On Monday and Tuesday, October 5 & 6, 2009, the 2nd Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit took place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.  There were approximately 900 participants at the Summit, including the people who registered and those who attended the free and open to the public events.  161 speakers took part in 30 panel discussions and10 workshops.  The Summit also hosted 4 keynote speakers: Elizabeth Gilbert, best-selling author of Eat, Pray, Love, Peter Shankman, Founder, Help A Reporter Out and Founder and CEO, the Geek Factory, Inc., Jane McGonigal, Director of Game Research and Development, Institute for the Future, and Randall Kempner, Executive Director, Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs.  Now that the Summit has ended, the real work begins and Innovation Philadelphia is busy compiling and synthesizing the content, participant reactions, and opinions on how to implement some of these ideas in the Philadelphia Region. 

“Many people have expressed interest in future Summit participation,” says Kelly Lee, President & CEO of Innovation Philadelphia.  “We are already discussing how we can improve the Summit, such as holding it in a smaller venue.  Small hands-on workshops, planned for 30 people took place in rooms for 200.  On the one hand, this was not the ideal atmosphere for the intimate interaction we wanted to create.  Yet, an advantage of holding the Summit at the Convention Center was when Jane McGonigal could not travel due to illness, the technological capabilities of the Convention Center and the production team allowed her to Skype in and give her keynote in the ballroom on larger-than-life screens,” added Lee. 

Innovation Philadelphia also received feedback on the plethora of sessions to choose from, covering a wide range of topics.  Future Summits will limit the amount of presentations held at the same time in order to provide participants the opportunity to attend every session.  Additional feedback can be found under Summit testimonials.  Thoughts, comments and suggestions on the Summit are welcomed here.  Overall, the two-day Summit was a success in attendance, impact and quality content. 

Read the full article from Issue 24 of Innovation Matters here.