Editor | On 29, Dec 2005

By: Ellen Domb
editor@the-trizjournal.com

Graz, Austria was the 2003 European Cultural center—perhaps that prepared the city to host the European TRIZ Association meeting in 2005? The bronze sculpture in the left photo is the art museum, that was a feature of the ETRIA city walking tour, across the river Mur from the classical tower in the right photo.

Over 120 people from 23 countries heard 2 tutorials (Sergei Ikovenko for Su-Field Modeling and Ellen Domb for Beginners TRIZ) and 39 papers with the overall theme “Bridging East and West.” The TRIZ Journal editors will select some of the highlight papers and publish them in the next several months with the permission of the ETRIA organizers and the authors.

There were 3 Keynote speakers who each addressed a different subject:
• Lelait Laurent, European Institute for Energy Research: “Organizing and Managing TRIZ Potentials to Address Research Problems”
• Larry Smith, president of the Altshuller Institute for TRIZ Studies: “Growing TRIZ in the 21st Century”
• Simon Litwin, Gen3Partners: “TRIZ Readings: Altshuller’s Tradition Continues (Report from the MaTRIZ Fest in July in Russia)”

The general theme of “bridging” was quite strong—bridging management and technical creativity, bridging research and development, bridging developments of TRIZ to support emerging needs for innovation with a strong tradition of preservation of classical TRIZ. Conference Chairman Jürgen Jantschgi and his administrative staff and students at the University of Leoben earned the gratitude of all the participants for the smooth operation of the event.
Detailed reports will be published on www.etria.net (by the ETRIA organizers) and http://www.osaka-gu.ac.jp/php/nakagawa/TRIZ/eTRIZ/ (by Toru Nakagawa).

I was quoted several times after I thanked ETRIA for its “generous” definition of “Europe”—a few photos will give our readers an impression of the variety of speakers who participated.

The papers were a mix of case studies, research in several areas (new insights into patterns of evolution, methods of education for children), organizational reports (how each company incorporates TRIZ into its work), history of TRIZ, proposed new tools and techniques and re-interpretation of current tools and techniques for enhancing the use of TRIZ. As with most conferences, some papers will have lasting significance in the history of TRIZ, and some will not be thought of again.

I encourage The TRIZ Journal readers to start planning now to participate in conferences in 2006—the benefit of participation does not come from the quality of an individual paper, but from the conversations and debates among the authors, readers, and participants in the event. See The TRIZ Journal calendar for details, but start planning now!
April 2006: Altshuller Institute in Milwaukee, WI USA
July 2006: China
September 2006: Japan
October 2006: MaTRIZ Special Conference honoring Altshuller’s 80th birthday.
Petrozavodsk, Russia
October 2006: ETRIA: Location to be Announced