If you're not too conferenced out yet, Naomi Moneypenney of ManyWorlds.com gave me permission to share her notes from the recent Emerging Technologies Conference:

Just thought I'd share a few thoughts about the ETC conference at MIT that happened last week, pertaining to innovation and creativity. Speakers included Jeff Immelt, Michael Dell, Bob Metcalfe, Leroy Hood, Rodney Brooks and many other luminaries.

It was great to see the renewed focus on innovation, even from big companies like GM, Pfizer and Intel, though the word 'innovation' did not crop up that much it was core to their new directions.

Nathan Myhrvold had some great ideas on setting up Idea Factories so that people who are great at inventing could just invent, and sell 'ideas' that others could make and sell. Though this seems unrealistic, and the patent systems of our government would probably crack under the weight of a number of idea factories, it does seem a logical progression.

Technology innovations were of course at the fore. And most strongly in pharamceuticals, healthcare and fuel technologies. Interestingly many 'new' innovations had come from two sources: 1) Recombining ideas or products from other sources (like already appproved medications) or building on research inventions; 2) Opening new markets with existing products used in a new way.

I saw less 'step-change' ideas, and more 'incremental' innovation.

I summarized a few trends for the ManyWorlds.com newsletter to subscribers and I'll repeat them here:

- Idea Factories: Leave invention to those who are best at it. Nathan Myhrvold's perspective may not be for everyone, but he argued strongly for specialist firms that do nothing but invent, leaving others to manufacture and market the inventions.

- Reinvent Venture Capital: In line with the previous trend and the failure of so many innovation stage-gate processes or funnels in large companies, the venture capital industry is overdue for a major shake up.

- Learn from Biological Systems: Evolution has had the benefit of millions of years of experimentation. Whether in genomics, nanotechnology, cutting edge work in materials science or using biological algorithms to study social networks or personalize medicines, learning from living systems is a great way to bootstrap our understanding.

- Combinatorics: Once an obscure term in math textbooks, combinatorics is just a fancy word for the process of recombination. No longer bound by mere
network effects(!), recombining ideas, people, products is the way of the future. Indeed, the award for top young innovator this year went to a startup that combines 2 or 3 FDA approved medications to produce new synergistic treatments for major diseases like cancer, diabetes and arthritis. Sounds simple in principle, but exploring the viability of options that thousands of
combinations throw off is a complex task. But those that can solve the multi-dimensional Rubik's Cube the fastest, will win.

- Learn from other disciplines and industries: Jeff Immelt said the 'day of the one-dimensional manager is over'. We've all heard the multidisciplinary sermon
before, but it continues to ring true. The key though in achieving innovation by gaining insights from other areas, is communication. At HP, Stan Williams leads next generation research and put together an elite & broad team by filling it with deep experts in different fields. But he says, it took a whole year before they developed a language that they could all speak.