Overview
With the United States facing unprecedented challenges at home and abroad—from economic inequality to geopolitical tension to climate change to energy and national security—innovative solutions are needed more than ever. Innovation can foster the development of sustainable technologies, create new economic opportunities, and promote collaborative solutions to global issues. But innovation is often an turbulent process; leaders across academia, industry, and government must collaborate to create the new products, services, and processes needed to move society forward. To initiate this dialogue, the three hosts of the Tennessee Competitiveness Conversation—the first in the "Competitiveness Conversations Across America" series under the auspices of the Council’s flagship “National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers”—each provided opening statements to set the stage, framing the economic, global, and political realities facing Tennessee and the nation in 2024.
Key Session Insights
Kicking off the Tennessee Competitiveness Conversation at Vanderbilt’s Student Life Center, Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier welcomed the more than 250 attendees from across Tennessee and the nation, including business leaders, government officials, national laboratory directors, and university leaders.
Diermeier provided initial context for the event and drove home the importance of the Competitiveness Conversation, noting that the United States faces a challenging predicament in how to maintain its own global competitiveness while promoting prosperity for all U.S. citizens. The key driver in achieving this dual mission, he noted, is innovation, which involves improving both processes and products. With a more innovative economy – built on the invention, development and deployment of new products and services – businesses and industries, jobs and communities can all flourish.
Chancellor Diermeier went on to highlight what sets Tennessee apart: “radical collaboration.” That phrase became a throughline for many of the conversations that followed over the two-day summit. Chancellor Diermeier said, “Whether you in government, private business, academia, or the nonprofit sector, we are all in this together.”
"As a leading research university, Vanderbilt has innovation at the heart of its mission, and innovation is uniquely shaped by one of our core values. Radical collaboration, that is what we call it here. Radical collaboration requires faculty, researchers, and students to work together across disciplines, schools, and subject areas. It also calls us to reach out across sectors to work with other colleges and universities, government agencies, research laboratories, and military bases."
Daniel Diermeier
Chancellor, Vanderbilt University
In the Chancellor’s view, to tackle problems like energy security and transition, food and water security, improved healthcare, and climate change, all contributors to innovation must cut across traditional boundaries of disciplines or organizations to collaborate in the pursuit of discovery. The perspectives provided by different groups have proven a boon to finding new solutions to problems facing America.
Donde Plowman, Chancellor of University of Tennessee, Knoxville, focused her remarks on Tennessee’s distinctive strengths. The pathway to innovation does not have to take a one-size-fits-all approach, she noted, and Tennessee should use its individual distinctive advantages to develop its own version of an innovation hub. As Chancellor Plowman shared, “We know Tennessee has a tremendous story to tell about how to advance innovation – by building a knowledge-based economy, leaning into our strengths, and being unapologetically ourselves."
“The Council on Competitiveness is convening some of the brightest minds in science, education, industry, government, and more. The “Competitiveness Conversations Across America” is an initiative assembling groups around the country to think about how we drive forward our economy and our global competitiveness."
Donde Plowman
Chancellor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
The Honorable Deborah L. Wince-Smith, Council on Competitiveness President and CEO, opened the Conversation by placing the event in context with the Council’s overall agenda and core effort, the “National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers.” The Commission’s work over the past four years has set the stage for this – and additional – Competitiveness Conversations – emphasizing emphasized the critical need to “broaden the geography and deepen the demography of U.S. innovation.” She exhorted that too many communities and people across America find themselves disconnected from the incredible innovation engine that distinguishes and powers the U.S. economy. Wince-Smith implored participants to focus over the coming two days on solutions to connect and to bring more Americans into the national innovation economy, noting we are not in a position to leave behind anyone in our vast country.
“Today the Council's National Commission is kicking off a three-year series of Competitiveness Conversations Across America. We will go to these places to listen, learn, and examine in depth their strategies and investments for their future.”
Deborah Wince-Smith
President and CEO, Council on Competitiveness
Ms. Wince-Smith, after concluding her remarks, introduced a special video to attendees from U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn. Senator Blackburn commended Tennessee for its allure as a prime destination for living, working, and raising families, attributing this appeal to its favorable business environment and lack of state income tax. She lauded the state's efforts in training a skilled workforce, particularly in advanced manufacturing, citing impressive figures of students trained and Tennesseans employed in the sector.
Senator Blackburn then shifted focus to her endeavors in Washington, notably her work on the Securing Semiconductor Supply Chain Act. This legislation aims to fortify the US semiconductor industry by fostering collaboration between the government, private sector, and state economic development bodies to attract investment and bolster domestic production. She emphasized the act's significance in reducing reliance on foreign chip manufacturers, stimulating local economies, and repatriating jobs and innovation. To conclude, Senator Blackburn expressed pride in the innovative contributions of Tennesseans to the state's prosperity.
“In Tennessee, we have proven to be the state where people want to live, to work, to rear their family. We have a great business environment, with no state income tax. We have been chosen by so many people as the place to be, and every time I hear from people about workforce, I cannot help but think what a great job we are doing, training the workforce.”
Marsha Blackburn
United States Senator (R-TN)
