Strengthening the Innovation Ecosystem
Understanding the Power of Innovation
As we connected with our SXSW session audience, we shared that some of the simplest ideas on IP that we might cultivate with young innovators also stand true for adults: Your ideas have value. And they can continue to gain value as you grow and develop them. By helping children connect with the emotion of their ideas, their rights as creators and the opportunity to help lay the building blocks (i.e., prior art) for others’ innovations, we help to define and describe that value.
I explained how we make these concepts tangible in Camp Invention® (our summer camp for grades K-6) and other programs by guiding children to write and sketch in their Inventor Logs, complete mini prior art searches, fill out mock patents, design trademark-worthy logos and more. As children engage in these activities, we demystify IP, making it less intimidating and more accessible.
I encouraged everyone in our session audience to read the Equality of Opportunity Project’s “Who Becomes an Inventor in America? The Importance of Exposure to Innovation,” which highlights clear evidence as to why it is imperative that we give children (and ourselves as adults) access to seeing and knowing diverse innovators. The research states that “exposure to inventors and invention during childhood can increase the likelihood that a child will become an innovator.” In addition, it highlights that “if girls were exposed to female inventors at the same rate as boys are to male inventors, the gender gap in innovation would shrink by half.”
Embracing Diverse Perspectives
Vanderveldt, global ambassador and advocate of women and diverse leaders creating social and economic impact and job creation, shined a particular light on women entrepreneurs during our session. She shared some of the personal challenges she faced in pursuit of her vision with Empowering a Billion Women. The audience deeply connected with her stories about naysayers along the way. They also benefited from her insights on licensing, pursuing funding and support, and clarifying one’s vision to make a unique mark on the world.
Whether the challenges people face within the innovation ecosystem are related to gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, race or other social constructs, I encouraged our SXSW audience to continue to expand their thoughts on diversity. While we have come to better understand, through both research data and human intuition, that diverse ideas come from diverse people, we must ensure that this is more than just a phrase. A commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion must be a core driver in our innovation ecosystem.
We must all strive to ensure that individuals of diverse backgrounds have equitable seats at the table and that their experiences, their perspectives and the challenges they face will inform our collective decisions. We cannot solve problems that we do not understand. When we use empathy and gather data directly from those who have experienced specific barriers and challenges, we are able to invent relevant and meaningful solutions.
Championing Creativity
When Myrick, director of the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity at the USPTO, asked the question, “What are you most excited about?” I quickly said, “creativity.” In some ways, I almost surprised myself. While it is one of my favorite topics, the spontaneity of this answer comes from my belief in the role creativity plays in human potential. The creativity field is also ripe with potential. It is an untapped resource pool — rich with tools, techniques and processes that have not fully made their way into business and education.