The Baltic Dynamics conference is an initiative of the Baltic Association of Science/Technology Parks and Innovation Centres - BASTIC - and has been held annually since its inception in 1996. The conference venue is rotated between the Baltic States - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In 2013, it is Latvia's turn again and the conference will be held in the country's capital Riga, the largest city in the Baltic States. The conference organisers invite all involved in the dynamic innovation and entrepreneurship development - leaders of innovative companies, managers of science/technology parks and business incubators, public authorities responsible for innovation in the region, venture capital organisations, etc. - to present and discuss initiatives to make efficient innovation strategies and policies happen.

This year Rich Bendis was invited to speak at the first plenary session on September 12, 2013 titled "The Role of Innovation Systems in Economic Development". He presented on the topic of Innovation Based Economic Development.

View Presentation: Innovation Based Economic Development "A Key to Smart Growth"

Plenary Session 1: The Role of Innovation System in Economic Development

Richard Bendis - Innovation Based Economic Development - A Key to Smart Growth

Denise Heligers - New Knowledge, New Jobs, New Solutions - Horizon 2020: Investing in Your Future

Stefan Lilischkis - Knowledge Transfer and Related Policies in Europe and in the Baltic States: Findings from the Knowledge Transfer Study 2010-2012

Takis Damaskopolous - Policy, Regulation and Governance Conditions for Open Innovation: Toward an “Enabling Framework”

Debra Amidon - Benchlearning National Innovation Systems: Dynamic Positioning for Industrialized, Developing and Emerging Economies

Piero Formica - Experimental Entrepreneurship. Sapling Says to his Dad: “When I Grow up I Want to be a Digital Book”. Learning How Events Supposed not Happening, Happen

Plenary Session 2: How to speed-up Knowledge Flow in Innovation System

Jose Puigpelat - The Future Prospects of the Enterprise Europe Network

Siemon Smid - Lessons Learnt from Commercialization of University IPR from Estonia and its Impact on Entrepreneurship and Industry?

Jonathan Loeffler - Science - Transfer - Business - The Steinbeis Model in the German State of Baden Wuerttemberg

Isak Bukhman - TRIZ Technology for Innovation

Ivars Kalvins - Country Report – Latvia: Does Innovation System in Latvia Encourage Competence Building and Science – Industry Cooperation? Current Situation and Future Prospectives

Jaak Raie - Country Report – Estonia: Estonia: On the Road to Sustainable, Not- Supported Business Development and Incubation Services

On an average day in 1998, statistician David Fairley was walking up a busy San Francisco street to pick up his son from preschool. Traffic was heavy, and halfway to the school, he started to feel weak and dazed.

“Actually, a homeless guy saw me and helped me to the school,” Fairley said. “(People at the school) had me lie down for a bit.”

This is part two of my two-part series on angel financings. In part one, I provided the following five tips for entrepreneurs: (i) push for the issuance of convertible notes; (ii) understand the key business terms; (iii) diligence the angel(s); (iv) never subject yourself to personal liability; and (v) comply with applicable securities laws. Below are five additional tips for entrepreneurs to help them through the angel financing process. Obviously, this is still a difficult environment to raise angel capital; however, I am confident that 2010 will bring greener pastures.

Providing access to startup capital, promoting biotechnology, and investing in the green economy to create and grow jobs are among the priorities of Gov. Pat Quinn's Illinois Economic Recovery Plan presented during a speech in December. The governor's plan would establish an Angel Investment Tax Credit program to allow investors making an early-stage investment in a technology startup to receive a capped credit against their Illinois tax bill. The governor also will propose the creation of a state fund to provide matching grants for technology research companies competing for federal funding and explore the idea of establishing a venture capital fund of funds. Additional strategies to incentivize green manufacturers to retool existing operations also are outlined in the governor's plan, which is available below:

Some of my favorite sewing projects are spontaneous. The idea pops in my mind and I get started as soon as possible (disregarding any other responsibilities on my to-do list).

Thursday afternoon we spent 4 hours at the library. I'm not even sure what we did that whole time. I know the kids read books, played in the library "clubhouse", had a puppet show, and made friends with other kids who stopped by. And I enjoyed the free time to let my mind wander and brainstorm about ideas. When we finally got home, I was itching to sew.

I grabbed some colorful corduroy from my stash and a striped Tee from Old Navy (it's been sitting in my Refashion pile for months). And I just sewed.......a rather mismatched outfit but I really like it.

Innovation is occurring at a rapid pace around the globe, pushing the world economy forward while working hand-in-hand with technology.

During the annual Techonomy conference from August 4-6 in Lake Tahoe, leading minds come together, focusing their energies on the problems in today’s world and how they can be solved through innovation. The conference’s organizers have highlighted 15 individuals who will carry the torch of innovation into the next decade, highlighting high-growth sectors with the potential to raise the global standard of living and use ‘creative capitalism’ to achieve these goals.

When people asked me why I was moving to Asia, my response was simple: I'm in the innovation field, so I'm following the action.

One Silicon Valley venture capitalist questioned my decision. "I'm willing to bet that 90 percent of the game-changing companies that emerge over the next decade will come from within a 10 mile radius of where I am sitting right now," he said.

Not an unreasonable perspective. Two-thirds of the 139 companies that made the most recent "Most Innovative" lists from Fast Company, BusinessWeek, Technology Review, and the World Economic Forum, hail from the United States. Further, many of the large companies in Asia owe their success not to innovation but to taking advantage of natural resources, or leveraging low input costs to offer cost-competitive "me too" solutions.

The following articles have been prepared after the second edition of Quebec Seeks Solutions that took place May 15^th &16^th in Quebec City.

SECOND EDITION OF QUEBEC SEEKS SOLUTIONS: SOLVING NINE BUSINESS PROBLEMS USING A UNIQUE OPEN INNOVATION PROCESS 

By Carl Viel, President and CEO, Quebec International

Entrepreneurs, researchers and innovation enthusiasts were invited to attend the second edition of Quebec Seeks Solutions organized by Quebec International in association with IDTEQ and ISPIM. 

As economic development agency, we are seeking to forge stronger ties between researchers and entrepreneurs with a view toward increasing our region’s overall competitiveness. With Quebec Seeks Solutions, we hope to make innovation accessible to a growing number of companies, particularly small and medium-sized businesses. 

The innovativeness and the spirit of collaboration that motivate our researchers and entrepreneurs are key assets that serve to fuel the local economy and contribute to Quebec City’s distinctive position. 

Thanks to its unique format, Quebec Seeks Solutions helps to develop and promote these hallmarks of our economic success.

By Oscar Smulder Innovation Manager Knowledge & Innovation Centre at Maintenance Valuepark Terneuzen

In an era where open innovation is mainly thought of as a fully web-enabled approach where crowds and clouds are used to generate new ideas, it is refreshing to see that ‘physical meetings’ still have an important role to play. Bringing people physically together and invite them to participate in a structured process may even offer very good, creative outcomes. The recent edition of ‘Quebec Seeks Solutions’ clearly demonstrates this. Innovative solutions were found for 9 complex problems that companies in the region of Quebec are facing.

In the Netherlands we have had similar experiences, when we used a variant of the solution approach in the context of the Maintenance Valuepark, a cluster of companies offering maintenance solutions for process industries. The Quest for Solutions events we organized last year were successful in creating a very positive dynamic, generating new ideas for old problems, making new combinations and were key in setting the collaborative innovation process in motion.

Bringing together a group of people and let them free in a well prepared structured process is a powerful mean to generate new ideas and offer solutions that had not been imagined before. I’d like to share some important factors that contribute to the success of these events.

Download the PDF: The Global Innovation Imperative

View all photos from Baltic Dynamics 2013

View Conference Video

News Coverage of Conference on nrz.lv Website, View Newspaper Article (Image)

The Baltic Dynamics conference is an initiative of the Baltic Association of Science/Technology Parks and Innovation Centres – BASTIC - and has been held annually since its inception in 1996. The conference venue is rotated between the Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In 2013, there was a turn for Latvia and the conference was held in the country’s capital Riga, the largest city in the Baltic States on September 11-13.

The previous experience shows that participants of the Baltic Dynamics Conferences are professionals, experts and persons directly involved or just interested in the dynamic innovation and entrepreneurship development. Usually they are leaders of innovative companies, managers of science/technology parks and business incubators, public authorities responsible for innovation in the region, venture capital organisations, etc.

The topic of the Baltic Dynamics 2013 Conference was “Competence Building for Smart Growth: Challenges and Opportunities” and was in line with the new European Union approved strategic documents “Europe 2020” and “Innovation Union”. The Conference organizers had chosen such topic since in Latvia and other Baltic countries as well there was no clear understanding between “to know the subject” (scientists, researchers, professors) and “to understand the subject ,i.e., be competent” (technology developers, product managers, technology transfer intermediaries). The first group has substantial knowledge on the certain subject but the second - competence in how to implement this knowledge into practice. That is why the following topics were chosen for discussions:

• Knowledge and research, competence and innovation – are they the elements of the same chain? 
• Role of Universities in competence building. 
• Role of Science / Technology Parks in competence building.
• How to translate knowledge into competence?
• Knowledge creation, technology transfer, experience sharing, national and international cooperation, partnerships – key factors for the successful business development.
• Innovation management – how to manage the knowledge flow in the right direction, how to strengthen links between universities and industry, what financial instruments we can offer and what we needed? Experience and recommendations. 
• Overall competence – the indicator of the efficiency of National Innovation System.

Conference Baltic Dynamics 2013 in Riga, Latvia was very good attended and had a great success. There were 271 registered delegates from 24 countries and 70 presentations were delivered.

Traditional approach for conferences in Latvia is to invite speakers from USA who have different way of thinking in terms of innovation in comparison with European ones. This year the key-note speakers from USA were Richard Bendis (President Innovation America). Debra Amidon (President Entovation International), Isak Bukhman (Director TRIZ Solutions LLC) and Barbara Harley (Director of Harley Consulting, Silicon Valley).

There were also outstanding presentations from European and outside Europe countries – Denise Heiligers and Jose Puigpelat (European Commission), Takis Damaskopoulos (France), Piero Formica (Italy), Mehmet Barca (Turkey), Heinz Fiedler and Jonathan Loeffler (Germany), Yoshihisa Konishi (Japan), Siemon Smid (the Netherlands) and others. On the Final Plenary session in the concluding part “Country reports” substantial analysis of the innovation system in Latvia and how to improve it gave the President of the Innovators Union of Latvia prof. Ivars Kalvins.

The Blue Ocean in RED from Howard Hall on Vimeo.

During the past decade, Howard Hall has directed four IMAX films that take you deep under the sea, right into the homes of amazing marine life. Now, Hall has brought his act to Vimeo where he has posted a montage of his favorite underwater shots from the past year. Filmed with a RED One camera, this footage was taken in the waters of the Maldives, Alaska, California, Costa Rica, and Mexico. And it’s all fairly stunning. I would highly recommend watching the video on Vimeo itself and sizing it to full screen. H/T to @eugenephoto.

IF YOU WANT A BREAK FROM YOUR EVERYDAY GRIND, TAKE 4 MINUTES AND WATCH  ONE OF THE BEST UNDERSEA VIDEOS OF SEA LIFE  I HAVE SEEN. THIS IS DEFINITELY WORTHY OF A BOOKMARK FOR THOSE TIMES YOUR BRAIN NEEDS A BREAK.............RICH BENDIS