Skip to content
IRM conference photo greyscale
WELLSPRING ACCOLADE USER GROUP 2025

“The Innovation Renaissance: Reimagining Innovation for Growth”

 

Amsterdam


October 1st 12:00 - 2nd 15:00
 

Event Overview

We are thrilled to be bringing back our in-person Accolade User Group events. Join us for “The Innovation Renaissance: Reimagining Innovation for Growth.”

For our EMEA customers, this will be held October 1st-2nd at the nHow hotel in Amsterdam. 

The event will be built around real innovation stories, and you’ll connect with peers, share ideas, and leave with super useful tools and insight you can put to use immediately. 

What to expect: 

  • Customer stories and customer-led working sessions
  • Hands-on AI demos and prompt kits
  • Breakouts to help you walk away with an actionable plan
  • Tools you can use right away 

Whether you’re just starting your Accolade journey or leading a global portfolio, our User Group events will help you scale impact, accelerate innovation, and connect with your fellow industry peers. 

The conference is free to attend. Reserve your spot and spend a few days connecting, sharing, and exploring what’s next in Innovation Management. 

 

Our Speakers

We are working on finalizing the lineup of speakers; stay tuned for details.

Amsterdam Schedule

 
  • Wednesday, Oct 1st
  • Thursday, Oct 2nd

12:00 - 16:00

Optional 1:1 Meetings

13:30 – 16:00

Welcome, Wellspring Vision, Opening Keynote

17:00

Networking Special Evening Event

Breakfast

09:00 - 12:00

Planned Breakout Sessions focused on Innovation, Adoption, Change, and Scaling

Lunch

13:15 - 15:00

Additional breakouts, along with ways to take home what you learned, and a customer spotlight session

Amsterdam Location

Omni Boston at the Seaport


Hotel booking link: ADD IN

450 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210

Amsterdam Location

Omni Boston at the Seaport


Hotel booking link: ADD IN

450 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210

Boston Schedule

 

  • Wednesday, Oct 22nd
  • Thursday, Oct 23rd
  • Thursday, Oct 24th
  • Friday, October 31st

12:00 - 16:00

Optional 1:1 Meetings

All Day

All Day Sessions and Breakouts with Breakfast and Lunch followed by a Networking Special Evening Event

Breakout Sessions focused on Innovation, Adoption, Change, and Scaling

Breakfast

08:30 – apx 11:30

Additional breakouts, along with ways to take home what you learned, and a customer spotlight session 

8:00AM - 12:00PM

Additional 1:1 Meetings (if needed)

If you're unable to meet with our team on October 29th or 30th, we’ve set aside additional time on Friday for meetings before departure.

Boston Location

nHow Amsterdam RAI, Amsterdam, The Netherlands


Hotel booking link: ADD IN

Europaboulevard 2b 1078 RV Amsterdam

Our Speakers At The Event

We’re grateful to the colleagues who have generously offered their time to share their expertise and perspectives at this year’s Accolade User Group User Group. Their insights will help spark valuable conversations and practical takeaways for everyone attending.

 

IM UG Speaer Headshots_Dr. Simon Marburger
TOUCH
Dr. Simon Marburger Merck Electronics KGaAHead of Accolade Electronics
Dr. Simon Marburger Merck Electronics KGaA

Featured Client Presentations

 

Going Global with Performance-Driven Innovation Management

Peter Borman, Director, New Product Development Vitality and Morgan Slone, Innovation Business Process Sr. Engineer, Prysmian

Prysmian is a EUR 17B industrial cables company with a highly measurement-driven and performance-oriented leadership culture. The challenge: define and scale a global innovation process that drives superior, measurable business impact. Drawing on their experiences both at Prysmian and in other companies, they will share their lessons learned, including:

  • - Redesigning an immature innovation process
  • - Rolling out innovation approach globally, region by region
  • - Driving executive-level performance measurements across a global innovation program
  • - Extending innovation process beyond NPD into adjacent and supporting areas
Digital Heros and Project Phoenix: An Innovative Approach to User Engagement

Christiane Terlinde, Head of Global Innovation Management, BYK-Chemie GmbH

Driving user engagement and adoption is critical to any Accolade rollout. But BYK, a German additives and instruments company, went beyond the normal change management best practices. Through hackathons, gamification, and other collaboration programs, they made sure users would have fun as well! Join Christiane Terlinde as should outlines the benefits of initiatives such as:

  • - “Bug Masters” hackathons to crowdsource bug fixes and improvements
  • - “Buy a Feature” game where users compete to suggest new roadmap features
  • - “Digital Heros” program to reward top overall contributors
Getting the Most from Accolade: a 10-Year Innovation Maturity Journey

Dr. Simon Muenzer, Innovation and Portfolio Manager, Kronos International

It has been nearly 10 years since Kronos, a leading global producer of titanium dioxide pigments, realized they needed significantly more new revenue from product innovation. Starting with basic Stage Gate process design and project management, Kronos has steadily increased their usage of Accolade capabilities and modules as the program has matured and innovation has delivered increasing strategic business value for the company. In this talk, Simon Muenzer will outline the lessons they have learned and benefits they have unlocked over time, including:

  • - Why you should use Portfolio Reviews to also accomplish forward-looking Portfolio Planning, working directly in Accolade during the same meeting
  • - Why it’s important to conduct and then integrate Resource Planning efforts at every level, from individual projects to the overall portfolio
  • - How and why Kronos decided to add Capex Management and Roadmapping capabilities to their program
  • - How Kronos has improved annual revenue from new products from 0% to nearly 10% of annual revenue, while shortening product development cycles from 5 years down to 2 years on average
Forecasting Quantitative Sustainability Impacts within Accolade

Dr. Simon Marburger, Head of Accolade Electronics, Merck Electronics KGaA

Merck Electronics has been working on a comprehensive approach to managing its carbon footprint and sustainability profile. Several years ago, like most companies, they introduced qualitative sustainability scorecards to their Accolade projects. But more recently, they have built a working process to calculate quantitative sustainability impacts for each product in the R&D phase. Please join Simon Marburger as he details:

  • - How to integrate multiple outside data sources within Accolade, including Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) data and third-party sustainability reference databases
  • - How to configure Accolade to automatically forecast the expected sustainability impact for each project across the global innovation program – and then automatically update the figures as projects proceed
  • - How this allows Merck to manage their innovation portfolio dynamically to ensure they are hitting both revenue targets AND sustainability metrics

Event Schedule

The Accolade User Group features a full lineup of customer-led sessions, hands-on discussions, and dedicated time for peer connections. Keep checking back for more updates along the way!

  • Wednesday, October 1st
  • Thursday, October 2nd

12:00 – 4:00

1:1 Meetings as needed

1:00 – 5:00

Company Updates, Product Highlights and Vision,Customer Panel followed by Roundtables, Product Fair, and more

Evening Event

7:30 – 8:30

Breakfast

8:30 – 3:00

Customer-led sessions focused on dos and don’ts, best practices, and lessons learned. Additional Roundtables focused on AI, hands-on health checks, actionable insights you can take back to your organization, product fair, networking and more (lunch is included too)

Event Location

nhow Amsterdam RAI

Hotel booking link: https://www.nh-hotels.com/en/event/wellspring-international-education-2025- 

Note: If you experience difficulties booking a room online, please try opening the link in a new browser or call the hotel directly using the number below and reference the event.

Europaboulevard 2b, 1078 RV
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a fee to attend?

No, the event is complimentary for all Wellspring clients. 

Who is the event intended for? 

The event is best suited for Accolade users, decision makers, and innovative leaders within our current client base. 

Do I need to attend the entire event?  While you're welcome to attend what fits your schedule, we encourage staying for the full program to make the most of the sessions and networking opportunities. 
Will there be session recordings available? 

This event will be fully in-person and will not be recorded. 

What happens after I register? 

You’ll receive a confirmation email from Wellspring Marketing to secure your spot. We’ll also follow up closer to the event with additional directions, agenda modifications, and any important reminders.