Front end of innovation

Below is information on an innovation conference that I received in an email. What's interesting is that conversations on all of the topics and the core competencies are freely available on the net. Use del.icio.us (the filtered net), technorati, google or yahoo blog search to find deep smarts. Aside from meeting new people or making contacts, conferences hold little value for me anyhow.

This is the new era of the unconference and enterprise 2.0. The net is the new meeting place. Limited not by cash resources but by imagination.

In addition to robust topics that are considered to be core competencies of the front end of innovation such as Building & Managing an Innovative Rich Culture, Leadership, Identifying the "White Space" & Opportunity Identification, Idea Generation & Management in the Discovery Portfolio, Latest Tools & Techniques, and Continuous Improvement in the Front End…we will also put a special focus on new content to include:

• Open Innovation
• Design Thinking
• Business Model Innovation
• Service Innovation
• Partnering for Innovation & Forming R&D Alliances
• Innovation Rebels: Learning from Non-Fortune 500's
• Global Innovation Networks
• Leadership, Culture & Cultivating the Entrepreneurial Spirit
• Early Stage Venture Capital & Intellectual Property
• Operational Innovation
• Fact-Based Decision-Making in the Front End

Take a look at this taxonomy to get ideas about organizing an idea management system. It's not rocket science to tie all of the above concepts to a powerful enterprise social networking system.