Governor John W. Hickenlooper welcomed a packed house of innovators, leaders and change agents at the 4th gathering of the Colorado Innovation Network Summit, held in Denver, CO. He challenged the group to be present over the next two days, to think outside the box and to foster collaboration to reduce friction and accelerate opportunities for Colorado.  Most importantly, he echoed the summits mantra of curiosity: “Start asking questions!”

But what is “innovation?” Mark Sirangelo, Chief Innovation Officer for the State of Colorado and Vice President of Sierra Nevada Space Systems, defines it as “being able to look at a situation or challenge and realize that it can be done differently.” Innovation doesn’t apply only to technology and startup entrepreneurs, it transcends arts, culture, business, education, healthcare, community organizing and government.

This year’s summit will focus panels and discussions around four key session questions all through the lens of the theme “curiosity:”

     1. How do our digital selves define us?

     2. How are the ways we connect changing?

     3. What do the communities of the future look like?

     4. Who will advance global progress?

Panelists and attendees come from across the city, state and nation. COIN 2015 will address issues around healthcare information from experts such as Dhruv Jaggia from the IBM Watson team, gender-diverse business best practices from Loretta McCarthy of Golden Seeds, the technologies of tomorrow by Tony Werner of Comcast and innovation within local Colorado companies like Wild Goose Canning.

Comcast VP of Competitive Planning and Mobility Michael Soileau took the stage before the Governor to highlight the curious areas of innovation that the COIN 2015 presenting sponsor is participating in. He highlighted how the company’s Comcast Labs division employs 40 PhD’s and 10 distinguished fellows to push the envelope of innovation everyday, developing products like the X1 voice remote and the media solutions of tomorrow for customers and communities across the country.

The next few days are on track to be a curious confluence of communities and ideas. Let’s take the State of Colorado on a journey that the rest of the world can learn from.