i2E Managementi2E Managementi2E Managementi2E Management
  • About
  • Portfolio
  • Team
  • Funds
  • Investor Login

Innovation creating a more diverse Oklahoma economy

    Home News Innovation creating a more diverse Oklahoma economy
    NextPrevious

    Innovation creating a more diverse Oklahoma economy

    By sarah | News | 0 comment | 6 February, 2018 | 0

    By Scott Meacham
    Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co.

    In writing this series of columns, it has been enjoyable and informative to consider current innovation in Oklahoma in the context of innovation and inventors from our history. I like history as a teacher, and from readers’ comments, so do you.

    We’re making innovation history today in Oklahoma. In a hundred years when future generations look back, they will draw lessons from the products and solutions we are creating today. We don’t know which of those will have the staying power of Sylvan Goldman’s shopping cart or Carl Magee’s parking meter, but you can bet some bright Oklahoma innovator is making history right now.

    The cornerstones of innovation — then, now, and in the future (even with artificial intelligence and machine learning) — are humans with great ideas and the passion and tenacity to act.

    But great ideas alone can’t propel innovation. It takes community, learned expertise, and infrastructure for a state to leverage the spirit and creativity that turns innovation into wealth and jobs.

    That brings me to the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST), the state’s agency for technology development and commercialization.

    This organization is Oklahoma’s champion of innovation and the bridge that connects ideas, research, and inventions to business needs. OCAST gets results, as the metrics prove: more than 2,450 jobs created or retained with average wages of $52,866 — a total payroll exceeding $93 million with a total financial impact exceeding half a billion dollars.

    OCAST knows how to foster innovation, and they’ve learned what works for Oklahoma. In the Oklahoma Innovation Model (OIM), the framework of coordinated resources and services they have built and adapted over time boosts Oklahoma’s competitiveness in the knowledge economy. OIM is a public-private collaboration that consists of OCAST, two not-for-profit organizations, i2E and the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance, and the New Product Development Center at OSU.

    “Invention, innovation and entrepreneurship are key drivers to the growth and diversification of Oklahoma’s economy,” said OCAST Executive Director Michael Carolina. “Thanks to the efforts of our strategic partners, such as i2E and its focus on technology commercialization and startup capital, we are seeing substantial innovation and growth in areas that complement our rich energy and agricultural heritage — areas such as aerospace, life sciences and biotechnology, manufacturing and information technology.”

    That diversification is key. When OCAST was created 30 years ago, state leaders envisioned innovation in new, nontraditional industries for a state that historically relied almost exclusively on energy and agriculture. Then, 1 in 11 Oklahoma workers was in energy; today, that number is 1 in 27.

    Invention and technology are the springboards of innovation; history provides the perspective. The spirit of innovation transcends products and technology.

    In 75 years when future generations look back to the innovation landscape of today’s Oklahoma, they will learn lessons from the legacy of our innovation, just as today, we find lessons in the shopping cart and the parking meter.

    Scott Meacham is president and CEO of i2E Inc., a nonprofit corporation that mentors many of the state’s technology-based startup companies. i2E receives state support from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology and is an integral part of Oklahoma’s Innovation Model. Contact Meacham at i2E_Comments@i2E.org.

    Read the article at newok.com

     

    Michael Carolina, OCAST, Oklahoma Innovation Model, Scott Meacham

    Related Post

    • Early stage investing in startups is essential

      By sarah | 0 comment

      By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Last week, after I wrote about valuation — the negotiation that happens between entrepreneur and investor over what the startup company is worth on theRead more

    • Innovations carry Stillwater’s XploSafe beyond explosive detection

      By sarah | 0 comment

      By Jim Stafford Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. STILLWATER — A sample mixer rotates slowly in a tiny laboratory at Stillwater’s XploSafe LLC, turning small vials filled with novel materials that are partRead more

    • GE Summer Science Academy takes creative approach to academic, engineering challenges

      By sarah | 0 comment

      By Jim Stafford Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Inside a science laboratory on the campus of the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, teams of students last week attempted to connect syringes toRead more

    • Valuation of startups is a delicate negotiation

      By sarah | 0 comment

      By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. There is no aspect of the relationship between entrepreneur and potential investor that has more opportunity for conflict than the negotiation of the value ofRead more

    • Broken Arrow firm on cutting edge of micro optics

      By sarah | 0 comment

      By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. The other day, Bob Hogrefe, CEO of Access Optics, posed this thought-starter: What is it that battlefield observation systems, minimally invasive robotic surgery, and cellphonesRead more

    Leave a Comment

    Cancel reply

    You must be logged in to post a comment.

    NextPrevious

    Investor Login

    • Disclaimer & Disclosure

    Oklahoma City Location

    840 Research Parkway, Suite 250
    OKC, OK 73104
    PHONE 405/235-2305

    Tulsa Location

    618 E. Third Street, Suite 1
    Tulsa, OK 74120
    PHONE 918/582-5592

    • Disclaimer & Disclosure
    Copyright 2021 i2E, Inc. | All Rights Reserved
    • About
    • Portfolio
    • Team
    • Funds
    i2E Management