Thames Valley Innovation Conference 2008, Reading, UK.

The third annual conference on innovation hosted by TVEP but the first for me. This one-day event (a part of the Thames Valley iFestival running until the end of November) had a distinctly technology-focused agenda, as is to be expected given the high-tech corporate inhabitants of the Thames Valley.

Unfortunately I missed the Keynote session but I learnt something from most of the sessions and stayed until the end, unlike most delegates. The exhibition was not great though Bemoko are worth a call if you want simple business apps delivered via mobiles. Apparently they had built a conference site for the hosts but it had not been promoted so a lost opportunity to demonstrate innovation there!

There was not a great deal of networking opportunities given the format of the event but it was good to chat with guest speakers from O2, (Dr Mike Short, VP of R&D), Microsoft (Andrew Watson, Senior Director) and Syngenta (DR Mike Bushell, Head of Site) about the challenges of global R&D, the mobile industry and open innovation.

Andrew Watson of Microsoft provided some insights as to how they encourage and channel innovation and besides an ideas exchange I was intrigued to hear of their “Think Week”. Once a year Bill Gates (I ugess not any more) and Steve Balmer dedicate a week to sifting through formal written submissions from any staff member with ideas they want to suggest. I guess the main aim is to by-pass potentially obstructive management whilst providing access to the leadership. Knowing a submission is going straight to the top apparently ensures there are few time-wasters and submissions are generally well conceived.

My attempts to unearth some best practice secrets as to how to manage a large distributed global R&D organisation drew a blank with wide scale agreement that it was indeed a challenge! Syngenta kept the model as simple as possible with only a handful of sites with each specialising in a research focus thus minimising required interaction between sites. Key start-up, knowledge transfer or other major activities were achieved via a dedicated expat, usually someone wishing to return home to the new site and therefore having a strong interest to make the project a success.

?WhatIF! were the star turn and Harry Hobson and Andy Reid did a great job in enlightening the crowd as to the value and need for creativity in the innovation process - and a few ways to help it along. ?WhatIf! work with Samsung, Nokia, Vodafone and other technology firms so I will be exploring via Harry how best to partner on farming innovation lightning.

The SME presentations were as enlightening as the corporates and especially Malcolm Duckett of Speed Trap (web site monitoring) and Alex Pratt of Serious Readers (specialist reading lights), both of which in their different ways demonstrated the need for tenacity and flexibility when pursuing ideas and overcoming inevitable setbacks.

If you are in the area I would recommend attending this event if it runs next year as planned but the organisers need to find better ways to network participants and develop a clearer focus for the programme presentations.

Conference site at http://www.theinnovationconference.net/.