02 Friday Dec 2011
Posted in Cities and Innovation, Events
I’ll be speaking at the Accelerating Asia Conference in KL next week.
Should be a great conference with a strong focus on sustainable growth through technology enabled innovation, and the role of NGOs in empowering city communities
05 Monday Sep 2011
Posted in Cities and Innovation, Events, People
Tags
Great message from a friend of mine, Brett O’Riley.
The Ministry of Science and Innovation (MSI) is delighted to be one of the partners behind the Rutherford Innovation Showcase being staged during Rugby World Cup 2011. The Showcase celebrates “kiwi innovation” in the spirit of one of our greatest, Lord Rutherford. For more…Ministry of Science and Innovation.
23 Tuesday Aug 2011
Posted in Cities and Innovation
Many people have asked me for the reasoning behind, and the connections between, national competitiveness and local innovation…here are both.
National competitiveness is based on national productivity, being the capacity of the nation’s firms to achieve higher levels of productivity, and develop the capabilities to compete in more and more sophisticated industry segments.
Equally, as business success is now based on the paradigms of flexibility and entrepreneurialism, urban-based innovation development and entrepreneurship now generates national outcomes, with cities playing a significant role in overall economic productivity and national competitiveness.
Within this context, the Information and Communications (ICT) industry also demonstrates a positive impact on national competitiveness, where ICT production contributes to output, employment, and export earnings, and ICT use increases productivity, competitiveness, and growth across all industries in an economy. And while industries such as agriculture and tourism may in themselves not be knowledge-intensive, the innovation process, including knowledge inputs from outside industry firms and institutions, may indeed be.
The proposition is that national competitiveness and enduring competitive advantage in today’s global economy, increasingly lies in local things — knowledge, relationships, and motivations that distant rivals cannot match.
These local innovation ‘ecosystems’ are core to the creation and commercialisation of innovative products, processes, and services by entrepreneurs and reinforces the need for local indigenous skills, capabilities, and enabling ICT environments. It also reinforces the need for innovation programmes that focus on creating and supporting the complex stakeholder interactions that drive economic growth at local, industry and macro levels of an economy, to produce economic growth and social benefits for all citizens.
END
If you would like the references for the above, please contact me via my contact page.
10 Wednesday Aug 2011
Posted in Cities and Innovation, Events
The Innovation Showcase will be attended by a range of delegates from NZ Government Ministers and Chief Executives, Asia Pacific and New Zealand business leaders, Local Government Mayors and Councillors, Industry, Academia and Entrepreneurs.
Opening remarks from Mayor of Auckland Len Brown
Innovation is the key to our future. We are entering an age of fierce international competition for resources such as skilled labour, raw materials and energy.
Innovation – doing more with less, doing it smarter and cleaner is the only way we can continue to prosper and live better lives on a healthy planet.
The good news is that the innovation sector is growing – in fact it is Auckland’s fastest growing employer.
My council has placed innovation at the heart of our Economic Development Strategy. We will support our innovative firms, universities and research and development organisations to take their genius to world markets. The Rutherford Innovation Showcase will show the world how innovative we already are.
The Future Cities Forum will challenge us on the role Auckland, as New Zealand’s international city, needs to play in transforming this country’s well-being. Be excited – this is just the beginning.
This forum day highlights opportunities for New Zealand cities to develop as world leading communities driving economic growth and social cohesion. It will include an evaluation on opportunities for public private partnerships and will feature leading international speakers who will discuss global best practice for transforming cities and towns into digital communities. Of special note is the government-industry panel session that will bring together economic development agencies, the keynote speakers and urban innovation experts to discuss critical challenges and opportunities to achieve sustainable urbanisation, and economic growth, through the creation of high skilled jobs, entrepreneurship and innovation in the local economy.
The Forum Day culminates at an invite only leadership dinner hosted by Auckland Mayor Len Brown, and will include an update on the latest initiatives for Auckland as a ‘Hub of Innovation’ for the South Pacific, and the launch of the Future Cities Global Forum and Awards Program.
We are proud to announce that William Cobbett, who is the manager of Cities Alliance, will be the opening speaker at the Future Cities Forum.
The Cities Alliance is a global partnership for urban poverty reduction and the promotion of the role of cities in sustainable development. The Cities Alliance prioritises support to cities, local authorities, associations of local authorities and/or national governments. William will speak of his experience and empowering local communities in the digital world.
William Cobbett has been Manager of the Cities Alliance since May 2006. He joined the Cities Alliance in March 2001 from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in Nairobi, where he had designed and launched the Global Campaign for Secure Tenure. Prior to joining the United Nations, he was Director of Housing for Cape Town.
If you have any queries or if you would like to get involved in this event, please contact Michaela Clark: events@futurecitiesinstitute.org
REGISTER HERE
04 Thursday Aug 2011
Posted in Cities and Innovation, Research
Interesting article on how researchers studying the way cell phones are changing behaviour and markets in the developing world, have begun to focus on the number of people who have access to a cell phone rather than the number who actually own a cell phone as a more relevant statistic…more.
01 Monday Aug 2011
Posted in Cities and Innovation, Events
Just received confirmation I’ll be speaking at the 14th TCI Annual Global Conference “Competitiveness at the Edge” in Auckland, New Zealand. 28 November – 2 December 2011.
Looks like a busy 2nd half of the year…more.
22 Friday Jul 2011
Posted in Cities and Innovation, Events
I’ll will be speaking on National Competitiveness and Local Innovation during the Rutherford Innovation Showcase, 28th September 2011, in Auckland New Zealand. See http://rutherfordinnovationshowcase.co.nz/
11 Wednesday May 2011
Posted in Cities and Innovation, Communities
At the Future Cities Institute, our mission is to Empower Local Communities in a Digital World. But what does Empowerment really mean? Here are some thoughts…
The World Bank suggests that Empowerment is the process of enhancing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes. Researchers* have also identified two essential factors that influence our capacity to make an effective choice – agency and opportunity structure:
For example, a young person may well informed about many potential jobs and careers they can pursue and have the ability to apply for them (agency) but because of their lack of education or the right skill sets (opportunity structure) are unable to make their choice effective…they are not empowered.
Another example comes from my own community a couple of years ago where we were basically a ‘black hole’ in term of our ability to get decent broadband in our suburb. As individuals we were able to contact the telco provider and request better broadband, but were unable to achieve change because of the power ‘imbalance’ of individuals trying to deal with a large national carrier. We just got the run-a-round.
However, as a community of people of people working together and combining our different experiences, education and social/business connections in industries such as technology, media, public relations and marketing, we were ‘empowered’ to make a choice (and take action) to take on the telco in the public media and put forward a strong argument for change. The end result, our suburb was the first suburb in the country to get the new broadband roll out. As a group we were empowered to transform our choices into desired actions and outcomes.
So, back to Empowering Local Communities in a Digital World…
Let’s face it we are in transition to a ‘techno-economic’ age where the focus of social development and economic competitiveness is based on:
A critical factor to this transition is the nature of the ‘stuff’ that makes up this techno-economic age, innovation is now based on ‘weightless’ parts such as software and the Internet, that have no physical, manufacturing, shipping or inventory constraints. These technologies fuel economic growth via individual creativity, without the requirement for significant economic resources such as capital, plant or machinery, really who needs an office anymore?*.
Bottom Line…
It’s about entrepreneurs in cities, drinking coffee, dreaming up new ideas and being empowered to transform those ideas (choices) into desired actions and outcomes through their developed skills and social connections, and the application of technologies like Cloud and Mobile.
It’s about entrepreneurs in cities, drinking coffee, dreaming up new ideas and being empowered to transform those ideas (choices) into desired actions and outcomes through their developed skills and social connections, and the application of technologies like Cloud and Mobile.
If you don’t think technology, and lots of on-line friends, can empower people and communities, just talk to my friend Leila in Tunisia***…
* See Alsop and Heinsohn (2005)
**For more on these ideas see Varian 2003, Jessop 1992 and Hutton 2004.
*** See my post archives for the Tunisia Presentation
