Innovation Crossover Set To Transform
Regional Collaboration
Bedford, Ind. (August 17, 2016) - Radius Indiana will join stakeholders from the region and across the state for a newly created technology innovation conference called "Innovation Crossover: The Shape of Things to Come" this October in Bloomington - the first event of its kind for southwest central Indiana.
The two-day conference is sponsored by Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division and brings together defense, industry and academia in an unprecedented forum to accelerate an innovation ecosystem across the state and region.
NSWC Crane worked with Indiana University, Purdue University, University of Southern Indiana, Cook Medical, Indiana Office of Defense Development and Radius Indiana to develop the agenda and set the vision for the event, which will focus on key industry clusters identified as part of a 2014 regional economic develop strategy.
The regional strategy is aimed at fostering new growth and capitalizing on existing assets for the industry clusters in the southwest central Indiana with the greatest potential for growth and advancement, including Department of Defense Technologies, Advanced Manufacturing, IT/Cyber and Life Sciences. Conference organizers hope to
vastly speed the development of collaborative relationships, public-private partnerships, foundations and infrastructure to deliver advanced capabilities for the targeted cluster areas.
"Our region is ripe with the talent and potential to spark a wave of entrepreneurialism and innovation," said Becky Skillman, senior advisor for Radius Indiana, the eight-county economic development partnership in southwest central Indiana. "Through the Innovation Crossover we want to see the area's ability to foster tech-based economic development come to the forefront."
The Innovation Crossover event provides an opportunity for the entrepreneurs, innovators and small businesses owners, who are the backbone of Radius Indiana's regional economy, to develop new relationships and business prospects. The Indiana Small Business Development Center reports that as of December 2015 the Radius Region is home to 8,895 small businesses, or 3.1 percent of Indiana's total number of small businesses. The Region also accounts for 3.4 percent of new businesses established in Indiana during the past year.
During the conference, participants will hear from defense, industry and university panelists about innovation challenges and capability gaps across the region, and then work with subject matter experts to uncover collaboration opportunities in facilitated technology tracks that align with the region's key industry clusters.
The technical working group for the Innovation Crossover, a team of multi-disciplinary researchers, has worked over the past several months to define and frame the most critical challenges in each technical track and gather relevant university research to present to attendees.
In the coming weeks organizers will release the names of the key note speakers for the conference, which are slated to include notables from state leadership, Department of Defense, academia and private industry.
The Innovation Crossover will take place at the Bloomington/Monroe County Convention Center Oct. 12-13. For more information please contact
[email protected]
.
ABOUT RADIUS INDIANA: Radius Indiana is a regional partnership representing eight counties in Southwest Central Indiana: Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Orange and Washington Counties. Formed in 2009, Radius Indiana also serves as a point of contact in Indiana for Naval Support Activity Crane and leads regional collaboration by leveraging the diverse assets of Southwest Central Indiana to drive attraction, retention and expansion of business, thereby increasing employment and investment opportunities and quality of life within the region.
###
