nicholas's blog

The Bay Area held an innovation roundtable in 2007 – the topic was innovation 3.0 and how the Valley can lead the world. You can find the report of proceedings on this web-site. Key conclusions were:

The region (the Bay Area) must work collaboratively—across both public and private sectors—to address the challenges, manage the complexities, and build on existing strengths.

The region should promote innovation leadership by operating within a global innovation environment while retaining a local innovation leadership position.

David Cameron (Leader of the Conservative Party) at NESTA 3rd April 2008

David Cameron spoke at NESTA today (the 3rd of April). This is some of what he had to say:

I passionately believe that if we are to take on and beat the great challenges of our time, we need the culture of public policy-making to have innovation at its heart. That's the way to get the best results. And that's the way to get value for taxpayers' money. We will follow private sector best practice which is to introduce 'open standards' that enables IT contracts to be split up into modular components.

Do you AGREE?

Jonathan Kestenbaum (FT 26.03.2008) bemoans the decision of 3i to ‘abandon start-up investment’. He maintains that the decision of Philip Yea, 3i’s chief executive, to focus on investments in later-stage companies is short-sighted.

The Cambridge based consultancy, Library House, writes that recently a number of large technology corporates have moved their major European operations to Switzerland’s two most populous cities, at the expense of London. Just last week Yahoo! announced its intention to move its European headquarters from London to Geneva.

10 NINTENDO- After Sony and Microsoft kicked the Mario out of Nintendo's GameCube in the
Video Game War of 2001, the cutest and smallest of the three platform makers needed a new plan.
"Nintendo took a step back from the technology arms race and chose to focus on the fun of playing,
rather than cold tech specs," says Reggie Fils-Aimé, president of Nintendo of America. The resulting
Wii system, with its intuitive motion-sensitive controller, appealed not only to teen boys but also to

INNOVATION CAPACITIES AND CAPABILITIES GOES TO THOSE LOCATIONS OFFERING THE BIGGEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK!

A recent survey of multinational research and development (R&D) found that 22 per cent of all new research and development centres to be developed between 2006 and 2009 will be located in China and 19 per cent in India. The figures for the US, Western Europe, and Japan are 19 per cent, 13 per cent and 5 per cent.

Harnessing the Power of the Innovation Economies of the UK (Oxford to Cambridge Arc and London) and India for Business Advantage

The O2C Arc organisation is in the throes of setting up a major project to enhance the links between India and the UK. The project could significantly benefit your firm or organisation.

Technology-led companies and policy makers from around the Milton Keynes city-region attended the first joint Oxford to Cambridge Arc (O2C) - Sparc Technology Network event at Oakgrove School in Milton Keynes in December 2007. Rob Wallace, Director of Strategic Partnerships at the MaRS Convergence Centre in Toronto, Canada, was a special guest of the O2C Arc and presented the MaRs (originally Medical and Related Sciences) Convergence Centre story, sharing his experiences with Dr.

Building one of Europe’s premier knowledge based economies and, more specifically, successfully encouraging the commercialisation of research are neither straightforward nor easy! Furthermore, much uncertainty colours the landscape of innovation. Will IP and talent wars within and between countries reverse the momentum behind collaboration? Will a focus on Home Rule (techno-nationalism) cripple international partnering and the flowering of open innovation across the global economy?