Description
Engaging the most creative and innovative young people in Latin America is not always straightforward, especially for a 180 year old American company. John Deere participated for the first time in Brazil's Sao Paulo Campus Party, 2016 edition.
Campus Party is a great technological experience bringing together young geeks in a festival of innovation, creativity, science, entrepreneurship, and entertainment. This week-long event gathered thousands of innovators, techies, and entrepreneurs.
John Deere went in with 2 primary motives:
Would millennials be interested in innovating in the Ag sector?
Would they be interested in our brand?
The result was a resounding yes. Yet that was just the start. The integration of this young talent in our innovation ecosystem is still to be realized in a sustainable form.
Learn more the Campus Party event and John Deere's participation as well as key outcomes in terms of engagement. Explore what this experience has taught John Deere about working with millennials, their agility to learn about a new application field (agriculture), and our plans to integrate their talent in our innovation efforts.
Contributors
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Alex Foessel, Consultant, formerly Lead Architect, Automation To Autonomy at John Deere
From Indaiatuba, Brazil, Alex leads the Latin American Technology Innovation Center (LATIC), center part of John Deere's Global Technology Innovation Network, overseeing the execution of a portfolio of innovation projects focused on the tropical agriculture key crops, such as sugarcane, grains, and forestry, including collaboration with Enterprise stakeholders, partner universities, innovation partners, and key government programs. Previously, also out of Brazil, Alex led regional field teams working with John Deere’s dealer channel to deliver a differentiated customer experience, and dealer profitability. Earlier, Alex was Project Manager in the Gummersbach Factory, Germany, where he led the market launch of the consumer autonomous mower (Tango). Alex also served in the Enterprise Advanced Marketing group at Moline Technology Innovation Center. Alex joined Deere & Co. as a Senior Systems Engineer at NavCom Technology, Los Angeles, in 2002, working in a number of advanced technology projects. Alex holds a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, and Electrical Engineering degree from Catholic University in Chile. He is also a rancher raising cattle in Chilean Patagonia.