Houston Innovation District
Link to slides with starting project breakdown: https://docs.google.com/a/rice.edu/presentation/d/1xZFHbmokrq4PE1GqztUEsEkq_swTrR2DHTlx6KwdNwE/edit?usp=sharing
| Houston Innovation District | |
|---|---|
| Project Information | |
| Project Title | Houston Innovation District |
| Owner | Ben Baldazo, Dylan Dickens, Joe Reilly, Taylor Jacobe |
| Start Date | 9/20/2017 |
| Deadline | 10/27/2017 |
| Primary Billing | |
| Notes | |
| Has project status | Active |
| Copyright © 2016 edegan.com. All Rights Reserved. | |
Mayor of Houston has asked us to make recommendations about how to create an innovation district in Houston
- Go through patent data, find people with patents
- Find people who have done R&D work
- Carve up the world of innovative people in terms of data
- Find their needs
- Turn it into some sort of office space requirement
- Try to find where this office space would be, what it would look like
Contents
Anticipated Paper Breakdown
- Needs/Wants for an Innovation District
- Economic Factors
- Social Factors
- Environmental Factors
- Diagnosis of Houston’s Current State
- How does it fulfill and not fulfill the requirements of an innovation district?
- Recommendations for how to achieve an Innovation District in Houston
- What do we need in order to make a successful innovation district in Houston?
- What would it look like?
- How do we make it happen?
- Specific suggestions
Resources to pull from
Houston Entrepreneurship has info about:
- Start ups
- Accelerators/Incubators
- Entrepreneurship Ecosystems
- Small Business
- VC
We would ideally have data about:
- Patents in Houston - Houston Startup Ecosystem > HoustonPatents.txt
- R&D in Houston
- Factors relating to best Innovation Districts:
Ideal Factors for an Innovation district
Here, I will try to break down measurable ways of understanding how an area fulfills the requirements of an innovation district
Data needed is in bold
Optimize Land Use and Placemaking
- Flexibility, responding to market preferences
- Available office space/undeveloped land in Houston
- Availability of capital
- equity
- VC
- Investors of all kinds
- Infrastructure and land as a platform for experimentation
- Flexibility of space and infrastructure
- Zoning?
- Placemaking to achieve critical mass of real estate and commercial activity and authentic sense of place
- Location, location, location
Strategy as a City of Innovation
- and leverage the regional innovation context
- What we currently have going for us as a city- who is here and how can we leverage them?
- R&D Data
- Patent Data
- What we currently have going for us as a city- who is here and how can we leverage them?
- Prioritize attention on city wide eco-system and development and networking
- Current Government benefits to improve innovation ecosystem
- What would we ideally have to attract business?
- Grow and support existing innovation firms and activity
- Manage externalities that arise
- Houston's risk preparedness
- Competition?
- Adapt through cycles
- Predictability of Houston's economy data?
Build the City's Innovation Brand
- Leverage city DNA and expertise in promoting innovation
- Where is Houston at the forefront?
- Develop innovation brand as a broad identity and shared narrative
- How can we market the city as an innovator? How do we gain that image?
- Invite others to feel and experience the innovation culture
- How accessibile is Houston?
- Public transportation
- Travel costs: flying, lodging
- How accessibile is Houston?
A thought: Houston's key capabilities seem to be in Oil/Gas/Energy and Medicine. Can we start by portraying Houston as a leading innovator in those areas? Innovation district can start with our core capabilities
