Chicagoland Innovation Summit. John Kao, Author of Innovation Nation, To Keynote

The 2nd Annual Chicagoland Innovation Summit will be held on October 25 at Navy Pier in Chicago. The Summit is bringing together innovation experts, business executives, academics and government leaders to accelerate Chicagoland's development as a globally recognized center for innovation. "Our ultimate goal is to make Chicagoland the number one knowledge economy in the U.S. through greater innovation. The Summit is a focal point for those efforts," according to Dr. Lance Pressl, president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce Foundation, which is again hosting the summit along with World Business Chicago and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

John Kao, author of the recently published book Innovation Nation, How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters, And What We Can Do To Get It Back will be a keynote speaker. I very much enjoyed a discussion with him at a World Affairs Council meeting in Washington DC last week. His message is no surprise to those familiar with the Gathering Storm and Innovate America reports. I liked his "silent Sputnik" metaphor.  The US is sitting on its thumbs while the rest of the world embraces innovation as a strategic priority. The challenge, however, is much more complex than getting to the moon (no blue red constituencies up there).  Energy independence, health care, transportation congestion, environment, problem based learning, smart grids, nano, bio, HPCC, broadband, entrepreneurship and so on are fuzzy, complex challenges and distributed across many stakeholders. No single government agency or interagency Cabinet level council working with inexperienced staff and on government time can succeed on these kinds of “wicked problems."  Innovation is an ecosystem (increasingly global) and we need to think deeply about the appropriate public-private relationships, business models and innovation metrics.  As one who has served in government and championed innovation and competitiveness for years the organizational silos, bureaucratic ethos and political barriers to change are quite formidable.  Kao and others have suggested setting up new government coordinating mechanisms and structures. This could take months if not years to begin to have an impact. Look at the difficulties of the Department of Homeland Security after 9/11.

More critical is leadership and an Innovation President. We should take time now to work in a post-partisan manner to frame an innovation policy that can be embraced by the next administration and by the private sector, state and local government, research and education community and the public. This requires setting priorities (once again) on the critical issues and policy levers that matter for innovation.  We should look beyond science to a holistic end to end framework:  not just supply inputs. More R&D and more spending on education do not equal innovation. We need to think about the demand side by providing the right business environment, management practices, networks, market aggregation and value creation. John Kao presents an important synthesis of our current global situation and a version 1.0 set of ideas worthy of consideration at the Chicagoland Innovation Summit. The Summit web site: www.innovatenow.us