Global Innovation Forum
Earlier today, I participated in a forum at Howard University called “Securing America’s Future: Innovation Jobs for the Middle Class.” This event was organized by the Global Innovation Forum and the Institute for Entrepreneurship, Leadership, and Innovation (ELI Institute) at Howard’s College of Business. The keynote speaker was the new U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, who spoke about the importance of trade to our national economy. I was particularly pleased to hear him discuss an appreciation of free trade and of the role that small businesses play in exporting. (See my chapter on small businesses and trade in the most recent Small Business Economy.)
The goal of this forum, though, was to discuss policy solutions that will drive more innovation, entreprneurship, and trade in our economy. The end goal, of course, is to make our economy stronger, producing more jobs for Americans. Overall, it was a good (first) meeting, where many people presented some good ideas. It will be interesting to see how the organizers frame these comments into workable proposals for the government to act on, and we will undoubtedly be asked to follow-up.
Regular followers of this blog have noticed a trend. I have written several times over the past few months about innovation and entrepreneurship. That is no accident. A wide range of “thinkers” have all come to the (correct) conclusion that in order to remain competitive globally and to grow our economy in any recovery, we will need to be innovative and entrepreneurial, and we will need to be proactive in exploring new overseas markets.
Interesting stuff Chad. I’m thinking the solutions presented here could very well create jobs, but I’m concerned that they might not do it fast enough for the current economic state that we are in.
I think at the state levels we need to be working to create businesses rather than shut them down. The innovators are getting shut down by new taxes on entrepreneurs like the New York Amazon tax and now everyone is copying them. I know California is proposing a similar tax as well as Texas.