The role of media in the innovation ecosystem

The Workforce and Economic Development Conference of 2009 October 27-29 will be held in Spokane Washington at the Davenport Hotel. A panel discussion will be held Wednesday afternoon October 28, 1:45 pm-3:00 pm on Media and Innovation: Economic weather forecasters of the future. An experienced panel will provide insight on how the changing media will report on future economic development and workforce issues. Learn about the technology changes affecting media and how media can be a partner in developing economic development and workforce strategy. Innovation is a key economic development concept and recognized as a way of addressing many of society's challenges—economic growth, job creation, revitalizing metropolitan areas, international competitiveness, global health, renewable energy, climate change and many other examples. Central to the panel discussion is the idea that journalism and the media play a formidable role in shaping the future direction of innovation and economic development. In fact, a prominent group of business, political, academic and government leaders assert that the future prosperity and quality of life our state will be determined by how well we innovate. Link: www.wedc.wa.gov. The media is necessarily a key part of any strategy that wishes to mobilize people into a higher level of creativity, productivity and prosperity.

Innovation has multiple dimensions and crosses institutional, geographic and disciplinary boundaries more than before. Much reporting on innovation is still in its infancy—tending to be on invention or products and not on innovation which is a process for implementing ideas involving an entire ecosystem of business, workforce development, government, universities and culture. It is a horizontal beat spanning across old beats—politics, money, lifestyle, breaking news, public controversy and even sports. It is not very often that innovation is covered as an integrated narrative or news story. The emergence of new forms of social networking media – blogs, wikis, twitters, face book, etc –is also changing how content is gathered, disseminated and consumed. For more insights check out David Nordfors Innovation Journalism Blog.

 

Media and Innovation Panel

 

Moderator:

Egils Milbergs, WA Economic Development Commission

Panel:

Robert Buderi, Xconomy.com

Stacey Cowles, Spokane Spokesman-Review

Lisa Cohen, Washington Global Health Alliance

 

After brief opening presentations the panel will focus on the following topics:

• How well is traditional and new digital media informing the public on the significance and meaning of science, technology and innovation and its impact on the future economy?
• How can policymakers do a better job of making journalists and the various forms of media a constructive partner in the innovation and economic development process?
• How is innovation in journalism (e.g. face book, twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, wikis) changing the sources of stories, demographics, distribution and economics of the media business?
• What will be the science, technology and innovation news stories of 2010?

 

Comments

[Chris Fillebrown]

I agree with your comment about innovation being 'process for implementing ideas involving an entire ecosystem.' I have recently started a blog that focuses on solution-strategies (www.frame-of-reference.net). A solution-strategy approach to problem solving maintains that how we think about a problem is as important as the subject-matter expertise ultimately required to solve some or all of the elements of a particular problem. The blog is a survey of solution strategies that exist in the world. Through exposure to techniques that are obvious to some, my hope is that the techniques will become obvious to us all. And as a result, that we all become better problem solvers.