Cookhouse Labs
Serving innovation to make the future better.
What is our mission at Cookhouse Labs?
At Cookhouse Labs, we create a global innovation community that tackles current and future industry challenges through co-creation, collaboration and open communication. Inspired by a test kitchen, Cookhouse Labs is a collaborative space for innovative chefs, Tastemakers, and taste-testers to create recipes, infuse flavours, and experiment beyond boundaries. Our community of innovators and subject matter experts is the key ingredient in the ideation process, empowering and integrating a global collection of human-centric focused ideas with Design Thinking to serve innovation across all industries.
Our Mission
To share and collaborate. To design and create. To accelerate innovation and prototyping of digital experiences. To create a holistic digital ecosystem and customer experience.
Our Vision
To fosters and encourages co-creation and ideation to generate new business models, products, and services. By shifting from a traditional way of thinking to a more human-centered way of thinking, we aim to collectively develop an ecosystem of digital excellence and strive to make the future better.
Our Work With Our Community
In collaboration with our global community like-minded people who are bothered to look into world challenges across all industries, we co-create solutions to make the future better.
Foster
an ecosystem for international collaboration between cross-industry innovators and subject matter experts.
Collaborate
in understanding customer needs to ideate practical solutions to within your industry
Co-create
digital prototypes through innovative use of technology and Design Thinking to accelerate human-centric innovation
Engage
startups and young talent, connecting them with our global community through mentorship programs and collaborative projects
What's Cooking
Check-out the latest offerings on the menu at Cookhouse Labs.
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SummerHack 2023
Global Financial Services Ideathon! Join some of the world’s best financial services organizations, startups, and student innovators for 2 days of exciting innovation, ideation, and competition! -
Co-creation Innovation Sprint
Join us in The Netherlands to explore the most critical challenges using Design Thinking and develop real solution blueprints with some of the world’s top insurance organizations! -
Lean Startup Masterclass
Join this workshop to learn a new way to approach to launching a new product, service or even a new venture. Learn about the Lean Startup methodology and how you can use it in your future projects. -
Train the Trainer
Take advantage of the opportunity to allow your innovation coaches, managers and innovation leaders to expand their knowledge on the topic and learn new skills from our Innovation Coaches. -
Summer Bootcamp
We are excited to have our members be part of Cookhouse Labs’ Summer Bootcamp in collaboration with University of Toronto, Dept. Statistical Sciences.
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What Our Community Says
“This year I had the chance to work with the team at Cookhouse Labs. In a time where we are all grasping on how to enhance collaboration and innovation remotely, it was impressive to see how the team was able to deliver innovation programs and train the trainer teachings online. Not only did we get to be involved in innovation practices, but Cookhouse Labs also modelled how to deliver using collaboration tools that can be applied to working with any group of people. And the bonus? A chance to expand my community of innovation leaders!”
Susan Gilbert
Director, Digital Operations at MIG Insurance and Co-Founder, Haekka
“What the Cookhouse Labs sprint enabled for us was this: let’s just create a 10,000-foot problem statement and then work with a group to see what solution we come up with. If that solution resembles at all what we’re doing at Micruity, that’s a traction point and you’re on the right track. If it doesn’t, that’s a pivot point. Being a part of that session gave us a little bit more confidence as a very, very early stage company and confirmed that we were on the right track. Bringing together folks with different expertise and having them come up with a similar solution was very valuable.”
Trevor Gary
Founder of Micruity
“Many other professionals and I have had the privilege of working with the innovators at Cookhouse labs. The consulting opportunities, sprints, and Design Thinking sessions have brought in exponential learning to a highly robust and innovative program in Applied Technologies for Insurance here at HSB Canada. I wish Cookhouse Labs continued success and look forward to a lot more learning and excitement, which is part of the DNA of this co-creation space.”
Abhishek Gupta
Manager, IoT Business Development, HSB Canada
“After attending a couple of Cookhouse’s free Design Thinking trainings, we said, “This is an organization that really gets it”. Cookhouse promotes Design Thinking as an approach to product development, innovation, and generally meeting customers’ needs, but also promotes collaboration. There are some big, hefty challenges in our industry, and we don’t have to go at it alone. A Cookhouse Labs membership made a lot of sense because we wanted to partner with like-minded people to tackle some of these big challenges in a more collaborative way, and that’s what really inspired us to join.”
David Simmons
Managing Director at Argus Group’s Center of Excellence
“You don't have to be Steve Jobs to be an innovative individual. I have to upsell the support we got from Cookhouse Labs: the templates guided us in the right direction on how to develop and present our solution in the end, so thank you!”
Tommy Kim
Senior Actuarial Analyst Munich Re Company of Canada
“I enjoyed the multitude of ideas and the level of engagement. I also enjoyed seeing how the virtual setup worked and how everyone was able to collaborate, even though they were in different rooms!”
Bernd Scharrer
COO Operations/IT VHV Holding AG
"First and foremost, Cookhouse Labs was an entryway into meeting a lot of parties within the Canadian insurance industry. We were introduced to senior leaders at MGAs and other insurance companies. We also got to participate in some interesting workshops with people that we deal with every day, like a workshop with underwriters to talk about the future of underwriting. It was interesting to get their point of view on how far we could push the envelope, where some of the constraints are, and why those constraints exist. It was very beneficial for us early on to have those sounding boards for some of our ideas to tell us how feasible they would be!"
Laura McKay
Co-Founder of PolicyMe
"Diversity is one of the essential pillars of innovation. The Cookhouse Labs achieves this, among other things, through its international and intercultural approach. Since the founding of the Lab, our students from the Faculty of Computer Science and Business Information Systems at FHWS have repeatedly been able to gain valuable experience through our collaboration with the Lab, demonstrate their competence in international projects, and develop extraordinary concepts, prototypes and business models. Special thanks to the whole team from Cookhouse Labs."
Prof. Dr. Michael Muessig
University of Applied Sciences Wurzburg-Schweinfurt (FHWS), Germany; Lecturer and Business Angel
