INCENTIVE2INNOVATE (i2i) CONFERENCE SHARES TOOLS FOR BUSINESS INNOVATION DURING ECONOMIC DOWNTURN

Leaders identify that our “risk averse” society stifles advancement and hurts economy

Playa Vista, Calif. (June 25, 2009) –The X PRIZE Foundation, with its partners BT Global Services, the John Templeton Foundation and the United Nations Office for Partnerships, recently hosted its first innovation conference – incentive2innovate (i2i) – for senior-level executives. The meeting was held at the United Nations in New York.

i2i gathered extraordinary thought-leaders to illustrate how collaboration and incentive prizes can be used to stimulate radical breakthroughs and bottom-line results. Speakers and attendees discussed how these powerful tools can stimulate progress, whether the goal is advancing healthcare reform, reinvigorating the energy sector, or developing a product or system that will lead our country to economic recovery.

During conference discussions, attendees, who represented a cross-sector of professions including academics, government officials and business leaders, arrived at a universal consensus that, contrary to popular perception, innovation is not dying. Attendees asserted that a plethora of ideas and breakthrough opportunities do exist, but we lack a culture that stimulates creative and innovative thinking and an incentive-driven process that allows such ideas to be recognized. Often, companies trade long-term innovative promise with short-term results. Attendees discussed how the current economic situation may drive C-level decision makers to explore new ideas in alternative, proactive ways. Participants also addressed the source of innovative ideas, identifying individuals who work closely with the product or customer as the key contributors toward advancement.

i2i speakers included some of the world’s greatest innovators such as Marthin de Beer, Senior Vice President of Emerging Technologies Group, Cisco; Reid Hoffman, Chairman and CEO, LinkedIn; Filippo Passerini, Chief Information & Global Services Officer, Procter & Gamble; and author Don Tapscott. Representatives from the i2i partnership included X PRIZE’s Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Matt Bross, CTO of BT Group; Amir Dossal, Executive Director, United Nations Office for Partnerships; and Dr. Arthur J. Schwartz, Executive Vice President, John Templeton Foundation.

Additional speakers ranged from Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post and inventor, Dean Kamen of DEKA Research & Development to Thomas Kalil from the White House’s Office of Science & Technology Policy. Attendees came from top-tier organizations including PepsiCo, WellPoint, Siemens, Thomson Reuters, GlaxoSmithKline, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, NASA, TedMed, Boeing Space Exploration, Deutsche Bank, Progressive Insurance and Goldman Sachs.

Below are excerpts from i2i:

• Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of The X PRIZE Foundation: “Fundamentally, I believe that all problems can be solved – the question is how to do it in an efficient fashion. Incentivized competition is one method to drive breakthroughs in areas that are stuck, where there are market failures. Through Open Collaboration, you can reach out to top minds, geniuses around the planet, and get them to work on the problem you are so passionate about changing. You get what you incentivize. It’s fundamental, it’s simple, but it’s so powerful.”
• Matt Bross, Chief Technology Officer, BT Group: “What is actually happening to the sphere of innovation possibilities? I call it an innovation Big Bang.”
• Amir Dossal, Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Partnerships: “Innovative solutions, as well as partnerships between the public and private sectors are essential to reaching the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.”
• Thomas Kalil, Deputy Director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy: “There are a number of steps we have to achieve in order to make incentive prizes a growing part of what the government does to promote innovation in ways that go beyond traditional grants and contracts, but I’m confident that this is an area where we can make progress over the first term of the President’s administration.”
• Keith Ferrazzi, CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight, Inc.: “If you think about all achievements that we’re going to have around innovation, we’re going to need to breakthrough. We need to collaborate. We need clearly to work together.” Ferrazzi continued, “We find that you can’t have innovation without social risk. And social risk only occurs if you have the basis of a relationship underneath to be able to say things out of the box.”
• Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything and Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing the World: “The time has come for a new model of innovation, one based on collaboration and on these principles of openness, of sharing intellectual property.”
• Reid Hoffman, CEO and Founder LinkedIN: “Every individual is now a small business. How do I stay competitive in a globally competitive world? How do I innovate in the practices that I do in order to be a successful professional? How do I identify my problems and challenges, identify the right things; how do I reach out and get them? A network is a very useful thing for that. There is a pattern of everyone using their networks to successfully compete as businesses, managers and small companies. You can use your network to figure out if you’re on the right path quickly. Go to people that you think are very smart that have some insight and say ‘here’s my plan, what do you think?’” Open collaboration is at the core of networks and social media. Pertaining to social media networks, Hoffman stated, “MySpace is the bar, Facebook is the backyard BBQ, and LinkedIn is the office.”

Throughout intimate breakout sessions, i2i attendees brainstormed solutions to challenges in multiple areas. During one session, solutions to the healthcare crisis in America were discussed. Ideas ranged from using an information-collaboration model to decreasing the time needed to provide patients a correct diagnosis; to creating a smart data, virtual, immersive healthcare environment through the use of telepresence.

i2i shared practical methods for creating a culture of innovation in businesses through collaboration. It highlighted concrete ways to leverage limited resources to innovate through incentivized competition, and outlined proven applications that will help drive innovation for each company represented. Every executive left with real solutions that could be immediately implemented to positively affect their company’s bottom-line.

For more information on the conference or to view some video highlights, please visit www.incentive2innovate.com B-Roll video footage is also available on request.

ABOUT THE PARTNERS:

About The X PRIZE Foundation
The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational nonprofit prize institute whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. In 2004, the Foundation captured the world’s attention when the Burt Rutan-led team, backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, built and flew the world’s first private spaceship to win the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for suborbital spaceflight.  The Foundation has since launched the $10 million Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE and the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE. The Foundation, with the support of its partner, BT Global Services, is creating prizes in Space and Ocean Exploration, Life Sciences, Energy and Environment, Education and Global Development.  The Foundation is widely recognized as the leading model for fostering innovation through competition.  For more information, please visit www.xprize.org.

About BT Global Services
BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services.  BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.

In the year ended 31 March 2009, BT Group’s revenue was £21,390 million.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group.  BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York. 
For more information, visit www.bt.com/aboutbt.

About The United Nations Office for Partnerships
United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP) serves as a gateway for partnership opportunities with the United Nations family. It promotes new collaborations and alliances in furtherance of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and provides support to new initiatives of the Secretary-General. UNOP provides Partnership Advisory Services and Outreach to a variety of entities, as well as managing the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships. UNFIP serves as the interface in the partnership between the UN system and the UN Foundation. UNOP also manages the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), established by the Secretary- General in July 2005, to support democratization around the world. UNOP is headed by the Executive Director Amir Dossal. For more information about the UN Millennium Development Goals, please visit www.un.org/millenniumgoals

About The John Templeton Foundation
The John Templeton Foundation serves as a philanthropic catalyst for research on what scientists and philosophers call the Big Questions. It supports innovative work at the world's top universities in such fields as theoretical physics, cosmology, evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and social science relating to love, forgiveness, creativity, purpose, and the nature and origin of religious belief. The Foundation also seeks to stimulate new thinking about wealth creation in the developing world, character education in schools and universities, and programs for cultivating the talents of gifted children. For more information, please visit www.templeton.org.

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