The Economist conference: Fresh thinking for the innovation economy

On March 23-24, The Economist is organizing a conference called "Fresh thinking for the innovation economy".

A multi-part, multimedia, multi-continent forum, this event will expand and possibly overturn established thinking about what innovation is, where it comes from, and how to make it work. Some of today’s top global innovators will examine and iterate on the genesis of good ideas, the great challenges of the twenty-first century, the question of whether we live in a flat world, the costs and benefits of crowdsourcing, the power of social entrepreneurship, the role of government in catalyzing innovation, leveraging failure, finding innovation in a crisis, organizing the teams of tomorrow, the phenomenon of reverse innovation, the future of open innovation, and how old economy actors are being disrupted in the new economy. Whether the impetus is to improve customer relationships, develop new products and services, explore untapped markets, or improve efficiency, companies today must implement more than just an R&D strategy to survive and thrive. Regardless of geography or industry, an organization lives or dies by how it innovates.

Featured speakers

• Amar Bhidé, Professor, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
• Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO
• Ed Catmull, President, Pixar and Disney Animation Studios
• Clayton Christensen, Professor, Harvard Business School
• Jared Diamond, Author, Guns, Germs, and Steel
• Judy Estrin, President, JLabs
• Kris Halvorsen, Chief Technology Officer, Intuit
• Jacqueline Novogratz, Founder, Acumen Fund
• Michael Porter, Professor, Harvard Business School
• Paul Saffo, Visiting Scholar, Stanford Media X

The conference will take place at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, USA.