lydie.roure@cea.fr
   

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