SwampFox

How do you get involved with high impact innovations? Do what Michael and Frank did. Start by showing up.

Register to attend InnoVenture Southeast 2011.

How do we grow more high impact innovations in South Carolina? We start by creating opportunities for smart talented people to meet, and then getting out of their way and letting smart people do what smart people do.

Had Clemson asked InnoVenture Southeast to fill a room with entrepreneurs to commercialize their technologies, we would not have invited Michael Bolick. A manager of a contract pharmaceutical company, Michael self-selected by showing up at an InnoVenture Southeast conference where he saw Clemson carbon dot technology and “got so excited I looked around to see who else was taking notes.” Collaborating closely with organizations from Greenville Hospital System to the Nanocenter at USC, Lab21 has now built its North American headquarters and one of the world's first personalized medicine laboratories in Greenville, SC.

Frank Greer and Ralph Heredia left NCR and started Zipit Wireless. At an InnoVenture Southeast conference they met a venture capitalist who invested in their company. Recently they announced a national partnership with Verizon to reinvent paging starting with mission critical communications in hospitals. At InnoVenture Southeast 2011, on May 10 and 11, Michael and Frank, along with leaders from major companies, universities and others, will discuss how we can expand the pipeline of high impact innovations.

A year ago, InnoVenture Southeast created the Przirembel Prize to shine the light on Southeastern collaborations across diverse organizations recognized as significant by those outside the region. The quality of applicants is very impressive.

Soldiers were dying from roadside bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) in North Charleston, SC, was tasked with rapidly developing a Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicle, protecting the troops and providing the intelligence to understand the “who, what, and when” of threats. Commenting on the largest and fastest military acquisition buildup since WW II delivering 10,000 vehicles in 18 months, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said, “the many successes of the joint MRAP vehicle program are the result of an overwhelming team effort by many players.”

SPAWAR MRAP is one of three finalists the first annual Przirembel Prize to be awarded at InnoVenture Southeast 2011. The Prize promotes best practices in open innovation and builds a greater sense of identity of the Southeastern United States as an innovation powerhouse in the world.

The Carolinas Nuclear Cluster, headquartered in Charlotte, NC, is helping utilities and other organizations that have intensely competed for large industrial recruitment projects to come together in their enlightened self-interest to build a pipeline of talent and vendors to support over $30 billion of facilities constructed for the coming nuclear renaissance. The Joint School of Nanoscience & Nanoengineering is a $64 million collaboration between NC A&T State University, a historically black university, and The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, historically a women’s college, which places the two universities at the forefront of an rapidly growing scientific discipline.

InnoVenture Southeast 2011 will have presentations and round table conversations with industry, academic and entrepreneurial leaders focused on deep clusters of world class expertise and resources around major economic anchors where high impact innovations can occur.

Health Information and Technology is anchored by BlueCross BlueShield of SC, which has one of the world’s largest mainframe data centers in Columbia, SC, processing 62% of all the Medicare transactions in the country. With the University of SC, IBM, and others, they launched IT-oLogy to create a pipeline of IT talent. BlueCross and It-oLogy are joined by CareCore National, a $1 billion company in Bluffton, SC, providing physicians with access to the latest evidence-based criteria to improve the way care is delivered to patients.

Materials and Manufacturing is organized around Milliken, which has one of world’s preeminent materials research facilities in Spartanburg, SC, and Sealed Air, one of the world’s largest producers of food packaging. The Southeast Institute of Manufacturing and Technology in Florence, SC, has become a leader in the rapidly growing additive manufacturing industry to make high value, low volume products, from spare parts to orthopedic implants.

InnoMobility is a major InnoVenture initiative launched this year to discover and develop new business opportunities from the global transformation of mobility. We are looking for the Henry Fords of our time, and they may not speak English. InnoMobility is anchored by Michelin, which has its North American headquarters and one of three global research centers in Greenville, SC, and Sage Automotive Interiors, a major high growth automotive supplier which recently spun off from Milliken. InnoMobiltiy is also partnering closely with the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research, SCRA, and Jackson Marketing, among others.

Innovation is a contact sport. To play you do what Michael and Frank did years ago. You start by showing up.

Register to attend InnoVenture Southeast 2011.