Thursday, April 30, 2009

Innovation ACT Launch

Changing States - President Barack Obama, Single retired American cotton flag woven through nylon mesh 4ft x 6ft by Benjamin ShineGreetings from the launch of Innovation ACT at "spacedock" (aka John Curtin School of Medical Research) the Australian National University in Canberra. This is a program to teach innovation to students at the ANU and University of Canberra. The guest speaker was fabric artist Benjamin Shine, with hsi work including a portrait of President Barack Obama. As well as art, Benjamin does commercial design work, including the logo for the Aphasia Alliance (a topic I was lecturing on today). After a series of seminars on how to turn an invention into a product or service, the students (and staff) from teams, prepare proposals and compete. The winners receive practical experience to implement their idea. One innovation with the program is that it is no confined to profit making patented idea, but can include non-profit open source community benefit idea. John H. Howard, author of Innovation, Creativity and Leadership talked at the launch. The program events are open and a entertaining as well as informative. As part of the program I will be speaking at the "Environmental and Social Sustainable Seminar",6pm, ednesday, 3rd June. My postings from last year's program are also available.
DateEventSpeaker
30th AprilIntroduction to Innovation SeminarBenjamin Shine
6th MayIntellectual Property for Innovation SeminarRobert Miller (Spruson and Ferguson)
13th MayTeam Formation Evening
20th MayProduct and Market Definition SeminarJohn Hemphill (Pyksis)
27th MayFinancial and Resource Management SeminarNick McNaughton (Blue Cove Ventures)
3rd JuneEnvironmental and Social Sustainable SeminarANU Green
10th JuneBusiness Plan Writing and Presentation SeminarLachlan James
1st JulyElevator Pitch Competition
Monday 20th JulyBusiness Plans and Presentations Due
22nd JulyBusiness Plan Presentations
29th JulyGala Awards Dinner
From: Schedule, InnovationACT, 2009

1 comment:

Craig Thomler said...

I am not convinced that innovation can be taught, though people can be taught some of the tools of innovation.