The City of Zwolle
Zwolle is one of a few larger cities in North-Eastern Netherlands.
The city was founded around 800 CE by Frisian merchants and Charlemagne's troops.
In 1230 it was granted it's city rights. Zwolle became a member of the Hanseatic league in 1294, The municipality counts about 130.000 inhabitants.
Zwolle functions as the entrance gate to North-eastern Netherlands.
You will find the Bluefinger Innovation Center (BIC) in the heart of the historic center of the innovative Hanze-city Zwolle.
The BIC supports organisations in the North and East of the Netherlands in their effort to innovate, by mobilizing the creative and innovative power of their own staff.
The BIC co-operates with local innovators and institutes.
The Bluefinger Anecdote
The name Bluefinger derives from the medieval rivalry between the Hanseatic cities of Zwolle and Kampen, when Zwolle had sold its city bells to Kampen's inhabitants.
Once installed they seemed to jangle. This is why Kampen decided to make their due payment in small coins.
The members of Zwolle's City Council got blue fingers from counting coins.
Today Blauwvinger is the nickname for the inhabitants of Zwolle.
Network
The BIC is a central hub for the network of and for entrepreneurs, where entrepreneurship and collaboration are continuously encouraged. Library/Knowledge Base
At the BIC, we continuously stay abreast of new knowledge in the fields of Leadership, Entrepre-neurship, Psychology, and Personality Development.
We share all available knowledge of current methods and models, and we are strongly committed to innovation and renewal in these fields.
Meeting Place
Our leading creative hub in the heart of Zwolle is a sought-after meeting place for innovators and entrepreneurs from across the region. Those involved find plenty of inspiration here when sharing innovative solutions and ideas. Tools/Support
LDpe and BIC have a number of unique tools that individual leaders and professionals, teams, companies, and organizations can use to improve and accelerate their development in practical ways. Thousands of people and hundreds of companies have already implemented these tools.
The toolkit we use to deliver many of our services, the LD Toolbox, is unique in the world. Initially developed to accelerate the careers of leaders and professionals at the multinational Capgemini, LDpe further developed it into the only tool in the world that translates a personality assessment into steps for future growth, enabling accelerated personal growth and the design of complete, successful teams.
When one thinks of innovation, he/she usually thinks of developing new products or services based on new technologies.
For instance, application of 3D printing in the manufacturing industry. This type of innovation arises from "technology push." But innovation can also be driven by a significant societal need, such as the need for a specific vaccine. This type of innovation arises from a strong "demand pull." The Bleufinger Innovation Centre (BIC) operates neither from the technology push nor the demand pull. The BIC is unique in its focus: the development of human innovation power.
The ORIGINAL program regularly organizes various meetings on topics important to young professionals and innovators.
Under the name ORIGINAL, we bring together activities related to the development of all young professionals in the Zwolle region. With this program, we are creating an ecosystem of innovators. The ORIGINAL program supports individual participants and teams in achieving accelerated personal growth and making innovative organizations more successful.
Get the first step in personal development FOR FREE.
By offering the first step of the personal development process for free of charge, young profes-sionals* are enticed to join the ORIGINAL program. Of course, we intend the employer to pay for the subsequent steps and also for the use of participant information (such as the candidate's suitability and development perspective).
* Under 30 in the Zwolle region
The BIC provides services to individual participants for personal development; these participants rarely pay for these services themselves; the costs are usually paid by the company they work for. The accelerated personal growth of participants benefits themselves (accelerated careers) and their employer (retention and increased aptitude for more advanced positions and roles). And the accelerated professional growth facilitates the company's growth.
We continue to build the Bleufinger Innovation Centre
Established last year (early 2024), the BIC Moose Club is the space on the third floor, designed for networking of young professionals, entrepreneurs, and speakers invited specifically for important themes.
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The BIC Moose Club and the BIC Moose Business Club
Following the completion, initiation and exploitation of these premises, we almost have realised this unique project in the heart of Zwolle's city center: the 4th floor and the roof.
In the meeting spacde on the 4th floor we saved the historical lifting wheel that was used a century ago.
