The UNSW Innovation Summit 2015 has been hailed as a success, following a day-long session which examined what Australian business, industry, academia, and government need to do to compete successfully in the new world order.
The UNSW Innovation Summit 2015 has been hailed as a success, following a day-long session which examined what Australian business, industry, academia, and government need to do to compete successfully in the new world order.
Professor Joe Cheng, the Michael J. Crouch Chair in Innovation at the UNSW Business School and Director of the Australian Innovation & Competitiveness Initiative said, "this summit was vital to examine our future direction, as the global economy becomes increasingly innovation-driven and Asia-centred."
More than 160 people attended the day-long meeting on Friday 18thSeptember 2015, which provided a forum for innovators to meet and exchange ideas, explore mutual interests for collaboration, and form research and professional networks.
"We have formed 36 roundtable working groups at the Summit, 18 on strengthening Australian Innovation and another 18 on Asia Capability. I plan to engage these 36 working groups in the coming months to develop an action plan to implement the recommendations they generated at the Summit. Our larger goal is to formulate a comprehensive, integrated research and engagement agenda to help reinvent Australia for global competitiveness," said Professor Joe Cheng.
Professor Chris Styles, Dean of the UNSW Business School, gave the welcome remarks, as did Professor Ian Jacobs, President and Vice-Chancellor, UNSW Australia, followed by Michael Crouch AO, who has a passion for innovation in Australia as demonstrated by his generous support of the Michael J. Crouch Chair in Innovation and the Michael Crouch Innovation Centre at UNSW. The Centre aims to inspire an innovation mind-set in every UNSW graduate, contributing to a culture of innovation on campus and beyond.
Speakers included the Honorable John Berry, U.S. Ambassador to Australia, who spoke about the shared innovative spirit between the US and Australia; Sarah Vaughan, Director Developer Experience and Evangelism from Microsoft Australia who discussed the importance of listening to the market; Robbert Rietbroek, the Managing Director & CEO of Kimberly-Clark Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands who described the importance of innovation, and Mirjana Prica, Managing Director of Food Innovation Australia Ltd, who explained that innovation allows Australia to compete on the world stage.
Professor Joe Cheng concluded the summit by explaining he hopes to have it as an annual event.