Innovation Festival, Epicentro

Abstract

In the era of information and technology, there is irrefutable evidence of the economic importance that supposes the impulse of innovation and its relationship with economic growth and the productivity of a country. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCDE), “it is estimated that from the majority of developed countries, more than 50 percent of their GDP is generated off of investments in high-tech products and services, fundamentally in information technologies and communications” (OCDE, 2001). Also, the U.S. Department of Labor has estimated that innovation has produced approximately half of the economic growth that occurred over the last 50 years (Wilson, 2014). On the other hand, in the Latin American region “labor productivity of innovative businesses is, on average, 50 percent higher than those that do not innovate” (IDB, 2016), a statistic that allows us to elucidate the relationship between innovation and productivity. Adding to that, today, a person’s knowledge, creativity, and talent are essentially important to push economic and social growth to a better place, and as such, we need adaptable, digitally-enabled citizens that are able to think in a critical and transformative way. Talent and creativity are, and will be in the coming years, one of the main resources that will give a business a competitive edge over all others. That said, it’s not surprising when governments of the most developed countries in terms of technology, innovation, and all-around wellbeing, have innovation at the top of their agendas, as a priority for research and investments.