SA ranks 59th on global innovation index, the 4th SA Innovation Summit responds

Leading the process under the theme 'Innovation Legends - Ideas to Market', will be a line-up of 54 of the most exciting and successful innovators and innovation specialists in business, government and academia from South Africa, Africa and beyond.

The global trend towards collaborative or open innovation is a hot topic which will be explored by top practitioners in the field. Skip Davis, Vice President of open innovation consultants NineSigma will be talking on "Harnessing the wisdom of the crowd "while creative strategist Tim Malone will make the argument for organization-wide creative collaboration in a presentation titled "The fuzzy front end". Industrial heavyweights Anglo and Eskom will both be presenting case studies of open innovation in their organisations.

Delegates will get firsthand experience of collaborative creativity at the summit's bold new feature, the Innovation Lab, which will function as both an experiential exhibition space and an idea factory.

As well as showcasing inventive installations from cutting edge brands like Gijima and BMGi, the lab will give companies the chance to tap into a global network of thousands of creative thinkers to find novel solutions to their real-life business challenges. The Innovation Lab will be presided over by charismatic creative guru Jan Van Mol, the Belgian-born founder of Ad!dict Creative Lab and a pioneer of open innovation. Van Mol will also be stretching delegates' brains in lab sessions on breakthrough thinking and idea generation.
Delegates can participate in the SAB foundation competition with R2 million in prize money developing products and services to meet the daily needs faced by women and youth in South Africa.

A major focus of the 2011 Innovation Summit is the stimulation of local creativity and the transformation of new ideas into commercially-viable, socially-useful products and services. Among those sharing their experiences of bringing ideas to market will be one of SA's most well know innovation legends, Sasol. "Innovation is at the core of Sasol's business. As the business has expanded across the globe, this spirit of innovation continues to thrive, which is echoed in the enterprise development arm of Sasol, namely ChemCity."

Legends from the private sector include FNB Innovation Programme Manager Paul Steenkamp, Verimark founder Willie Van Straaten, Brian Steinhobel of the Steinhobel Group and William Gwata, the Zimbabwean scientist, accountant and inventor of a hugely-successful automatic pap-cooker. The CSIR will present case studies of some of South Africa's most exciting and successful innovations.

Insight into the creation of entrepreneurs will be provided by the dynamic Nigerian-born TV presenter and businesswoman, Moky Makura, author of The secrets of entrepreneurs, and Allon Raiz, radio and TV personality and CEO of Raizcorp, dedicated to incubating small businesses in Africa.

This year's summit will examine the possibilities offered by the latest technology, from social networking to biomimcry to the prospects of quantum computing which will be explained by theoretical physicist Dr Frans Petruccione.

In line with the Innovation Summit's commitment to indigenous creativity and eco-friendly products, each delegate will receive a bag filled with the fruits of local innovation from Sasol ChemCity as well as exquisite hand-made felt slippers produced by FLOCK, women in the dusty dorp of Petrusville.

The event is hosted by the IDC, a leading partner in the Innovation Summit through its Support Programme for Industrial Innovation (SPII). The IDC said it was confident this year's summit would provide "a significant launching ground for many iconic projects."

Anglo Platinum described its involvement as "an ideal opportunity to communicate with innovators and the innovation community", and to stimulate the development of commercially-viable technology Anglo's new development fund is offering a R300,000 prize for the most promising new application for platinum group metals.

The Innovation Summit also depends on a number of other committed supporters, namely Novixo, Mail & Guardian, SAB Foundation and Lemnis Lighting, one of the 10 top innovation companies in the world according to a recent survey.

The Innovation Summit is jointly owned and organised by Sense2Solve and the Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (RIIS). Dr. Audrey Verhaeghe, CEO of RIIS and Itha Taljaard, CEO of Sense2Solve, said this year's event takes innovation capability building to new heights in South Africa. The Summit offered an open call for papers and the public response was overwhelming. The variety and quality content is unparalleled in South African events.

For more information or to register, visit www.innovationsummit.co.za.
For information about the global innovation index, visit www.globalinnovationindex.org.