What is an Innovation Center?

The term innovation centre can mean a number of things - its a word used to describe office space where lots of similar businesses are.  They normally consists of a mix of open work areas where people can collaborate and bat ideas around, run networking events, meet Venture Capitalist and run an annual conference with lots of awards.  There also innovation centres spreading across lots of different industries; from biology, furniture, business, Digital Media etc.  The idea of innovation centres is to bring together like minded individuals to share ideas and create the future.

The TechHub in Shoreditch is a great example of a innovation centre for new tech start-ups and it really does act as a springboard for these news businesses - and bearing in mind that 80% of people are employed by SMEs, they are vitally important to the UK and global economy.

So what is all this noise about innovation centres in the news from the government about Shoreditch and the Olympic Park?  Are these any different?
 
The type of innovation centres which have been established in Birmingham and potentially arriving in the other planned Urban Enterprise Zones will have technology at the heart of it, not just the businesses actually in the buildings, but the entire building will be a smart building - it will monitor energy consumption, it will run intelligent door access and CCTV, it will have fast connectivity, it will be a place to collaborate it will be a different place to work, and furthermore, it will be connected to other Innovation centres to create a smart + connect community of innovative entrepreneurs and business leaders all over the UK, Europe and the globe linking up forward thinking start-ups, SMEs, BlueChips and VCs.

But in all honesty, innovation cannot be described , it is an intangible, unquantifiable notion, it is not just the created environment - the open space, the businesses who work there, the VCs that are present - it is the individuals that actually go to work there every day, people who know no bounds to the imagination and what is possible in their area of expertise - the thing that does make the difference as well, is the backing they have - when companies like Cisco, Google, Microsoft have put some skin in the game and you have government backing, whether it is financial or other, the sky literally is the limit - no matter where in the UK you are.

Innovation is not a concept, it is a journey.... and it depends who is on the ride with you that counts.