School of Information dean AnnaLee Saxenian will be a speaker at the inaugural "Innovation: Fresh thinking for the ideas economy" forum sponsored by The Economist magazine.
In 2010, The Economist is launching a marketplace for ideas focused on innovation, intelligent infrastructure, and human potential.
"Innovation: Fresh thinking for the ideas economy," held at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley on March 23–24, will gather senior-level executives across sectors and functions for thinking about and advancing innovation.
The goal of the event is to expand or overturn established thinking about what innovation is, where it comes from, and how to make it work. Attendees will experience hands-on design, strategy, and problem solving with some of today’s leading industry leaders and innovators. Sponsors hope that attendees will leave the event with tangible ideas for how to disrupt their industries, and ideas for their next breakthrough product or company.
Saxenian will be participating in a panel discussion entitled "The world is not flat?" along with Richard Jefferson, chairman of Cambia; Joi Ito, CEO of Creative Commons, and John Kao, author of "Innovation Nation."
Other forum participants include Robert Reich, former US Secretary of Labor; John Perry Barlow, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post; author Judy Estrin; UCLA professor Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs and Steel; Ed Catmull, president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios; Christina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers; Mary McDowell, chief development officer of Nokia; Larry Brilliant, formerly of Google.org; Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of Acumen Fund; Mark Bernstein, CEO of PARC; and Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO.
