When an older friend or relative slows down people take notice—and often start to worry. Although walking pace is a seemingly basic measure to make, it has been gaining traction in the gerontology world as a reliable marker for overall health and longevity for those 65 and older.

A new analysis of walking speed studies shows that—down to the tenth of a meter per second—an older person's pace, along with their age and gender, can predict their life expectancy just as well as the complex battery of other health indicators.

As 2010 sprints to a conclusion and the Great Recession appears to be receding, it’s time for some real bipartisan leadership out of Washington on Innovation and Economic Growth.  Frustrating as it may be for most of us to watch the gridlock in DC around virtually everything, the one issue everyone appears to agree with is the need for sustainable economic growth.

With that thought in mind, here are a few of my thoughts on what should occur in 2011.

Follow the Mayor’s Suggestions
Last week New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made the following suggestions to spur Innovation and Economic Growth in the US, in my book they’re good ones, although obviously with political implications:

1. Instill Confidence,
2. Promote Trade,
3. Reform Regulations,
4. Cut Business Taxes,
5. Invest in Job Training, and
6. Fix Immigration

Several Michigan companies recently received investments from the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund, pushing the total investments made through the Fund to over $11.6 million. To date, 52 Michigan companies have received seed funding from the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund, a collaborative effort of Michigan’s SmartZones.

“The Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund proves that innovation is thriving throughout the state,” said Skip Simms, administrator of the fund programs and interim CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK. “Companies that received support from the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund are currently employing 285 people throughout the state and have attracted outside investment. Matching support from other funding sources totaled $16.4 million for these Michigan companies.”

Raising Venture Capital is fiercely competitive, and many people have unrealistic expectations about their company, its value, and the process of raising venture capital. Here are five tips to get you in the right frame of mind.

1. Re-Evaluate Your Company - Does your company have the ability to earn $20-$50 Million in the next five to seven years? If not, your company may not be very appealing to venture capitalists. Other sources such as angel funding or small business loans may be more appropriate for you.

My software company ChiliSoft sold for $100 million in 2000. Or $70 million. Or $28 million.

It depends on the date you choose, the built-in triggers, and ego. Notably, from December 1999 to May 2000, my stake dropped from 40% to 15% when the deal closed. Most employee stakes dropped as well -- but not all employees.

My point at the end of this story will be something like this: sweat the details.

At its core, The Brainzooming Group helps organizations become more successful by rapidly expanding the range of strategic options they consider. We then help them prioritize and plan for implementing the strongest alternative. Since many organizations are challenged right now in determining what social networking means for them, we’re doing lots of work on social media strategy.

We’re partnered with Social Business Strategies and its founder Nate Riggs to help clients get a quick handle on smart moves into this area. How quick? One client, after a full-day, multi-organization planning session said, “What we did today would have taken us six months on our own.”

John Paul Titlow over at ReadWriteWeb.com reports that this year proved to be a strong one for online employment, as more and more took to the Web to find work, where an increasing number of jobs are for employers in other geographic areas, according to a report released by Elance.

2010 was a year of contrasts for those seeking to boost the role of science in the development agenda. Many new initiatives were launched; some took root, others ran into difficulties. And progress in meeting big challenges, such as conserving biodiversity and tackling climate change, remained slow.

Several organisations had chosen 2010 as the target date for achieving specific goals. Perhaps the most ambitious was the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which aimed to "significantly curb" biodiversity loss by this date. But biodiversity campaigners fell spectacularly short of achieving this and discussed their failures this year, fearing that the public is oblivious to their messages. Some concluded that biodiversity must be linked more tightly to people's fates.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A statewide group is conducting a study to determine whether researchers at West Virginia's smaller colleges would be interested in working with companies to commercialize new products.

TechConnectWV, a nonprofit coalition dedicated to promoting the state's innovation economy, will survey researchers at 18 smaller colleges and universities, both public and private.

"Ultimately, such a consortium could connect researchers at our smaller institutions of higher education with private sector partners who could help them commercialize new products, services, and technologies," said Anne Barth, executive director of TechConnectWV.

Ordering a product from Amazon.com is probably better for the environment than driving to the mall. Videoconferencing certainly beats hopping on an airplane. Google calculates that it can process 10,000 searches for the same amount of energy as one five-mile car trip. But while information technology may be greener than the things it replaces, the carbon footprint of the world's data centers and computer networks is growing so fast that it already rivals that of the aviation industry, according to past studies.

 

The cluster of glass buildings that serves as the headquarters of Nokia, the global telecommunications giant that is Finland's largest company, is a short stroll from the main campus of Aalto University, one of the country's newest higher-education institutions.

But the symbolic shadow the company casts across Finland's edu­cational, business, and even political landscape is long and omni­present.

It's 2011, and we still aren't seeing the kind of progress we expect to see out of big tech companies.

And we're not making big demands here.

We don't want flying cars. (Though, if done properly, we'd be interested to see them.)

No, we're talking about small stuff, like AOL getting back on track, streaming music from Apple, Google Docs actually affecting Microsoft, etc.

We are visual creatures. We love to take pictures; we love to look at pictures. We like pictures when they are still and when they are moving. A picture isn’t just worth 1,000 words; it also speaks to us when there are no words possible.

Your blog posts, your marketing materials and your website all need images.  As a small business owner, you probably think that photos come with an expensive price tag, but they don’t have to.  In this post, we highlight 50 image sites and services where you can get photographs and types of images for free or a low cost.

Kave Wall is a graphic design firm that also has a stock photo library. Many of the images appear to be free for the small sizes, but they also offer a full resolution catalog of 1,700-plus photos for $199.

As states become increasingly aware of the impact that startups and angel investing can have on local economies, public policy strategies are evolving that promote more investment in entrepreneurial companies.

More than twenty states currently have tax credits for early stage investment. These credits range from 10 to more than 50 percent.

In Georgia, Minnesota, and Connecticut angel investors played significant roles in getting tax credit legislation passed and signed into law.

Since the economic crisis broke out, entrepreneurship has attracted increased attention as a key path to economic recovery. I was happy to see that entrepreneurs have been set apart from some of the negative perceptions of big business and the blame being placed on large financial institutions for the economic meltdown. The question is whether such recognition of entrepreneurs as an engine for growth and innovation translated into concrete pro-entrepreneurship policies.

This past year brought new, sobering data that defied conventional wisdom that all businesses contribute to job growth at least to some degree. “The Importance of Startups in Job Creation and Job Destruction” by economist Tim Kane documented that net job growth occurs in the U.S. economy only through startup firms. While older companies lose 1 million jobs annually, new firms add an average of 3 million jobs in their first year. Moreover, during recessionary years, job creation at startups remains stable, while net job losses at existing firms are highly sensitive to the business cycle. Simply put, entrepreneurs are the primary engines of job creation in the country. If you zoom in further, you will see new firms that scale—those that grow in revenues and jobs—are especially important. More precisely, the top 1 percent of all companies generates 40 percent of new jobs, and the vast majority of these firms are no more than five years old. If we look even closer at the most rapidly growing young firms (those between ages 3-5 years), they represent less than 1 percent of all companies in the economy, but account for 10 percent of new jobs created each year (see High-Growth Firms and the Future of the American Economy).

Suddenly, creativity is big. While your chances of making millions as the next Andy Warhol or Taylor Swift are probably slim, you could well earn more these days by tapping into your creative powers—and, experts say, you'll be happier, too. Numerous Fortune 500 companies, including Hewlett-Packard and Sears, have hired creativity consultants to help boost innovation. The number of business schools offering creativity classes has doubled in the past five years. "It's not enough to just be good at analytical evaluation," argues Yoram Wind, a professor of marketing who teaches a creativity course at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. And creative activity can relieve stress and enhance your mood, according to Harvard psychologist Shelley Carson, author of Your Creative Brain. Brain researchers theorize that coming up with something novel that's also useful—their definition of creativity—so fully engages attention that the brain doesn't have any resources left to devote to stress.

It’s destination Detroit for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2011. In a drive to increase staff numbers, tap skills beyond its Virginia headquarters and boost efforts to reduce a substantial backlog of patent applications, the organisation will set up its first-ever satellite office in the Michigan city. The new branch will represent but the first phase of the USPTO Nationwide Workforce Programme: a plan to hire more patent examiners and seek out resources and expertise in other parts of the United States.

According to the USPTO, Detroit has been chosen – after careful consideration – for the following factors:

• a high percentage of scientists and engineers in the workforce;

• access to major research institutions, particularly leading universities;

• a high volume of patenting activity; and

• significant numbers of patent agents and attorneys in the area.

Innovation America has enjoyed providing Innovation Daily to our ever-growing circulation of loyal readers.  While we have achieved good organic growth, we are just touching the surface of potential readers who would be interested in our daily articles for Innovation practicioners and professionals.

As the stats indicate from the above chart, we have challenged ourselves to aggressively expand our audience in 2011.  However, we cannot do it alone.  We need your help with the following:

1. Refer innovationDaily to your friends Click Here
2. We are willing to add your databases to our base of readers with a personal message from you, that you are providing them a valuable information tool, (Contact us if you are interested)..
3. RSS Feeds will be published and made open for end users
4. Partnership relationships with your organization:  see following examples (NASVF.ORG, USINNOVATION.ORG) Website or Newsletter embedding.
5. In addition, we have been approached by several organization and companies that have expressed an interest in sponsoring or advertising in innovationDaily.

We have chosen not to seek advertisers, as we believe it would compromise the integrity and quality of our publication.  However, we are considering strategic partner sponsorships with entities that have similar goals and missions.

If you are interested in collaborating in any of the above 5 areas, please contact me via e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone (215) 593-3333.

Thank you, Rich Bendis