Last month, S.C. Commerce’s newly-formed Council for Innovation Initiatives held its inaugural meeting in Columbia, S.C. Tasked with helping the state advance its South Carolina Innovation Plan, which was published in January 2017, the 14-member council will contribute insights that impact strategic decisions, resulting in the growth of innovation and tech-related entrepreneurial activity across the state.
During the group’s first meeting, Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt kicked off the discussion, asking members to help define what innovation means for South Carolina. With representation from research institutions, investment organizations, military operations and private enterprises, as well as individual entrepreneurs, the conversation was comprehensive, encompassing a variety of perspectives.
One of the key themes that emerged from the discussion was that of private industry’s role in rapidly mobilizing an innovation marketplace. To promote tech-related economic growth, It’s important to establish streamlined pathways, enabling efficient research and development activity and commercialization of ideas.
Moving forward, council members will work to recommend actionable strategies to be deployed in the present, while establishing more long-term tactics that achieve measurable outcomes for South Carolina’s innovation economy.
Scheduled to meet quarterly, the next meeting of the council is expected to take place later this fall. For more on the council, click here; and, for more on the South Carolina Innovation Plan, click here.