Host the Innovation Course™ training workshops in cities around the world.

The Innovation Course™ uniquely uses 2thinknow’s extensive innovation library of data and case studies from sectors and cities. This allows your participants to safely apply innovation in real-world conditions, with exercises from idea generation to implementation to communication.

Learn in 2 day standard, 1 day express, or 3-4 day deep-dive courses. Held at your office, at a training centre in your city.

2thinknow : 1st Innovation Agency

Brought to you by first innovation agency 2thinknow est. 2006. As seen in the Boston Globe, CNET, ABC, Fox, and local newspapers worldwide.

Innovation Skills Training

The Innovation Course focuses on innovation skills, and practical models for innovation.

Innovation Careers

Become the innovation experts in your company and industry. Re-brand yourself with innovation — and give your career a boost only with the Innovation Course™ by 2thinknow.

Vendor Certification

2thinknow can also provide vendor-certification in innovation, for professionals.

Only the Innovation Course™ by 2thinknow transfers innovation skills to your team and challenges.

Innovation training: book the Innovation Course™ workshop for your team.

> Go to the Innovation Course™ site

City Benchmarking Data™ is key industry or community data intelligence on any cities worldwide. Only from 2thinknow.

2thinknow produce the largest independent analyst data-set benchmarking city performance worldwide, with up to 162 indicators of data available to purchase for over 1,600 urban centers in 2011-12.

All data is delivered ‘ready-to-go’, licensed for your organizational use in multiple formats including spreadsheets, graphs and slides.

As seen in the Boston Globe or Reuters through the Innovation Cities™ Program and Index, and purchased by R&D departments, management consultants, multi-national corporations, city governments, chambers, trade boards, mayors, think tanks, tech firms and others worldwide.

Customer City Data Uses

Industry Data by Location
2thinknow have created a number of projects since 2006. Our group since 1999 have created scorecards to measure change performance. Our group created Australia’s first environmental scorecard for retailers at LendLease. In 2010, we revised LBG’s data process for benchmarking major Australian corporations for Corporate Social Responsibility.

Government Policy Data
2thinknow have worked on quick end-to-end projects for government based on design of scorecards and metrics. In 2009 we designed communication dashboards for state government ministers and their advisers to measure change.

Community : Social Innovation Metrics
We design scorecards for various community purposes, and our group has done work for the Anglican Retirement, Catholic Education and various NGOs seeking to embrace change in financial and business arrangements.

City Benchmarking Data™ by 2thinknow: Leading metrics to measure cities.

Resource Site > City Benchmarking Data™

Combine data with other innovation services.

Request data benchmarking as part of business, government and community innovation consulting services. Or do a course in innovation metrics, with a custom version of the Innovation Course™. Combine with other tools from the Innovation Toolkit by 2thinknow.

Using the 2thinknow Innovation Design Life Cycle™ approach, 2thinknow analysts turns ideas and issues into innovation.

2thinknow innovation consulting uses the Innovation Design Life Cycle™ process. This end-to-end Life Cycle process includes access to 2thinknow analysis, analytical tools, innovation models, metric design, data gathering, and innovation training.

Indicative innovation consulting rates for 2thinknow innovation analysts here. 

Ask us for your custom innovation consulting proposal. Or contact us with your enquiry.

Executive Director, Christopher Hire, is available as a professional innovation speaker.

As a leading analyst, Christopher Hire speaks about innovation in global markets, and analyzing urban innovation economies. Hire created the Innovation Cities™ Program and Index from his Innovation Cities research since 2005 (and city indexes since 2007).

Professional Speaker: Conferences

Hire can access 2thinknow city benchmarking data for city and urban development conferences. For industry conferences and company events, Hire will use 2thinknow library of industry case studies for innovation strategy. For association or NGO conferences, Christopher talks about civic and social innovation.

“Articulate, knowledgeable and with a refreshing lack of jargon, barrow-pushing and other tech-talk …A delight to work with.” — What Others Say about Christopher Hire

Innovation Analysis: Change & Futurism

As the leading innovation analyst, Hire predicted the GFC in 2007 as a “2008 September shock event”, the Australian stock-markets decline, the strong performance of Germany vs. U.K., and dangers to U.S. economy. Hire provides analysis of future events, and methods for workshop planning strategic responses.

Professional Public Speaker

Hire is a a professional analyst with 13 years experience in business, data, government and infrastructure data and teaching. He can explain change  in every day language, using graphs, colorful models, some light entertaining stories and enlightening slides (a few public samples).

Innovation Practitioner Speeches

Christopher delivers a selected number of speeches, and training annually, in between leading innovation analysis for the Innovation Cities™ Program. As a professional speaker and trainer, Hire has14 years experience presenting to delegates including Government, Corporate (Random House, Toyota, 3M, Lend Lease) and NGO (Associations, Church Groups, Clubs).

More on Christopher Hire > LinkedIn

Contact us to book Christopher Hire as an Innovation Speaker.

Other: Innovation Events & Training products from 2thinknow

Innovation Events. The Local Innovation Forum™ event by 2thinknow provides your community answers on finding the opportunities of an emerging innovation economy. Available globally, if you have the venue, this is a great value option.

Full Details > Local Innovation Forum™ event

Innovation Training. The Innovation Course™ from 2thinknow is hands-on innovation training. These innovation training workshops  teaches team innovation skills to management, professionals & teams. Available in many cities globally.

Full Details > the Innovation Course™

Our analysts and Executive Director work with meeting planners, conferences and event organizers in North America, U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and further afield.

2thinknow provide innovation resources for your event in 3 ways:

Local Innovation Forum events — community events for innovation

Event organizers provide a local venue, and share in the revenues from Local Innovation Forum™ event. We provide promotional materials, online ticket purchasing, content, delivery and support. Events can be for profit or fund-raising.

> Local Innovation Forum™ event – Community & social innovation

Add the Innovation Course : innovation training workshops

The Innovation Course™ is professional innovation training for business, government and other professionals for 1-4 days. If you have 6 or more people who benefit from innovation training, add the Innovation Course™ workshops to your event.

> the Innovation Course™ – Professional innovation training

Expert Innovation Speaker : USA, Canada, Asia, Europe

Meeting planners and organizers of city and industry conference can engage our Executive Director, Christopher Hire. Christopher Hire is the creator of Innovation Cities™ program, and an expert speaker on innovation in economies and industry worldwide.

> Innovation Speaker – Innovation speeches & leadership

Arranging resources for your event:

2thinknow can provide the Innovation Course, Local Innovation Forum event, an innovation speaker or other innovation speaking resource for your international or local event, conference or meeting, at an affordable fixed price.

For general location availability, see our service locations page, and see our company FAQ.

Contact 2thinknow analysts to turn your event into an innovation event!

An interview with the Boston Globe, about how Coffee, Starbucks, and independent cafes are important to start-up business in cities, and broader themes.

The below is originally from the Innovation Cities™ site:

This week’s interview with innovation reporter, Scott Kirsner, of newspaper the Boston Globe got me thinking. Check out the interview on Boston and the Innovation Cities Index.

Scott was a real pro, and great to chat with, and as always he brought a fresh perspective to what I have been talking about for weeks now with our junior analysts and others — the importance of start-up culture to cities.

Coffee, Cafes, Tea, Starbucks & Start-ups

Specifically, Scott probing questions reminded me of the coffee and start-up link. We’d always taken it for granted that it was self-evident that coffee, cafes and Starbucks are important to cities. Scott got me thinking about where that came from.

It’s the third place, third space or extra place. The coffee shop, cafe and wireless internet they provide — and also the tea house — provide that space, and the productivity of caffeinated beverages. They’re meeting room. Quiet working zone. And more.

Office or Starbucks for start-up business connections?

Starbucks in the U.S. is so popular — some creatives even list it on their business cards as their office!

Fact of the matter is cafes become start-up business hubs. More than that coffee houses provide a collegial environment of connections. And connections matter to start-ups.

Another business discussion today with AAP got me thinking about this again. Yes. It was in a coffee shop. With 2 entrepreneurial fellows in the media space, both AAP.

For awhile we have been ranking cities, in the Innovation Cities Index. A part of that since the 2007 been the cafe, coffee and Starbucks. We rank this under our ‘Cafe & Tea Houses’ indicator that is one of the 162 indicators we score.

Keep innovating,

Christopher Hire
Executive Director
2thinknow ICP

@christopherhire

Innovation tools.  It is the quality and breadth of your innovation tools, that will drive your change performance in the modern workplace of teams.

Each of us have great ideas to change our organization, our sector and often even our world. But to achieve that we need the right innovation tools.

How many times have you come up with a great idea… then, not seen a clear path to implement your idea for change.

Innovation tools are the tools that give you the clear path.

At 2thinknow we call innovation tools, our Innovation Technology. Be they compact analyst reports, benchmarking data to measure performance, change plans or performance indicators.

Recently, 2thinknow have begun launching a series of updated websites to share those tools with you. We started this process with the annual city rankings in 2007 and global city report the same year, followed by web 2.0 and government 2.0 workshops, speeches, and then city data, and more city reports.

Now having developed our Innovation Technology we are providing the reports, data and outputs.

But also, we are opening our doors and sharing with cities, business and some government clients through the Innovation Course and Local Innovation Forum events. Each designed to transfer innovation knowledge, and start work to build an innovation culture inside your organization, city, town or suburb. More paths to work with 2thinknow

There will be lot’s more news, but take a look as we finish updating and launching all the new websites from 2thinknow. Take a look at http://www.2thinknow.com (this site) as well as the Innovation Cities Program (http://www.innovation-cities.com) and Innovation Cities Analysis Report (http://report.innovation-cities.com).

Each website for each innovation project is designed to give you the innovation tools to change things in a structured, rational, inclusive way in your cities, business, workplace and community.

Change starts here. Let us know what you think, we’d love to hear from you about your innovation initiatives.

Keep innovating!

Christopher Hire
Executive Director,
2thinknow

Projects to implement change, launched or underway in 2009 – 2010.

2thinknow work to assist others to inspire, plan, champion, implement and communicate change.

Each 2thinknow innovation project is designed as a single product, service or resource, focused on leading innovation in a specific sector. Sectors include cities, business and government.

(If your organization, city or team has your own innovative project, work with us as a select client.)

Innovation Cities™ Index. Is your city a nexus, hub or node?

The world’s largest multi-sector, multi-indicator score and ranking of global cities. A general series of indexes that explains cities performance and ability to meet the change needed to address today’s urban challenges.

For latest information, see www.innovation-cities.com

The Innovation Cities™ Analysis Report. A way to improve cities.

A single report, that is a new concept in urban research. Derived from cities case studies and thought leadership; distilled into a structured framework, the report sets out a new multi-sector approach to the economic and social development of cities.

For latest information, see report.innovation-cities.com

City Benchmarking Data™. Measure & compare location performance.

The world’s largest data-set benchmarking performance of cities worldwide based on 162 default indicators, over 31 industry and community segments. Measure your city, compare many cities or create your own data-sets, with data you can order quickly in many formats.

For latest information, see www.citybenchmarkingdata.com

Local Innovation Forum™ event. Ignite your local economy.

The Local Innovation Forum™ event [LIFe] launching shortly, provides inspiration, ideas and implementation techniques for taking your local economy to the next stage. Local associations, city governments, local business and other groups can organize an event in developed economies needing renewal or further growth.

For latest information, see www.localinnovationforum.com

More to come.

As each 2thinknow project moves from concept to product stage, we will be providing new innovation projects to enable an innovation economy.

Got your own ideas?

We bring our Innovation Toolkit to your ideas. Contact Us.