John Kao delivered the opening keynote address on Tuesday morning. The main topic of his speech dealt with the lack of a clear direction towards innovation and also was a pitch to buy his book, among other things.
First John attempted to define innovation, since it appears to be yet another KM related concept that few people can agree upon. He says that innovation has to be new and has to create value for society. Also, innovation has to be an answer to a question. Innovation for innovation's sake doesn't have value, but if it solves a problem then that is useful.
According to John, innovation can exist in a number of areas, not just science. We must have the science and technology part of course, but also innovation in design to allow technology to be used by customers, and have innovation in business processes.
John notes that not only have other countries started to focus on innovation, but they also have picked up enough of the American dream to provide a comfortable standard of living. He spoke about a brain drain taking away America's best and transplanting them in Singapore. Finland and China are also innovation centers he mentions. His main argument for supporting a high standard of living involves the number of Starbucks and other chain stores though.
The flight of Sputnik appears to have focused the US on innovation previously. And now there just isn't a focus on being as competitive in technology and innovation fields. John notes that with the high number of high school drop-outs that we are in jeopardy of creating a "large class of marginally employable people." John appears to have a solution though, make him the first advisor to the president focused on innovation. He didn't explicitly state that, but that appears to be his aim.
More information on John's book can be found at http://www.innovationation.org/
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