Waterloo is gaining global recognition as a hub for innovation. Recent articles have highlighted local startups and the region's innovative culture. Waterloo serves as a connector between international innovation networks in areas like quantum computing, digital media, and health technology. The region is working to build competitive advantages around strategic fields and become a center where large-scale deals in venture capital originate.

2. WATERLOO IN GLOBAL
SPOTLIGHT
Will Connors in Wall Street Journal
FAST COMPANY Lazaridis
Karen Mazurkewich on Class of ’99
http://www.fastcompany.com/3004344/rims-mike-lazaridis-takes-quantum-leap-faith-waterloo
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444004704578030573518777776.html

3. INNOVATION IN ONTARIO
Scientific Literacy
Corporate Venture Funds (Industrial Biotech,
Nanomaterials, Food Toxicology)
Corporate Venturing and acquiring scale – how
to get from $10 million to $250 million valuations
Commercialization ecosystems (engineering
firms, capital markets, university projects)

4. THE GLOBALIZATION OF VENTURE CAPITAL -
WATERLOO AS AN INNOVATION HUB
Skolkovo
TIE
China networks, e.g. Chengwei, Gobi Ventures
ATOMICO
ARCTIC STARTUP
C-100
Arab venture capital GULF VC

5. UW as global hub of thinking
about innovation in the digital age
Capital markets, universities, engineering firms
Global alliances for innovation
Understanding moral life in a digital age
Cyberterrorism and cybersecurity in an age of
constant digital overload

6. GLOBAL INNOVATION –
SOME DRIVING FORCES
Big Data (data analytics, the upside of transparency
and the risks of overestimating quantitative analysis)
Smart Infrastructure (internet of things, smart cities,
smart grids )
E-learning (the transformation of education)
Health innovation (evidence-based research and
global healthcare restructuring)

7. SEA-CHANGES IN EDUCATION,
MEDIA HEALTH, DEAL-FINANCING
"Full fathom five thy father lies, Of his bones are
coral made, Those are pearls that were his
eyes, Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth
suffer a sea-change, into something rich and
strange.
Shakespeare, THE TEMPEST

8. For example, where is Niger and what
do we need to know and understand?

9. FUSION OF MEDIA AND
EDUCATION
Where is Niger? (Now that the U.S. is putting a west
African base for drones there.)
What do we need to know? We need Wikipedia and
analysis (why universities will always be with us)
Crowdsourcing ( we need real-time web-knowledge,
e.g. USHAHIDI and contextual knowledge, e.g. the
history of Niger)
Data architecture and digital education

10. HELSINKI-WATERLOO:
Global mobility products
Innovation in digital media

11. NEXT GENERATION
INVENTIVE SPACES
Fusion of industrial biotechnology,
environmental industries, health innovation and
agricultural productivity
Data analytics (which evidence do we need to
collect?)
Health innovation business models
E-learning best practices

12. LEADERSHIP INNOVATION
CONFERENCE April 22-23
Building global networks a magnet for GLOBAL VC
Establishing competitive advantage (Ontario
understands digital innovation in education, global
mobility, quantum computing, strategic use of data
analytics)
Syndication of venture capital - becoming a place
where deals originate and Ontario builds scale
Being a Global Connector for Canada in the
innovation-driven new