Ideas Economy: Innovation 2013

We have learned a lot over the past few years at the Ideas Economy: Innovation event. Jared Diamond described the great challenges of an interconnected world, while Larry Brilliant explored ways to sustain a global innovation society. Arianna Huffington argued that America is a third-world country and Joi Ito illustrated how the world is not flat. John Perry Barlow debated Robert Reich on the role of government in catalysing innovation. Ed Catmull talked about life inside a hyper-creative company, Tim Brown explained design thinking and Hal Varian explained micromultinationals. Scott Cook advocated breakthrough entrepreneurship and Sir Harry Evans walked us though the controversial history of invention. Jaron Lanier defended techno-dystopianism. Tim Draper judged a live “dragon’s den” and Jack Dorsey described the entrepreneurial mind. Stewart Brand looked ahead 10,000 years, Clayton Christensen taught us how to build a disruptive corporation, and our Economist newspaper editors kept them all honest.

This year, we apply The Economist’s sharp thinking and distinct perspective to the ways large-scale technological change will reinvent business for the next 100 years. We will talk to today’s leading business minds to find out the “new rules” that will drive success in the twenty-first century. In a fast-moving world, disruptive technological change is a constant and for most companies one of the central problems of the coming decades will be how to innovate quickly enough. But there are key trends and technologies that, if leveraged quickly and intelligently, will enable companies to be more productive and more nimble--and therefore more competitive. Ideas Economy: Innovation 2013 will explore these trends and provide recommendations for how to use them for short- and long-term advantage.

Chaired by The Economist's China business and finance editor, Vijay Vaitheeswaran, alongside a whole host of global Economist editors, Ideas Economy: Innovation is designed for senior-level decision makers and innovation practitioners. Specfically C-level executives and their direct reports who are responsible for driving innovation, including: chief information officers, chief technology officers, chief strategy officers and chief executives.

Attendees at Ideas Economy: Innovation can expect to receive:

Exposure to the most important trends defining business in the twenty-first century

An understanding of how the most successful business people think about innovation—and the world

Insights into how large-scale technological change impacts everyday business processes

A one-day intensive on the perspectives and opinions of The Economist newspaper

Connections to some of the change-makers who are working to create the companies of tomorrow

Lessons in globalisation, entrepreneurship, innovation, and corporate strategy delivered in an entertaining and imaginative way