COIN promotes private-sector, public innovation

The state of Colorado has long been high on helping sponsor one of the country’s most innovative economies, but the executive director of the Colorado Innovation Network (COIN) believes that will soon be more of a two-way street.

“Obviously, our priority has been innovation within the private sector, but we’re also seeing significant marketing innovation permeating the walls of federal, state and local governments,” said Anna Ewing, who splits her time as the executive director of COIN and chief operating officer of Colorado’s Office of Economic Development & International Trade (OEDIT). COIN is starting a pilot program to encourage more innovation in public agencies, with a specific announcement due in the next several weeks.

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“We are exploring innovation in the public sector on several fronts and will soon be announcing our next related program initiative,” said Ewing, who grew up in Loveland and spent most of her career in private industry before coming to OEDIT about 18 months ago. At least one piece of the coming announcement will probably be a second open innovation challenge, based on innovation within government agencies.

COIN, which was established by Gov. John Hickenlooper in 2011,  offers leaders in the Colorado innovation economy a chance to come together to discuss challenges from a wide variety of industries.  Essentially, the program creates a physical and virtual network for more than 2,000 innovation leaders involved in the innovation ecosystem.

“It’s really a platform where we connect and convene innovation leaders,” Ewing said. “We pull together experts from a variety of industries, exploring challenges to that ecosystem to the benefit of innovation and economic development.

“Most notably we are probably known for the COIN Summit,” said Ewing, noting there have been four such summits held to date. “The summits are where these global leaders in innovation actually gather to explore a variety of issues involved in the innovation economy.”

Perhaps where the mission of COIN is most easily seen is their annual report on the innovation economy, known as The State of the Innovation Economy. The first of those innovation reports, in 2012, focused on defining the metrics that could reveal progress, or problems, in reaching goals of the innovation economy; subsequent reports included “Accelerating Colorado’s Entrepreneurial Momentum” in 2013, and the 2014 report that identified the key metrics as being “Talent, Capital, Ideas and Entrepreneurship.”

The 2015 report focused on one of those pillars, “Talent.” Some elements identified included educating the workforce, identifying the strengths and weakness of the workforce in a time of increased immigration to the state, and “Fostering Critical Thinking,” including the ability of incoming management to properly use big-data analytics.

“Across the board, leaders say there is a disconnect between the education community, the employer community, and the training community — and more collaboration is needed to bridge those gaps,” the report stated. “In the next five to seven years, Colorado needs to invest in workforce planning and development to ensure that we aren’t disadvantaged because of competencies, technologies, or skill sets that we don’t have within our local talent pool.”

Industry leaders were also outspoken on the topic, including Scott Sternberg, president of Vaisala Inc.

“If we are going to command a premium in the marketplace, then we need people who have the ability to deliver premium quality, resonate with our values, and support our thought leadership position,” Sternberg said, in the executive summary.

Ewing said that much of the support for specific businesses comes through the Colorado’s Office of Economic Development & International Trade’s job-growth incentives. The board met in Greeley in late September and awarded more than $12 million of these incentives for six different companies, but the state is being aggressive on other fronts, as well.

One of the Colorado Department of Transportation’s most innovative programs, which may help both local businesses and governments, is known as RoadX. The program, which teams experts from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, seeks to use connected, and automated, vehicle information to reduce traffic accidents, improve mobility (including freight), and reduce emissions.

“Again, this involves a lot of interchange between the state agencies and their public, as well as private, partners,” Ewing said. “I think that holds great promise and is certainly a very technical solution adding to infrastructure and mobility.”

The state, as well as COIN, has also been aggressive in supporting key industries, as noted by the creation of the Colorado Outdoor Recreation industry Office.

Colorado also has been extremely aggressive in supporting the clean-energy industry with consumer grants and tax rebates, but the state has also been supportive of creating innovation in the clean-energy field, with a partnership known as the Colorado Energy Research Collaboratory.

The Collaboratory is largely comprised of leadership from the Colorado School of Mines, University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado State University, NREL and private-sector representatives Throughout the history of this partnership, the Collaboratory has worked with public and private sector representatives and focused its collective efforts on leveraging scientific and engineering strengths from each member institution on renewable energy solutions addressing both present needs and future demands.