This summer, faculty and collaborators from xLab hosted executives from the LG headquarters in Seoul, for a four-day immersive experience probing the future around smart home and smart mobility. During their visit, the LG participants worked with the xLab team to develop strategies based on future visions and translate those visions into actionable plans. To gain a better understanding of American consumers, as well as manufacturing, commerce, and innovation within Northeast Ohio, xLab and LG met with and visited several organizations in Cleveland, including KeyBank, Balance Innovation, the Center of Computational Life Sciences at the Cleveland Clinic, Magnet Manufacturing, and more.
The group began the week with a discussion about US industrial policy with Dr. Susan Helper, former Senior Economist for the White House, and learned about several Ohio and Cleveland initiatives from Jobs Ohio, the Cleveland Innovation District, and The NSF Regional Innovation Engines program.
They also spent a day deeply immersing themselves into the lives of American consumers in the context of smart home and smart mobility interest, with visits to Skoda Construction, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Best Buy, BMW Cleveland, and Tesla, as well as visits to electric vehicle chargers at Sheetz and EVgo and round table discussions with owners of smart home technology and electric vehicles.
On the last day, xLab partnered with the Greater Cleveland Partnership to host several roundtables around smart mobility, smart homes, and sustainability. Roundtable participants included Eaton, Lubrizol, Avery Dennison, Goodyear Ventures, Parker Hannifin, Porsche, Penske Transportation Solutions, Fortune Brands, MyFitnessPal, MiTek, Progressive Insurance, Savant, Euclid Chemical, and more.
The group also enjoyed a Cleveland Guardians game and visit to hear the Cleveland Orchestra.
Participants from LG continued to develop and refine their ideas about future business opportunities for LG throughout the week, as well as explored potential avenues of collaboration with companies in the region. They returned home with a better understanding of American consumers and the economical infrastructure of the Midwest.