Its hard to believe that only 10 years ago so few had heard of Amazon and Ebay! Google was shortly to be born but thats another story, as is FaceBook!

Just today I stumbled across this link to the project i was leading a decade ago to help create focus on ecommerce in Europe, oh how things have changed http://www.microsoft.com/misc/features/features_eChristmas.htm

E-Christmas was a learning collaboration experiment designed to illustrate in Europe what could be done with e-commerce. Microsoft formed a consortia with HP, UPS and KPMG and invited large and small Retailers, Internet service providers and Web developers to have a their first go at enabling ecommerce to reach new customers in new ways. At this time these ISP and Webshops were real entrepreneur innovators. Boy did we learn some pioneering lessons!

http://www.e-christmas.com/isps.htm

http://www.e-christmas.com/store_directory/pg00011.htm

two year prior to that Id been responsible for the internationalisation of Microsoft.com understanding all the issues of localising and translating content just as the masses were beginning to ask what a URL was or what www meant. Fortunately i was one of the few who hadnt been doistracted by the weight of momentum towards the windows95 launch, which was a huge deal, the world was really begging MS for a 32Bit OS not just an upgrade, fortunately for me Id also spotted the web and http as an even bigger deal.

Since then and especially since 2001 I've been on the periphery to the drive for Mobility and for social computing, while heavily involved in the ongoing fundamentals of small business, many of who's issues predate the internet. Almost all of the key issues still need some radical thinking and change, be that via technology, the web or whatever. These are largely tied to supply and demand, innovation, risk, finance and access to the right people. The solution lies with the next generation entrepreneurs!

So many things have changed since then, yet so many issues remain to challenge our future.

What lies ahead now?
What will we be revisiting in 2017?

If you revisit my archive you see i usually use the run up to the New Year as a time to reflect.

Thanks for refelcting with me.

Sustainable Innovation 08 - a structure well worth plugging!

Worth a read for thought leadership, insight and focus. Next years event is promoted as this years kicks off http://www.cfsd.org.uk/events/tspd12/index.html

EXCUSE CROSS-POSTINGS
Sustainable Innovation 08
Future Products, Technologies and Industries
27th - 28th October 2008
Malmo
Sweden

Organised by: The Centre for Sustainable Design
Sponsored by: The City of Malmo
Part of the 'Towards Sustainable Product Design' series of conferences

Background:Sustainability is a global imperative. Climate change is now 'top of mind' with widespread daily media coverage, stakeholder consensus on the science, highlighting of the economics by the Stern Review, and Al Gore's recent Oscar and Nobel Prize. This is leading to growing discussion over the need for a transformation towards low carbon economies and technologies. Coupled to this there are increasing pressures for significantly leaps in resource productivity and a movement to 'closed loop' solutions.

A recent book 'The Clean Tech Revolution' highlights a range of drivers for innovation:

* Costs: increasing price of oil
* Capital: growing investment flows
* China: massive energy and resource pressures
* Customers: significant consumer interest Opportunities are starting to emerge.

The market for sustainable technologies has been projected to be worth $800 billion by 2015. However, this figure undervalues the market as it does not account for the growing integration of renewable materials and alternative energy generation into products, technologies and buildings. Areas that will see significant growth include wind, solar, biomaterials, bio-energies, green buildings, sustainable mobility, smart grids, water filtration, and energy monitoring products and technologies.The clarion call is for innovation, innovation, innovation - short, medium and long-term. However, what do future sustainable products, technologies and industries look like?

Sustainable Innovation 08 will address this imperative with new visions, thinking and solutions.ConceptSustainable Innovation 08 will provide a platform to discuss in the future opportunities and challenges related to sustainable innovation, technology, product and service design and development. Sustainable Innovation 08 will include invited and refereed papers from academics, consultants, entrepreneurs, investors, technology providers,designers, sustainability, environment and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) managers as well as other business functions. The event will be a unique learning experience, networking space and an opportunity to think or even jump 'out of the box'.

Delegates will come globally from large companies, entrepreneurs, as well asacademia, government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The conference is supported by an international Advisory Board.Conference topicsSustainable Innovation 08 welcomes conceptual and research-based papers covering future solutions and thinking related to sustainable innovation, technology, product and service design and development. Papers focused on sustainable innovation related to the following topics are welcomed:

* Radical change
* Market transformation
* Sustainable Consumption & Production
* Low carbon economy
* Regional approaches
* Product policy
* Sustainable public procurement
* New business models
* Collaborations and partnerships
* Sustainable technologies
* Innovation processes
* Eco-entrepreneurship
* Supply chain management
* Product-service-systems (PSS)
* Management systems
* Organisational dimensions
* Case studiesBenefitsSustainable Innovation 08 will provide a range of benefits to speakers and delegates:
* Unique: forum for new ideas and concepts
* Leading-edge: presentations from key international researchers, practioners and policy-makers
* Content: new research, results and thinking
* Networking: opportunities to meet business, government and academia
* Track-record: over 1400 delegates from over 40 countries have attended previous 'Towards Sustainable Product Design' conferences

Submission detailsConference papers: please email, fax or post 500 words describing your proposed paper by 3rd March 2008. The paper will then be sent to the Advisory Board for evaluation and authors will be given feedback by the end of April 2008. The highest rated papers will be invited to present at the conference. Please only submit abstracts if you have budgets to attend the conference.

Contact
For more information on Sustainable Innovation 08 please contact: Martin Charter, Director, The Centre for Sustainable Design, University College for the Creative Arts, UK Tel: + 00 44 (0) 1252 892772 Fax: + 00 44 (0) 1252-892747 Email: mcharter@ucreative.ac.uk Website: http://www.cfsd.org.uk/

Entrepreneur - Phil Redmond from the peoples republic of Merseyside

Great message, great story, successful business man from startup to exit, from media to Quantity surveyor, this guy is worth listening to here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/broadband/mediaplayer/players/bbc2/bb_rm_console.shtml?redirect=console.shtml&lang=en&nbram=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1&bbram=1&package=4588666&clip=wl_fri_051007_segment3

From wealth and exit to creative innovation and disruptive breakthrough!

Great message about the individual and social as well as economic responsibility. Really in tune with sustainable and attainable business and community.

Any budding entrepreneur will get something from 5 minutes listeing here!

Next generation workforce

The smartest of the new arrivals have one thing on their mind:

Business and the economy in the context of sustainability!

Sustainable in terms of its impact on people and the planet, sustainable in terms of it makes sense "not to choose" the unsustainable AND sustainable in terms of the transition through necessary compliance and ethics and onto innovation where the new market entrants will grow from.

There is so much out there if you just google for it, be that a sustainable search, an ethic search, and eco search and a social enterprise search, even within my past posts there is plenty thats old thats still new.

Think about it!
Be inspired by some of the bright you people wanting to have a go:
http://www.betheinvestor.com/ sign in and watch Priya, Floodstop or Social design concepts for the standby energy saver.

http://www.socialconcepts.co.uk/
http://www.fluvial-innovations.co.uk/floodstop.html

from student entrepreneuring to corp and acedemia the next big wave is happening, dont ride the change, be the change;
http://www.flyingstart-ncge.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=42
http://www.kauffman.org/

http://ncge.com/communities/education/events/showevent/234

http://www.cfsd.org.uk/
http://www.henleymc.ac.uk/henleymc03.nsf/pages/sp_leadingsustainably

Working the new with the old, business with the community, mgmt schools and academia, thats sustainable. Many more links below and in the archive. Enjoy!