The World Open Innovation Conference (WOIC) brings theory and practice closer together. We seek the latest in academic research on open innovation, and combine this in our program with challenges faced by industry executives and policymakers who manage open innovation in their organizations. In addition, we engage policy makers to better understand the opportunities and challenges associated with designing effective open innovation policy. WOIC was inaugurated in 2014 by “the father of open innovation” Henry Chesbrough who organized the conference from his Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2021, the organization of WOIC moved to the Innovation, Technology Entrepreneurship & Marketing (ITEM) group at Eindhoven University of Technology where it is further developed under the leadership of Marcel Bogers, together with a wider team as listed below.