The Silicon Valley Innovation Forum (SVIF) is an informal gathering of like minded individuals who want to share ideas and insights on the evolution of the innovation ecosystem in Silicon Valley and how it compares and contrasts to other global innovation regions.  Is Silicon Valley a unique phenomenon, with a “secret sauce,” or an instance of a more general model of knowledge-based innovation and entrepreneurship with discernible  operating principles amenable to replication? What is the secret of the Silicon Valley as an innovative region? 

Participants will discuss the result of recent research including reports, articles and books as well as hear presentation from experts on different aspects of Silicon Valley’s economic  and social evolution. Visiting researchers, practitioners and policy makers from regions, internationally, will also be invited to present their experience and issues, individually or as members of a panel. 

The Triple Helix Institute (THI, triplehelix.net ) is working as the local chapter of the Triple Helix Association (THA, triplehelixassociation.org ), contribute its insights to a global innovation community and share the results of international research and experience on innovation. The Triple Helix movement was launched by Professor Henry Etzkowitz, University of London, Birkbeck, quondam Research Fellow at Stanford, President of THA and Editor of Triple Helix and Professor Loet Leydesdorff of the University of Amsterdam  at a 1996 workshop in Amsterdam organized to discuss research on the relationship of science, industry, and government and their role in creating the conditions for future innovation, regional, national and multinational  S&T policies, job creation and growth. 

Henry Etzkowitz is President of THI, Palo Alto and along with Doug Henton of Collaborative Economics are co-conveners of the initial gathering of the Silicon Valley Innovation Forum. The Forum is inspired by various groups, including the Amsterdam ‘Knowledge Circle’ and New York City’s Inter-university Innovation Seminar, the source of the idea for an “MIT for New York” to fill a regional innovation lack that eventually morphed into the Cornell/Technion project. Perhaps SVIF is unique in being able to draw upon a broader and deeper innovation community!