Council Convenes First U.S.-Brazil Innovation Learning Lab

The Council on Competitiveness convened the first U.S.-Brazil Innovation Learning Laboratory at Georgetown University August 21. The event kicked off a year-long series of U.S.-Brazil meetings that will shape the policy agenda for the second U.S.-Brazil Innovation Summit, planned for November 2009 in Washington. The Council hosted the meeting in partnership with executive committee member and Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia, Movimento Brasil Competitivo (MBC) President Claudio Gastal, and Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI) President Reginaldo Arcuri.

The Innovation Learning Laboratory at Georgetown focused primarily on the legal and regulatory environments necessary to spur innovation, entrepreneurship and prosperity. Participants included: Sandy K. Baruah, assistant secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce, and acting administrator, Small Business Administration; President DeGioia; Edward Knight, executive vice president and general counsel, NASDAQ-OMX; and Larry Weber, chairman, W2 Group, and Council on Competitiveness executive committee member.

The new series is a result of the Call-to-Action that emerged at the first-ever 2007 U.S.-Brazil Innovation Summit, which the Council’s co-hosted in Brasilia with MBC and ABDI. President George W. Bush and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil praised the 2007 Summit in a joint statement last summer.