Annual Conference Wrap: Grappling with Challenges, Calls to Action

As you are likely aware, SSTI’s 2016 Annual Conference took place last week in Columbus, OH. The theme of Innovation with Purpose: Shaping Future Opportunities was addressed throughout the agenda, and people were particularly struck by the need to better-orient programs and services to address “Innovation’s Blindspot,” as defined during the keynote talk delivered by Ross Baird of Village Capital. During other moments in the conference, such as policy-focused discussion groups and sessions on improving metrics and communications, attendees were directly called to take actions that would benefit their programs and customers, as well as the innovation community as a whole.

The strong attendance through the final minute of the conference and steady buzz of conversation were good anecdotal indicators of the success of this year’s event, and attendee evaluations provide great quantitative support. More than two-thirds of attendees have reported that the conference was an “Excellent” value and more than 95 percent will attend again. We are enthusiastic about this feedback, while also looking forward to addressing requests for (even) more opportunities for dialogue during next year’s event. In the meantime, we will be exploring some of these topics in greater depth in upcoming issues of the Digest: stay tuned.

Please join us in thanking hosts Rev1 Ventures and Ohio State and all of the conference sponsors for their support of SSTI, and thank you to all of the attendees and speakers who made 2016 such a great event. If you missed out, well, be sure to attend in 2017!