Paris Conference on “Front End and Open Innovation” encourages networking

France has been viewed as an innovative country since before the reign of Louis XIV—a farsighted economic innovator in his own right. Today France ranks fourth in terms of R&D investments of the top 1,000 global companies, behind the United States, Japan, and Germany. But despite the support of multiple government agencies for research and development, innovation professionals still lack a place to look for practical answers and opportunities to meet with their peers. This vacuum led to the launch of PDMA France, the French affiliate of PDMA under the wing of the Southern Europe Chapter of PDMA. This article describes how it was born and its current focus as well as the launching event held in Paris last June.