Principled Innovation LLC

Associations and the growing importance of science

May 7th, 2006

Over the last year, I have been thinking a great deal about the growing importance of science in our society and the need for association leaders to become more literate in emerging scientific disciplines, such as nanotechnology, neuroscience and genomics. Earlier this year, ASAE & The Center ran an excellent and very successful technology conference, for which I was very pleased and honored to be a speaker. But I think it also may have been a missed opportunity to offer at least a couple of sessions on the sciences in an effort to begin our community’s education in this vital area of future knowledge creation, not to mention future business opportunity.

So, I was pleased to receive a brochure last week for the World Science Forum 2006, which is coming up in New York this November. Although the conference is a bit pricey ($1,890 before July 7th and $2,800 afterwards), I am thinking seriously about attending. The lineup of speakers has some real powerhouse thinkers, including C.K. Prahalad, Ray Kurzweil, Jeffrey Sachs and Stuart Kauffman, and the subject matter to be discussed truly is “the new universe of business,” as the conference’s theme suggests.

I want to encourage other association leaders to take a look at this conference, and decide whether it might be a useful learning opportunity for them. It is the first event of its kind of which I’ve become aware and it appears to be a very worthwhile investment of time, attention and financial resources. And the subject of associations and science will be a continuing topic of conversation on the PI Blog going forward.

Entry Filed under: Principled Innovation Blog, Announcements, What's New?, Innovation, Associations, Extreme Makeover, Associations and Science