Innovative economy: No quick formula for success

Two-day conference draws lessons for San Diego and other cities

Its reputation as "the live music capital of the world" grew into the South by Southwest music festival, but that originated with a proposal by a local alternative weekly newspaper, not the main daily in town, he said.

And Austin residents like to sport bumper stickers that tout the city as "weird." And that quirky adjective comes up when projects and programs get debated, apparently as a way to keep politicians from getting too carried away with trendy ideas.

"That's not something that can come from the city," he said of the love of the weird. "It would not be very effective if it came from the city (officials)."

But Austin has become a tech capital, partly because weird ideas have turned into successful ventures and lured entrepreneurs.

Numerous ideas and checklists filled attendees' notebooks as they searched for magic bullets to make their cities and companies more innovative.


Fred Dust, partner in the IDEO consulting firm in New York City, said rather than ask a lot of questions, innovators need to engage in a lot of "deep observation."

"Watch things for longer than a minute," he said.

He offered as an example a pet store in New York's Tribeca neighborhood, where passersby linger to play with puppies and within 20 minutes other people stop by to watch people watching other people befriending each other and picking up a date.

Dust also said one Brooklyn doctor posted his calendar online, invited potential clients to make their own appointments and prepay through PayPal and soon had hundreds of appointments. The result was "Hello Health," a startup funded by venture capitalists.

"He put a simple prototype into the field with just a few pieces of technology," he said.


Pixar was held up as a prototype for developing office space conducive to innovation.

Thomas Robinson, principal at LEVER Architecture for a new Pixar headquarters in Silicon Valley, said how space is configured can promote imagination and creativity.

Daylit common space on the ground floor, surrounded by a game room, restaurant and offices -- all with the idea of forcing employees to collaborate: "All this space is packed into a space that gives people reasons to actually come to the center of the space."

Greg Brandeau, former technology officer for Pixar and its parent Walt Disney Co., reminded his listeners that making a blockbuster movie - and by extension any innovative product or concept - is not easy.

"It's messy -- you don't know what will happen on a given day so you need to be flexible," he said.

But setting the corporate culture can facilitate success he said: "We've created a community where people feel like they're part of the process and have ownership of the end product."


In San Francisco, home to so many innovative companies, success hasn't solved all urban problems.

Amy Neches, partner in TMG Partners and a former San Francisco redevelopment planner for projects like the transformation of former railroad yards into the Mission Bay biotech center, acknowledged the hundreds of homeless individuals on the streets, even after all the money and effort spent to address their problems.

"The problem has plagued cities for a long time," she said. "It dates back to the deinstitutionalization of health care (for the mentally ill). It's a problem San Francisco struggles with and it's a national problem. It's a very, very hard issue."


