If innovation were a recipe you could look up in a book and whip up in half an hour, what would be the key ingredients? The first thing you would reach for would be great ideas, of course. What next? Maybe resources, of the human, intellectual, and financial variety, along with the actual hardware should all be thrown in. If the right location was something you could throw into a cake bowl, you would probably want that in there, too. Perhaps you might consider at this point giving it a good whisking and throwing this concoction into the oven to bake, but you’d be missing one of the most integral ingredients of all: communication.
It is for the sake of communication that we welcome speakers and delegates to the second annual Global University Venturing Summit, published by our sister title. With this year’s event focused on the idea of innovation through collaboration, building the bridges between different islands of the university innovation world is crucial in moving forward. Collaboration in this world has shown to provide results, but it is not without its obstacles to overcome. In doing so, we must all strive to understand each other better.
This is not just the basis for the Summit, but is at the heart of the mission for Global University Venturing as a publication. Academia, governments and industry are often perceived by each other as speaking entirely different languages, but for the three to meld seamlessly and reap the benefits of partnership, both must have the same mother tongue of innovation. This can only be achieved by engaging with the other side, articulating your own challenges, listening to issues from the other side of the fence, and working together to find a path that both can walk.
As with the publication, the Summit sets out to cover a range of topics from different points of view. We will discuss different models of technology transfer, international perspectives on innovation, how to finance an idea, and much more over our two days in London. It is through the analysis and understanding of these different approaches that we as a community can learn, grow, and thrive.
Aside from best practice and sharing experiences is the opportunity to meet, to collaborate, and to plot out a potential roadmap to the future with fellow delegates. The chance to network with people from sectors you may not regularly engage exists all around during the conference, and should be capitalised upon, with a view to building effective and profitable partnerships.
Unfortunately, there is no single recipe for innovation. Even if there were, it would be a safe bet that some maverick would just come into the kitchen with a whole new box of ingredients – such is the way of the world we live in. Yet, there are guidelines and plenty of previous offerings to draw inspiration from. But, if we do not talk to each other about what innovations we have cooked up, all we will ever be stuck with is a lukewarm innovation broth, and a pile of washing up to do.