Chamber hosts first-ever Northern Kentucky Innovation Summit in November

In a sluggish economy, creative thinking and innovation is even more important than usual for small businesses success, said Mackey McNeill CEO and president of Mackey Advisors, a Covington wealth management firm.

"We are not in good times and you have to be more innovative to compete on a much higher level," she said. "It's a way to say I'm going to thrive during the down turn."

That's why McNeill is leading an effort of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce for a first-ever regional Innovation Conference, dubbed BRINK. The conference is set for Nov. 17 at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, from 7:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.

BRINK is geared to small- and medium-sized businesses which don't have their own employee or department devoted to innovation. The conference is designed to build specific innovation skills through workshops and a community problem solving challenges, McNeill said.

"The purpose is very specific. We want to inspire people and teach them the tools of innovation," she said.

Session topics include "Teaching the Innovation Process" with Drew Boyd, a a retired Johnson & Johnson employee, the executive director of master of science in marketing program at the University of Cincinnati and an assistant professor of Marketing and Innovation in UC's College of Business. Thomas D. Kuczmarski, founder, senior partner and president of Kuczmarski & Associates, an innovation consulting company, will lead the "Managing & Strategizing for Innovation" session.

The Chamber's goal is to attract at least 300 people to the Innovation Summit.

Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: Mackey McNeill CEO and president of Mackey Advisors