Opportunities and Challenges of Driving Impact In Innovation — A Princeton Panel Discussion

A dazzling array of speakers opened a day of hearing from entrepreneurs, researchers, businesspeople, and others convened for Princeton’s Keller Center’s Innovation Forum. I was delighted to be part of a panel, each person discussing a slightly different aspect of the current innovation system.

The Keller Center at Princeton and the vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in … central Jersey?

You may have heard that the Princeton area and the towns and counties around it have finally received its own designation as “Central New Jersey.” With a sweep of a pen, Governor Phil Murphy definitively said that “Central Jersey exists,” setline a longstanding debate and giving the residents of Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, and Somerset a clear way of describing their home. It was exciting to be part of a panel, moderated by Nena Golubovic, the Director of Design for Innovation Program in Sciences and Engineering, looking at creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem around the substantial resources of the university and the area around it.

Don’t get me wrong — New Jersey has always been a home to innovators and entrepreneurs, from Thomas Edison to the many innovations coming out of Bell Labs. But Princeton hasn’t been as eager to talk up the area’s…