Friday, July 13, 2007

Global Preponderance : 2007 Bled Strategic Forum: European Union 2020: Enlarging and Integrating

I have just been invited to serve as a Panelist on the topic of Global Preponderance at the 2007 Bled Strategic Forum: European Union 2020: Enlarging and Integrating. The invitation came from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr. Dimitrij Rupel. I have accepted the invitation with pleasure and am excited about the opportunity to contribute my thoughts on this important issue. This is one of the highest honors I have received, and I thank the organizing committee for inviting me. I will be sharing my thoughts on the issue of cultivating global innovation societies, the role of intellectual asset transfer across boundaries, why countries need to consider cooperative innovation systems to work towards greater goals, what are the challenges in establishing these (e.g. immigration, global talents, etc), and what are some of the solutions.

Dignitaries at this event will include: H.E. Mr. Janez Janša, Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, H.E. Mr Nikola Gruevski, Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr Ali Babacan, State Minister for Economy of the Republic of Turkey and Turkey's chief negotiator in accession talks with the EU, Mr Hans van der Loo, Head European Union Liaison, Shell International, Dr Kuniko Inoguchi, Member of the House of Representatives of Japan, among others. The meeting is sponsored by the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Center for European Perspective, Government Communication Office, and the Institute for Strategic Studies. The forum aims to bring together top political leaders, business executives and experts, and generate commitments for implementation of new strategies designed to allow Europe to better use its strategic weight and space. Further, out objective is to help stimulate public-private sector cooperation in developing integrated approaches to resolving outstanding strategic issues.

For details on the conference, please see - http://www.bledstrategicforum.org. The program can be found at: http://www.bledstrategicforum.org/index.php?id=4&lang=en

2 comments:

Chris said...

The ultimate foundation for any differentiation in one society's overall ability to produce meaningful innovations vs. another is culture. The intersection and collision of diverse elements is a key driver in the innovative process and certain cultures often work to acheive a greater alignment of the individual behavior in their society - a clear benefit in other domains such as emergency management or operational efficiency, but not necessarily for driving innovation. I would be very interested to learn your thoughts on how you see cultural influences interact with the intellectual asset transfers, not only across national boundaries but also in between individuals of a given society.

Anonymous said...

That is interesting comment, Chris... One study of chinese companies and collaboration with them (I can look up the source) says that for innovation processes to occur, you need either knowledge domain differences and same spatial origin, either knowledge domain similarities and different spatial origin...

So this could be interesting implication for innovation-team groupings... "Same country, different technology", or "Different countries similar technology" teams...