Innovation Copilots’ Stéphanie Mitrano has done an excellent job of summing up the most important themes of #NEXT17 for her in a blog post.

So I spent 2 days in Hamburg with a big bunch of nerds (self-declared) who are involved with digital and the business of the future at the Next17 Conference entitled “Digital Sucks!”.

She summed up the themes of the conference in four questions — and a statement:

• Where to innovate?
• Why look to China?
• Why is failure a must?
• Who is the “Failed-to-Launch” Culprit?
• Digital doesn’t suck, people do!

Then, she goes on to explore how themes intersected with her own thought and understanding of European business culture:

When I asked David Li: “What elements of culture made Shenzhen the way it is today?” He replied : “Collaborative survival instinct working with Moore’s Law”. Indeed, he shared in his keynote how Shenzhen was working: it is a mass innovation collaboration, with innovation from the streets, a big chaos that enables the real innovations to emerge and succeed fast. On one side the Shenzhen way is very attractive to innovation sluggish Westerners because it is dynamic and competitive which is accelerating innovation. On the other, the openness which is a must here is scaring the IP overly-conscious Corporates.

A fascinating read. Well worth your time.