September 21, 2016

Innovation & Inspiration - CNES’s 250 managers meet in Toulouse to ready France for the future of space

This year’s CNES Managers Seminar brought together 250 participants from the agency’s four field centres on 19-20 September in Toulouse, focusing on the theme of Innovation & Inspiration. This seminar aimed at shaping a shared vision of the future is traditionally an opportunity for the agency’s managers to meet and talk with the members of its Executive Committee. The high point of the event is always the guest of honour’s keynote speech, delivered this year by Louis Schweitzer.

CNES’s Managers Seminar this year brought together 250 participants for a series of workshops and panel discussions on the theme of Innovation & Inspiration, at a time when the global space sector is experiencing seismic shifts driven by emerging nations that are upping their game and by the United States, where NewSpace is bringing new players and methods to invest in new markets.

It was against this backdrop that Louis Schweitzer, Commissioner General for Investment and former Chairman of the Renault group, gave the audience the benefit of his business vision and experience of innovation. He began by recalling the origins of the Logan’s huge success, for which a new and innovative business model breaking with established practices was applied. He then presented the PIA future investment programme supporting innovation and competitiveness in France.

Closing the seminar, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall said: “Rising to new challenges is part of CNES’s genetic make-up, as shown by the many initiatives we have engaged in recent months. After the creation of the Directorate of Innovation, Applications and Science, we are now reorganizing the Toulouse Space Centre to reshape CNES and ready it to meet the challenges of the fast-changing space sector. In each of our five domains of activity, we have initiated disruptive programmes confirming that CNES is more than ever driving innovation for jobs and preparing France to play its role in the future of space.”

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Contacts
Pascale Bresson    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 75 39    pascale.bresson@cnes.fr
Julien Watelet    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 78 37    julien.watelet@cnes.fr