The Innovation Cities Program developed based on 2005-06 analysis into economics, cities & innovation literature. In April 2007, Innovation Cities Rankings were released in Boston, MA with Vienna, Austria ranked #1. See > 2007 Rankings This was the first rankings based on the insight that "Innovation drives successful economic & social development of cities" (a position arrived at by the OECD in 2009). In 2007 cities rankings, the underlying trends were expressed as a re-balancing of arts & culture, and infrastructure in a Bubble economy. 2thinknow Innovation Cities™ Rankings also preceded Monocle magazine's version, and the Fast Cities 2007 relaunched concept -- we like to think we have had some influence on both.
First Global Innovation Review Book.
Supporting the analysis, the Global Innovation Review 2007 Annual book was released and sold in small quantities to cities, business, libraries, Government & individuals published in Melbourne, Australia; sold directly, via wholesalers & via Amazon. Otherwise, the research was entirely funded by other consulting operations and out of the founders (limited) pocket in 2007. The basis of the Innovation Models, including the 3 segment unique Hire Innovation Loop (also named the HI Loop later) was introduced in print in this publication. 2thinknow's 21 cities was based on consideration of 180 cities selected for the analysis, a sub-set of 95 which were published with some minor modifications in 2008.
Starting Innovation Cities Version 2.0
Throughout 2007, further visits to key global cities and online research developed performance indicators further in time for the 2009 Index and later meetings with City Governments. Further some media approached 2thinknow during this time, and this along with various stakeholders globally such as PhDs, public servants and consultants provided feedback to refine the model. The 44 Innovation Indicators were ongoingly reviewed and split into more indicators, to allow greater cross-cultural comparisons between vastly different cities in areas such as culture, food, language. The result of this would be the 2009 Index. As a result of this development, the program received some press publicity in Italy, Austria and USA including newspaper features.
Foreseeing the Global Financial Crisis.
During this time in the Global Innovation Review 2007 Annual and the Global Innovation Conversation Journal, 2thinknow was presciently scathing of global attitudes to city economics, that led to the Global Financial Crisis and called in-turn for the resurgence of Keynesian Mixed Economy and application of regulation. In conjunction, 2thinknow used our Trend Analysis techniques to make some specific predictions. Specific predictions in October 2007 included "a September 2008 shock event" which was the Global Financial Crisis, the peak of the Australian stock market & subsequent fall below 4500 points. In December 2007, we called the US Recession specifically, and a possible Depression. See also > Trend Results It's worth contrasting our broadly accurate analysis using non-linear trend analysis; with the failure of many prominent voices using linear analysis in investment banking, finance & policy at that time. Our Trend Analysis tools were further integrated into Innovation Cities, and are more prominent in our 2009 Index. But first the > 2008 Index Updates