Agenda and Speakers

Minister of State, Gary Goodyear, will outline the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario's role in helping small- and medium-sized businesses respond to recent economic challenges, and speak to the importance innovation and partnerships play in the Agency's strategy for ensuring future success. Minister Goodyear will also announce Government of Canada funding for local innovative companies in the region.

The time to innovate is now! In these challenging times of economic competition, innovation is a critical opportunity for Canada. Daniel Muzyka will articulate The Conference Board of Canada's strategic perspective on the rising importance of corporate innovation in Canada today, and directions for the future. Canadian companies need to be more innovative and identify new opportunities to create value.

"A focus on cost-cutting and efficiency has helped many organizations weather the downturn, but this approach will ultimately render them obsolete. Only the constant pursuit of innovation can ensure long-term success."

— Daniel F. Muzyka

IBM is engaged in a global initiative to drive business innovation and commercialization— from idea to marketplace— using Big Data as a transformative tool.

In April 2012, IBM Canada, the Governments of Canada and Ontario, and a consortium of seven Ontario-based universities, formed a major research partnership to create a $210 million research and development initiative that will help university and industry researchers use high performance and cloud computing infrastructure to better manage and analyze massive data sets to solve critical world challenges.

John Lutz will describe how Big Data and analytics are essential elements for Canada's competitiveness. He will explore examples of how organizations are using and benefiting from Big Data. John will also highlight how investing in Big Data opportunities can help Canada and its organizations achieve future growth.

"As we begin a new century of innovation for IBM, we're investing in this "industry-building" initiative to further advance Canada's competitiveness in the global digital economy, both now and in the future."

— John Lutz

Combining presentations with a moderated "armchair" dialogue between the speakers, this session will explore the state of productivity and innovation inside Canadian firms. Key insights will reveal the power of innovation to transform corporate performance, the latest trends in managing innovation, and why improving our productivity and innovation performance is essential to Canada's future.

Terry Stuart will discuss the latest research findings from Deloitte's report entitled, The Future of Productivity: Clear choices for a competitive Canada. He will address: What is driving Canada's poor productivity performance? Why is the productivity gap between Canada and other countries so big? How can Canada prevent its "gazelle" firms from turning into "water buffaloes"? How can we drive growth and competiveness to ensure a prosperous future? Terry will also highlight key recommendations for companies, government, and academia on how to improve Canadian productivity by innovating.

Michael Bloom will showcase new results from the Innovation Metrics for Management 2012 survey—The Conference Board's first-ever national survey on firm-level innovation in Canada. He will reveal findings about how 1,000 firms are using innovation to update and manage their portfolios of products/services, improve marketing and access to customers, update corporate processes, and revitalize organizational culture and dynamics.

"Innovation is essential to improving Canada's productivity and sustaining our high standard of living for future generations.”

—Terry S. Stuart

Angel investor groups are investing more capital in more Canadian firms. In 2011, angel groups invested roughly $1 billion into high-growth, early-stage companies across many industries in Canada. Angels play a significant role in filling the financing gap for the early and growth stages of firm-level development, and in mentoring Canada's entrepreneurs.

In this session, Ross Finlay and Michelle Scarborough will discuss:

• How can your company successfully gain funding from angel investors?
• What criteria are they looking for?
• What are the challenges associated with angel investment in Canada?
• What can the government do to help reduce risk for angel investors, and support the angel community to further increase investment-levels?

Startup Canada is Canada's first-ever, entrepreneur-led, national movement to enhance national competitiveness and prosperity by supporting and celebrating Canadian entrepreneurship. It connects Canadian entrepreneurs and enterprise support communities.

Through a creative process, entrepreneurship communities from coast to coast collaborate to identify the top challenges facing Canadian entrepreneurs; develop innovative solutions; share, build, and prioritize ideas, approaches, and recommendations for growth; and ultimately arrive at a collective vision and strategy that leads to real change. Victoria Lennox will explain how start-ups play such an important role in narrowing Canada's innovation gap, and how they can help Canada become more competitive globally. He will share key findings from this cross-country initiative and provide insight into the state of small businesses in Canada today.

Victoria will explore how these findings apply to you and your company, and what strategies you can implement today to increase your growth in the current economic climate.

Business innovation and commercialization is built by skilled talent. Companies require a potent combination of highly skilled people, supportive corporate culture, and committed leadership to achieve their innovation goals.

In 2012, the Centre for Business Innovation created the Commercialization Skills Profile (CSP) and updated the Conference Board's Innovation Skills Profile (ISP). Daniel Munro and Douglas Watt will introduce you to the skills, attitudes, and behaviours that organizations need—regardless of their size, sector, or years in operation—to drive their innovation and commercialization performance.

This session will explore how you can identify people with the right skills, and how you can develop them in your employees in order to achieve the innovation results you need in your pursuit of new or improved products, processes, and services.

In this session, Sailesh Thaker will discuss how clean-tech firms innovate to improve sustainability and make an attractive profit at the same time. Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) funds clean-tech related innovative technologies with demonstrated potential to both meet market demand and help achieve Canada's environmental goals. Clean tech innovation helps to drive the Canadian economy, creating jobs, commercialized solutions, and economic growth.

SDTC-supported companies grow at twice the rate of their non-SDTC supported peers. SDTC provides financial support, applies a rigorous due diligence process modeled on those used in the venture-capital world, and supports entrepreneurs with raising expansion capital and entering global value chains. In doing so, SDTC de-risks clean technologies and helps prepare them for downstream financing and market entry. Sailesh will share lessons learned about commercializing innovations in the clean-tech sector and will explore the applicability of the SDTC model to other sectors of the economy.

Leading businesses and non-profit organizations want to unleash cultures of innovation within their operations and in their partnerships with post-secondary institutions to improve products, services, and processes. The panellists will discuss successful research collaborations with industry partners, as well as those from the public sector, and how these collaborations contribute to advancing the knowledge, talent, and expertise needed to foster an innovative 21st century Canada.

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) provides support for research partnerships to develop and advance research and/or knowledge mobilization in the social sciences and humanities through mutual co-operation and sharing of intellectual leadership and resources. Partnerships help to create new insights on key issues and build strong networks among the academic, public, private, and not-for-profit sectors.

Nitin Kawale is a strong advocate for a strategy of empowering employees with the right tools and technologies that can help make them more productive and innovative. Drawing on the experience of Cisco Canada, he will share his insights into what Canadian business leaders can do, in an era of global transformation, to empower their employees and drive their firms' innovation results to improve corporate performance.

As a large global corporation, Cisco has perfected collaboration which allows them to remain innovative. Using this expertise, Cisco is helping companies to become more innovative through a wide range of collaborative IT tools. Through partnerships with universities, Cisco is establishing research centres and research chairs across the country. They are also partnering with federal and provincial governments to bring more research jobs to Canada.

Innovation is the key to companies continuing to improve their business performance and stay competitive. Innovation is also the key to driving greater productivity, which is directly linked to a country's standard of living. Nitin will cite specific challenges that Canada has as a nation in terms of our productivity, and the risk it is placing on our future standard of living.

As the global economy goes through a dramatic transition, businesses and countries have the opportunity to improve their positions… or lose serious ground. Canada must choose the former path, through greater business productivity and efficiency, which, in turn would spur much more dynamic and meaningful innovation.

Leading Canadian experts will discuss and debate the issues surrounding intellectual property protection, framed by a set of questions confronting business and the public today: Do current IP laws encourage or inhibit innovation and commercialization in Canadian businesses? Is there a need to relax these laws and regulations or to tighten them—which will do the most to stimulate commercialization? Or should all intellectual property be available to all without restrictions in the name of the public good?

Human capital is essential to corporate innovation and commercialization. More Canadian companies must harness the collective creative efforts of employees at all levels to help maximize their innovation and commercialization results.

This session will feature an inside look into how IBM Canada, Corning Incorporated, and InterfaceFLOR utilize their human capital to drive innovation and commercialization.

Speakers will discuss how their companies tackle the following:

• engaging employees at all levels of the organization to embrace innovative thinking as a way of life, and generate a continuous stream of new ideas and innovations
• providing a strong corporate culture of autonomy and intelligent risk-taking to support innovation and commercialization performance
• developing and motivating human capital to think more innovatively
• rewarding staff for contributions to innovation and commercialization results

Connect with other delegates and speakers to discuss the day's sessions. Network and make new connections with experts and potential partners.

Prominent representatives from leading innovation nations: the United States, Germany, Switzerland, and Israel, will present their perspectives on why companies in their countries have achieved world-leading success in innovation and commercialization.

They will highlight companies that have used innovation to drive rapid growth, productivity gains, and profitability—enabling them to build competitive advantage and seize market share.

These presentations will reveal how companies from these innovative countries have used creativity and drive to innovate, commercialize, and dominate.

Canada has some of the world's best developed capital markets. Yet connecting innovators with great ideas to capital markets to finance commercialization and expansion has always been a challenge in Canada.

One of the great impediments is that innovators and financers don't always "speak the same language" when it comes to assessing opportunities and risks. Innovators love innovation; capital markets love profit, but are often indifferent to innovation.

This session will explore the apparent paradox between Canada's sophisticated capital markets and its funding of innovative activity. It will examine how innovators can speak to capital markets with propositions that resonate, in terms of risk, opportunity, and reward. The panellists will share their insights into how financial markets think, what they are seeking, and how they weigh-up the value proposition of innovation financing.

Extreme Startups provides entrepreneurs with access to the financial resources and expert advice needed to compete in today's market. Leading industry partnerships combined with mentorship from some of the most successful serial entrepreneurs in business today give their cohorts a unique advantage. Selected entrepreneurs receive funding from BDC and are partnered with mentors from successful companies that include Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and RIM to create a learning environment that can propel these start-ups to success.

Katherine Hague and Andy Yang will explore how start-ups can go from an idea to a company that can raise capital in multiple rounds of financing and reach the marketplace. Learn the key factors that separate the successes from the failures, and how you can apply these lessons to growing your own business.

Extreme Startups success story: ShopLocket has proven to the investment community that it has the potential to disrupt the e-commerce space and power a new wave of merchants. Hear how the Toronto-based business was able to secure $1M in a speed financing round co-led by Rho Canada Ventures and Valar Ventures.

Canada's polytechnics and colleges offer industry-facing applied research solutions for companies who need help in innovating, thereby helping to fill gaps in the country's R&D pipelines. Polytechnics and colleges focus on "speed to market" and engaging students in industry innovation. They offer four significant advantages—improving industry access to talent, state-of-the-art facilities, markets and networks, and capital.

Polytechnic/college applied research centres offer services to companies that are not currently widely available in Canada—the applied research, commercialization-focused "last mile" services that the industry needs in order to test market assumptions.

This session will focus on best practice examples of colleges working on public-private R&D partnerships to attain the outcomes companies seek. Robert Luke will discuss specific cases of firms who have interacted with the college sector and share the outcomes from this work from industry, academic, and graduate perspectives.

Hear more detailed findings from The Conference Board's national survey on firm-level innovation in Canada. Sorin Cohn will explore the following questions and more: How do Canadian firms fund new innovations? What are the major obstacles to funding innovation? Do companies have a formal innovation management model? How many metrics do they use to measure their innovation efforts?

In 1439, Gutenberg was the first to use the printing press. This led to key developments of the Renaissance, Reformation, The Age of Enlightenment, and the Scientific Revolution; and it democratized information.

The data-digital revolution is the next major leap in information democratization. The massive amount of data gives the enhanced ability to synthesize information, leading to new insights and discoveries. It also means that more and more people have access to information across different industries and geographic realities, which will lead to many breakthrough and disruptive innovations. Finding and connecting external innovations is quickly becoming a competitive necessity.

In the past, innovation was done internally and locally. Today, however, Innovation can come from anywhere and in many cases from alternate industries. This session will explore a brief evolution of open innovation and how major Oil Sands companies are now leveraging external innovations to create step-change improvements in the industry’s environmental performance.

The world economy has become global and so has product development. Twenty years ago most companies developed their own products in a single location and brought them to market themselves. Today, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are enlisting partners on a global scale, such as designers and subsystems producers, to create and deliver new products into the market rapidly and more frequently. This is especially true for large, complex products from aerospace, telecom, electronics and software-based industries.

This session will explore the new way that products are being developed—how OEMs have changed roles from designers to system integrators to help manage risk and bring new innovations to market faster. Vincent Thomson will share best practices on how OEMs self-organize and use agile, cooperative models to maintain daily communication among hundreds of internal engineers and numerous global partners to better coordinate product design and integration stages. He will discuss how this strategy can be applied in firms to help them develop more innovations at faster rates, make delivery times more predictable, and realize shorter order-to-cash timelines.

Session details to be advised.

A corner office used to be the most coveted workplace status symbol. Today, the freedom to choose where to work best is fast becoming what workers want most, regardless of rank.

Innovation requires a more agile organization and a more collaborative workforce, and a workplace that encourages both. This session will share the latest insights on how cutting-edge companies divide and design their office real estate to support individual resident and mobile workstyles, as well as connected and collaborative group workspaces. It will explore how optimally designed workspaces can help companies to maximize employee communication and collaboration, and realize gains in productivity, innovation, and corporate growth.

Implementing organization-wide innovative practices and capabilities doesn't happen overnight. It takes a plan, high-level commitment, and perseverance. In this session, Brian Coupland, Director of Innovation and Marketing at Staples Canada, explains why implementing innovation is so challenging and takes you through the steps and tools that Staples leveraged to embed innovation in its culture. He shares the challenges that Staples faced along with the insights, lessons learned, and the benefits they have accrued.

From the Staples experience, you will discover the key elements needed to integrate innovation into the daily operations of a successful established business, how to best leverage systematic and proven methodologies to solve complex problems, and understand the role that senior leaders must play to achieve success.

"Innovation is the key to future success. By fostering innovative thinking and investing in people, processes and culture, companies can have a sustained innovation focus that drives growth."

—Brian Coupland

Canada boasts world-leading universities, as well as highly skilled engineers, scientists and technologists. Our country has a strong track record of university research and patents generation. Private and public partnerships are also in place to help entrepreneurs build proof of concepts, business plans and marketing strategies for their innovation. However, after this stage, entrepreneurs are faced with a significant challenge - how to turn their concepts into commercially viable products and access the increasingly global markets.

In this session, Brad Jackson will further explore the commercialization ecosystem in Canada, factors that enable innovation and what can be done to ensure more of our ideas are commercialized and launched on global scale - improving Canada's position in innovation on the world stage.

This session will showcase three recent case studies of global organizations that have successfully integrated crowdsourcing technology and processes into their innovation practice. You will learn how research-based innovation is being streamlined, de-risked, and transformed by tapping the insights of an organization's internal and external crowds. The session will showcase the innovation crowdsourcing programs of a major consumer packaged goods innovator, an international transportation service provider, and a global public-private innovation program. Audience participation in a "Myths and Realities of Crowdsourced Innovation" will be an interactive component of this session.

This session will explore how start-ups and SMEs to large multinationals can harness the public sector and the academic community to accelerate their productivity growth. Hear about initiatives in Ontario and beyond that are reshaping the innovation landscape by leveraging partnerships with industry and the academic community. The future of partnerships and the roles various stakeholders have or should have will be discussed. The panel will also explore the work ahead in developing an innovation culture in communities.

Canada's innovation performance is ranked 14th out of 17 major industrialized nations. To help improve our performance, we need to improve the 4Cs at a national level: creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills.

Is Canada's K-12 education system doing its part to help solve the problem? Are today's classrooms developing the key skills needed for success in the 21st Century global economy? Are the 4Cs evident in every classroom? Is today's graduate well equipped to compete against emerging economies like China or India? Or are we simply falling behind?

This session will share an overview what "our report card" might look like, and feedback from across Canada on where we stand. It will discuss the challenges of change, offer some suggested courses of action for discussion/debate for all stakeholder groups, and will close with a call to action.

The sustainability of the Canadian technology sector is once again under scrutiny as the world witnesses the current struggle of Canada's largest technology company. So far the common question has been—will Canada be able to build the next Nortel, ATI, or RIM?

However, to truly support the health of the Canadian technology sector, there are two more pressing questions that need to be addressed: What is Canada doing to facilitate and capitalize on innovation? How will the drivers for innovation reshape the technology sector, as we know it?

Technological innovations can no longer be defined only by hardware, software, network infrastructure, or web services. New technologies are enabling breakthroughs in other growing sectors such as aerospace, health care, and green energy, presenting abundant opportunities for Canadian technology companies.

In this session, Mike Andrade will share his insights into:

• the new frontiers of technological innovation and why Canada has the potential to lead
• the requirements for building a robust ecosystem in Canada to nurture our tech sector, including retaining talent, generating knowledge, and attracting capital resources
• the need to align government, corporate Canada, and entrepreneurs to compete in global markets
• why companies need to embrace a global supply chain in order to compete: the best supply chain wins
• examples of recent commercial successes stemmed from Canadian innovation in the technology sector

Tom Jenkins has a unique perspective on innovation and productivity topics given his international reputation and experience in the private sector as well as his activities in the Canadian public sector. He will review the current state of innovation in Canada based on his extensive published reports and "expert panel" experiences. In 2013, Tom will also be soon reporting to Minister Ambrose, to conduct a follow on fourth expert panel report focused on leveraging Defence Procurement through the use of Key Industrial Sectors or KICs.

He will also share his insights into the value to businesses of raising their "competitive intensity" through collaborative innovation involving government, industry, and academia. He will explore the links between government procurement and business innovation in this collaborative environment.

The private sector has an important role to play in the development of competitive policy and must choose long term solutions that benefit all sectors of the economy together. The public sector has the opportunity to use procurement as a powerful tool for government to alter the innovation eco-system and stimulate higher levels of business innovation in the Canadian economy, while balancing its responsibilities to provide goods and services to the taxpayer at a reasonable cost.

Peter Aceto believes that business leaders must embrace the power of social media personally, to boost corporate innovation performance and Canada's economy. He will discuss how companies and business leaders can act more openly and transparently to better engage employees, customers and communities, stimulate ideation and corporate innovation, and gain competitive advantage.

In this session, Peter will answer questions such as:

• Why is tweeting important?
• Why is chatting with customers on Facebook meaningful for ING's bottom line?
• How—given all the responsibilities of running the largest direct bank in Canada—does he manage to fit social media into his day?

"I believe social media's impact on business will one day be likened to the industrial revolution. We all see a dramatic shift underway. Some companies are being run differently today. And more importantly, they will have to be run differently tomorrow"

—Peter R. Aceto