Open innovation in San Diego

Later this month, the Product Development and Management Association will be co-sponsoring CoDev 2012, the 11th Annual MRT/PDMA International Conference on Open Innovation & Co-Development. The conference is being held February 13-15 in a nice hotel near UCSD, at the northern end of San Diego. (The venue alone is going to put visitors from back East into a good mood.)

The conference chair is Cheryl Perkins, who I met in 2006 when she was Chief Innovation Officer of Kimberly Clark and I gave an open innovation orientation to senior managers of Kimberly Clark. Soon after that, she left K-C and started her own open innovation consulting firm, InnovationEdge.

For me what was most interesting were the pre-conference workshops and the managerial interest that they imply:

1. Business Models Changing the Landscape of Open Innovation
2. Identifying, Prioritizing & Managing the "Critical Few" Metrics of Open Innovation
3. Complex Deal Structures - Finding the Right Approach for Successful Partnerships and Mutual Gain
4. Leading Innovation - Creating a Growth Engine

The first two seem directly aligned to two key research opportunities in open innovation: business models and metrics.

On Feb. 15, I will be delivering the final of the five keynote presentations. More later.