How the Club works
Who it is for, its governance and its services.
Who is the Club for?
Around a hundred organizations — European companies and research institutions, most often world leaders, as well as ministries, public bodies and NGOs — are currently members of the Paris Club of Innovation Directors. It is today the leading club for sharing experience dedicated to Innovation Directors in the world.
The Club addresses the Innovation Departments of companies. As that function does not exist in every company, it also welcomes CEOs and R&D, CSR, Strategy, Marketing or any other department that in practice carries the mission of managing or promoting innovation in the organization. The Club also welcomes the innovation departments of research institutes, ministries and other public institutions as well as NGOs.
The Club's services are aimed at large companies and institutions, whose size warrants a structured governance and organization of innovation, and which make up the bulk of its members. But it is also open to mid-caps, and even to particularly innovative SMEs with international ambitions.
Founded on the principle of clubs for sharing practices and learning together between senior executives holding the same role, it excludes any commercial character and any canvassing. To safeguard its independence and its professional educational purpose, it is not open to sales departments, nor to providers of services and consulting aimed at innovation managers.
A new member joins after a preliminary discussion about their motivations and expectations, and the Club's ability to meet them or not.
Governance of the Club
The European Institute for Creative Strategies and Innovation is the founder and the manager of the Club. The Club’s strategic orientations and priorities are framed by a Committee of Elders bringing together some twenty innovation leaders from companies and organizations at the forefront of the various categories of innovation players in France (large industrial and service companies, ministries and public agencies, research institutes, academia and NGOs). They frame the Club’s orientations and priorities each year, summarizing and complementing the expectations gathered from members throughout the year.
The latest Committee of Elders report
Request the Committee of Elders report and the Club's strategic orientations for 2026 – 2027.
Les orientations stratégiques du Club 2026 – 2027
La note du Comité des sages de juin 2026 : les priorités du Club pour la saison, en réponse aux attentes de ses membres.
Le mode d'emploi du Club
Gouvernance, services, adhésion et accès ponctuel aux évènements pour les entreprises non-membres : tout le fonctionnement du Club en un document.
The Club's services
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Networking
Networking between Innovation Directors and Managers of companies from every sector, of research and technology institutes, and of public services and administrations: peer-to-peer exchanges at national and international level, introductions at numerous events, discussions.
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Thematic Meetings
Thematic Meetings on major innovation topics (4 to 5 Thematic Meetings a year). State of the art on the topic covered, reference work, international benchmark, best practices, feedback from experience. Every session is filmed, with access to the 60 multimedia files of the topics covered over the past 10 years (PDF materials and online videos of the talks).
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Major Forums on Innovation Strategies
Major Forums on Innovation Strategies (every six months) on the major topics of the moment, bringing together Innovation departments and the institutions of reference on the topic covered. All the talks are then available as video replays.
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National Meeting of Innovation Directors
National Meeting of Innovation Directors (early June each year). It covers a major current topic and makes it possible to take stock of the key issues at hand with the leading organizations concerned. It is also the occasion for awarding trophies celebrating best practices: Innovation Team Best Practices and Hermès de l'innovation (humanist innovation). All the talks are then available as video replays. The National Meeting, which has always welcomed foreign countries, will take on a European dimension in 2027 with 12 countries invited on the theme of the renewal of European leadership through innovation and cooperation.
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Training and development for the Innovation Director role
Training and development for the Innovation Director role (an inter-company format with an intake of around fifty participants, over 8 days spread across the year, including a two-day study trip) offering a 360° analysis of the function, with state of the art, benchmarks, case studies, visits, master classes and shared feedback from experience + very comprehensive teaching materials updated every year (more than 500 executives from 400 organizations trained in 10 years). Two people per member company may be enrolled.
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Advanced training module: amplifying value creation through innovation
This advanced training programme of 5 days — one in 2026 and 4 spread across 2027 — is aimed first at executives already certified by the Innovation Director training cycle. The goal: a better ability to define and reach more ambitious ROI targets for the company's innovation projects, by activating value-creation formats that are new or insufficiently exploited by the company. The training covers every axis of value amplification exhaustively. The target intake is 25 participants, for a programme including a software tool for identifying value-creation potential in the participants' innovation fields.
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Research, analyses and benchmarks
Research, analyses and benchmarks carried out by the European Institute for Creative Strategies and Innovation (see the list in the Club's programme), including in particular the annual study “Megatrends, major risks, great transitions and new opportunities”, which summarizes the best foresight work carried out around the world.
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Access to the best international studies
Access to the best international studies and analyses on the topics covered by the Club, provided in full text in digital format.
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International missions and study trips
International missions, study trips / learning expeditions (generally one trip to another continent and one in Europe each year). International study trips aim to reach out to other cultures of excellence in innovation and to offer opportunities for cooperation and expansion by meeting the players of local innovation ecosystems. They provide high-quality international networking, opening onto cooperation opportunities and lasting relationships with international partners. Nine missions have already been carried out in North America, Europe and Asia. The one planned in the Persian Gulf for the fourth quarter of 2026 has been postponed after the conflict currently under way in the area. The next study trip will take place in Brazil, from 1 to 5 February 2027.
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Visits to places of excellence in innovation
Visits to places of excellence in innovation, in France and in Europe (around half a dozen offered each year): research centres, innovation centers, labs of public and private companies, factories at the cutting edge of innovation; to benefit from the experience of the most advanced organizations.
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Practice workshops and working groups
Practice and reflection workshops and working groups on operational themes. These workshops of in-depth exchange between members offer an opportunity to better understand and master specific themes shared by several organizations. Thanks to the direct exchange of experience and to specialist guidance, these workshops are an effective way of going deeper into operational themes. A working group or workshop is set up at the initiative of a member, who proposes the theme and the types of companies and organizations they wish to share it with. As soon as it interests enough organizations, the group is launched. Recent themes include: creating an opportunities lab tied to megatrends, concrete uses of AI for innovation, innovation and sovereignty.
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Partner innovation events
“Partner innovation events” are organized in cooperation with leaders of rapidly changing business sectors or of key themes, who agree to open their events to the members of the Paris Club of Innovation Directors in a spirit of excellence in exchange, on preferential terms.
They allow Club members to take part in high-level events in the fields that interest them, to stay in touch with the most recent developments, to draw inspiration from best practices and to widen their networks to the decision-makers of those sectors. Around ten partner events have already been organized. They will gradually widen to cover the main fields of interest to Club members.
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Individual methodological support
Individual methodological support is available (over one or two days), provided by experienced Innovation Directors — Club members or former Innovation Directors — for members, in particular newly appointed Innovation Directors, who may need it on matters of organization, management and method, on site.
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An inspiring place for seminars
Members may use a particularly inspiring place for their seminar meetings (up to 25 people). Owned by the European Institute for Creative Strategies and Innovation and used for its international relations, this historic place of exceptional beauty — rebuilt during the Belle Époque on 14th-century foundations at the heart of a 2-hectare forest, and known as the “Pavillon des amours fugaces” — is also the inspiring venue for the Paris Club's seminars and workshops and for welcoming foreign delegations. It is available to the members of the Paris Club of Innovation Directors for their own seminar and meeting needs at a marginal cost (see the presentation of the place).