Ina Behrendt’s journey as a business leader grew absolutely progressively. While she passionately and successfully worked and led teams as an award-winning, integrated Creative Director and Head of Design in digital advertising, traditional agencies and for clients worldwide for over 15 years, Ina was always following her vision and never stopped learning, discovering & most importantly: collaborating. She opines, “Hold your vision and go with the flow while growing organically – trust the process.”
Ina co-founded the 1st international Non-Conference, called FUTURE SUMMIT SERIES – THE 100, where 100 rebels, pioneers and trouble-makers in the field of innovation were brought together to share, ideate & create the future on eye-level.
These experiences made her a thought-leader and expert in the field of digital transformation with a strong focus on creative marketing & innovation and for the past 7 years, an entrepreneur and leader in the educational sector and is now a frequent speaker at international tech & innovation conferences and summits.
Ina truly believes that Women belong in all places where decisions are being made as well as men and gender neutral people no matter which background, race or orientation. We need this diversity in general, to be together, live together, learn from each other, work together and shape the future of our world for the better – TOGETHER.
Ina supports women, wherever she can in all sorts of aspects, but she looks at people to work with, learn from, be together, get inspired by, etc: as HUMANS, where everyone deserves to be treated equally.
In an interview with World’s Leaders, Ina Behrendt shared her journey to becoming a renowned woman in tech.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Describe the Miami Ad School Europe’s & Infinity Campus’ offerings that address the needs of your customers.
Miami Ad School Europe is one of the best and most successful, creative and innovative schools in higher education in the world. With its 2-year portfolio diploma program of Art Direction / Digital Design, Creative Conception / Copywriting & Storytelling and Creative Technology, Miami Ad School Europe unites many different schools in one. The students gain world-class room experience and business knowledge, including 3 international internships to choose out of hundreds of locations around the globe. Their graduates work for the best creative agencies, innovation companies and tech brands worldwide. It’s known as: The place where you go to, to become who you are meant to be. And it is part of a world-wide network of 15 schools.
Infinity Campus.
As a transformation and innovation expert in this field, Ina also developed the professional program or arm of Miami Ad School Europe further and transferred it to the next level. First and foremost, she redeveloped and brought the advanced training and courses online – collaborated with experts and developed formats that did not yet exist. This struck such a chord that it became very successful and is now officially co-founded as an independent start-up, where Ina acts as CEO – together with her 2 business partners, Sabine Georg (COO of Infinity Campus & CEO of Miami Ad School Europe) & Philip Wogart (CTO of Infinity Campus & Creative Tech Advisor at Miami Ad School Europe) and in collaboration with Miami Ad School Europe.
We aim to establish a unique platform for their special courses, trainings, summits and bootcamps made up of our expansive network of mentors – available online regardless of one’s physical location by mixing even more technology into their creative bloodstream. Infinity Campus means Transformation – means Movement – a Development of yourself, your Knowledge and your Creativity. It means, to pulsate, to move, to push boundaries and yourself to the next level. It means to transform!
“Be yourself and express your power through knowledge, inspiration, intuition, collaboration and creativity.”
Enlighten us on how you have made an impact in this industry through your expertise in the industry?
Inspire the next generation through collaborative creative working & events in a very diverse environment and more from a prototype angle approach under a certain timeframe, to come up with ideas together to create innovations and solutions.
THE IMPACT
To foster sustainable change and lead the way in an on-going, ever transforming environment – especially in the educational field, for Ina it is important to encourage:
- Listening, observing & learning and use data to inform strategic decision making; actually see, understand & think
- Inspiration and foster a culture of creativity and prototyping to actually do and make.
- Collaboration & networking to gain more diversity in every kind of aspect to actually care!
This guided Ina’s strategic approach for the school’s Digital Transformation, here she changed the future profile of creatives, through shifting it from very traditional to more digital, social media-centric to more future sustainable; T-SHAPED methodology.
What are the challenges you and your team at Miami Ad School Europe & Infinity Campus come across in your day-to-day operations?
With other professional partners and experts in the field, the leadership team shares a common vision to continue to foster closer relationships with students and build a network for creativity, marketing, technology and innovation on that all can access.
It was and is necessary to use the learning from the COVID-19 crisis to establish the Infinity Campus as a robust and innovative new e-learning platform based on the foundation of INNOVATION, DIVERSITY & MINDSET to create unique courses and expansive networks, independent of physical locations by mixing even more technology into the creative bloodstream.
The pandemic indeed accelerated and amplified many things on many levels. Miami Ad School Europe also had to change, invent and innovate even more and even faster! This has led to many changes, such as the new Factory Berlin location, in addition to new collaborations. It reflects what the school stands for: a program that is fit for the future, in an environment that is full of possibilities. A state-of-the-art infrastructure with fast digital access and human connections – enriching and inspiring. They find all of this in Berlin with the Factory Berlin Partnership, which offers a vibrant community and a strong context for its students. With start-ups and creative tech companies next door, a library, in-house cafés, artists-in-residence and plenty of co-working spaces and ‘sandboxes’ to develop award-winning ideas.
What people, what books, what life factors have influenced and impacted you?
As already anchored in her DNA and to be cradled by her father, Ina is an entrepreneurial, creative spirit. ‘You are the master of your mind & the captain of your passion – navigate your way! This answer can only be multi-faceted, because over the years, many different people have somehow stepped into the role of either becoming a wonderful mentor or an inspiring advisor or – quite simply, a real role model for Ina. Yes, Ina loves books, too – like ‘Ready Player One’, ‘The Swarm’, ‘Whole Food Cooking every Day’ by Amy Chaplin, ‘No rules’ and all sorts of different Ted-Talks, too!
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run and what are your future goals for Miami Ad School Europe & Infinity Campus?
Not just neuroscience results showcase that, the way we learn and engage doesn’t always match up with the way we get taught. To stay competitive in an academically, economical, and technological way – we need to rethink our understanding of intelligence, re-evaluate our educational system, and reinvigorate our commitment to learning. In other words, we need disruptive innovation.”
“We’ll see where my passion, drive and vision takes me. We’ll move on inventing new ways in the field of ‘ INNOVATION IN EDUCATION FOR THE NEXT GENERATION of CREATIVES ‘ to stay at the forefront of contemporary education. ”
