The goal: Connect people with ideas to people with resources – online or in person
Despite the lone warrior often at the center of innovation stories (think Steve Jobs), reality usually finds numerous people with skills and resources who made significant contributions. The idea behind InnoVenture is to get those people together, in person at the May 8-9 conference, and online through InnoVenture.com.
Until this year, the conference was the main venture for InnoVenture LLC, founded by John Warner. It remains a forum for people with ideas to find resources, and for people with resources to find ideas. The conference, the annual transportation-focused Innomobility conference, and various forums organized for corporate clients have been InnoVenture LLC’s enterprises for almost a decade.
Yet recently the website became the primary networking tool. Now those who would present their ideas at a conference must first post them to the website for consideration. Warner said InnoVenture.com is on track to meet its goal of 1 million users by the end of 2014. The current 11,000 users come from 24 U.S. states and 28 countries.
After numerous iterations over the past two years, Warner said he finally settled on a website that he likens to LinkedIn, the professional networking website. When that company went public in 2011, Warner looked at its reports. He found that most of its revenue came not from premium accounts or even paid advertising, but from the recruiters who paid for access to the organized information that could be gleaned from tens of thousands of profiles. That matched InnoVenture’s model perfectly.
Users list their ideas on the site, which organizes them from most to least popular. Popularity is measured by interaction, so as people share an idea or communicate with its poster, it moves closer to the top.
“Every idea needs a passionate, tenacious champion, and that’s no different online than it is in the real world,” Warner said.
This year the conference will feature four focus areas (see sidebar). Warner said the conference format will be comprised of short presentations in small groups that will allow for more interaction between presenters and audience. Among the dozens of presentations, here are three topics highlighted this year:
Improving Infrastructure
Among this year’s feature presenters, Milliken & Company stands out as one who Warner said had to be coaxed into participation a decade ago. Kevin Weir, who works with innovation and business development at Milliken, said the company’s infrastructure business works to address the problems that have earned the country’s roads, bridges, sewers and other infrastructure a “D” rating from the American Society of Civil Engineers for the past several years. Weir said Milliken is creating novel, low-cost repair and rehabilitation innovations.
“Politicians and industry thought leaders have been pushing for a decade for more innovation to meet the growing infrastructure challenge,” Weir said. “But true innovations in this space have been few and far between.”
Three products recently have been developed to address these needs. Concrete Cloth is designed to eliminate the need for cement mixers when paving. Instead, concrete is transported and laid out in the form of a heavy cloth that can be rolled out on awkward terrain or even under water. GeoSpray is a structural, spin-cast, nano-Geopolymer cement that re-lines and rehabilitates sewer and stormwater systems, and RenewWrap structural reinforcement is a new carbon fiber and specially formulated epoxy composite.
Laser Focus
John Ballato, director of the Clemson University Center for Optical Materials Science and Engineering Technologies (COMSET), uses InnoVenture.com to track who is interested in his work on laser and fiber optic technologies. These light-based technologies have been instrumental in manufacturing, and so their development is important to manufacturing in this region, Ballato said.
The general public is mostly unaware that cellphones, for instance, are machined using lasers, and lasers shoot signals to optical lines to complete the phone call. “The global market from things built using lasers and light is about $7 trillion,” Ballato said. “That’s half of the U.S. GDP.”
He’ll use the conference to connect with others who can help Clemson map exactly how lasers and fiber optics are being used throughout manufacturing, which will make it easier to anticipate future needs. He also seeks an inventory that will show the value of all the products in the Southeast that are enabled by the use of lasers.
Ballato will also promote a different model of R&D. He said a German-influenced model, with more emphasis on public-private partnerships, would speed the movement of technologies based on that information to market. He said other companies on the manufacturing panel at InnoVenture are also interested in expanding “light technologies.”
“We don’t know where it’s going to or what form it will take in the future, but InnoVenture seemed as good a place as any to get the conversation started,” Ballato said.
Changing Transportation
Greenville County Councilman Fred Payne will promote personal Rapid Transit (PRT) as one tool for better connecting our communities and improving quality of life. He hopes InnoVenture will be an opportunity to connect with engineers, contractors and others who would develop this on-demand “personal express taxi” system of electric vehicles. They would operate on their own paths, connecting areas such as CU-ICAR and downtown, or large housing developments with large commercial centers.
“Somebody locally would have to build the [track], build the vehicles. Somebody’s got to maintain them and manage the system, all of that. I’m looking for partners who are in business and can make this kind of thing happen.”
Investors are also on the top of Payne’s list. He said current estimates for construction of a PRT system is $7-15 million per mile depending on complexity, plus the cost of right-of-way acquisition. “I don’t expect an equity capital person to be there in the meeting, but there may be someone who has a connection to them,” he said.
Finally, he sees InnoVenture as one way to influence public opinion on the topic, which would be a key to getting attendant public policy in place.
