One particular project I’ve been involved with in recent months is the Brisbane Innovation Scorecard. It’s a nice collaboration between Deloitte, Brisbane Marketing, Queensland Government (DEEDI),Brisbane City Council and a few of us here at UQ Business School and it will be launched on the 28th of July. If you are in Brisbane that day then you would be most welcome to join the event (just click on the link for details).

Without giving too much away, the scorecard is based on a survey that is used internationally to measure innovation at the national level (the Community Innovation Survey) and I think this may be the first time that the survey has been used at the level of a city (Brisbane is a city of just under 2 million people). While Brisbane doesn’t have a lot of the headline tech sectors such as software and biotechnology, the survey shows the depth of innovation across the city in products, processes and services. In fact, the innovation performance of the city as a whole is very high compared to other international surveys.

Many Brisbane firms are using innovation as a core to their competitive position, but we never get to hear about them. They just go about quietly doing their work in both new and old industries, including engineering, food manufacturing, building products and mining equipment.

The launch will give awards to some of these companies in recognition of their commitment to innovation.