Opening Remarks From Conversation Co-Chairs

Key Session Insights

To open up the Texas edition of the Competitiveness Conversations Across America series, Dr. Taylor Eighmy, President of the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and Acting President of UT Health San Antonio, discussed the advantages of UTSA’s status as a relatively young university and its ongoing merger with the UT Health Science Center San Antonio. This merger, once completed — expected in September 1, 2025— will significantly enhance the university’s research capacity and economic impact, making UTSA the third-largest research institution in the state. The combined institution will have an estimated $6.5 billion contribution to the economy. As part of this growth trajectory, UTSA also acquired the Southeast Campus in 2022, a move that reflects the university’s commitment to expansion and innovation.

Dr. Eighmy then shifted to the venue of his speech and the Competitiveness Conversation Dinner, The Ursuline Convent and Academy, noting its long history of changing ownership before being revitalized by UTSA. This transformation, he explained, is emblematic of the UTSA’s broader dedication to investing in and shaping the future of downtown San Antonio. Major projects such as San Pedro I, the site of the Competitiveness Conversation, and San Pedro II are central to UTSA’s downtown expansion efforts and important to the region’s growth in cyber and infrastructure security innovation. As he put it, “As an anchor institution, The University of Texas at San Antonio plays a prominent role in the city's development.”

Expanding his focus beyond UTSA, Dr. Eighmy discussed San Antonio’s growing national prominence, stating that it is poised to become the sixth-largest city in the United States. San Antonio a hotspot for economic activity and a place of great cultural significance, featuring a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization-designated tdWorld Heritage Site.

However, for San Antonio’s continued success, it must pursue expanding and developing partnerships to grow the innovation economy even broader. Dr. Eighmy addressed the importance of Texas-Mexico bilateral trade, calling it an invaluable pillar of the region’s economic stability. Seeing the broader parrel with San Antonio’s development and the United States’ economic ecosystem, Dr. Eighmy discussed the importance of national competitiveness, introducing the audience to the Council’s flagship initiative, the National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers. Concluding his speech, he described this initiative as a transformative effort that is shaping how the United States ensures long-term economic strength and technological leadership on the global stage.

Following Dr. Eighmy’s remarks, the Hon. Deborah L. Wince-Smith, President and CEO of the Council on Competitiveness, delivered a speech outlining the Council’s ongoing efforts to strengthen U.S. competitiveness in an era of rapid technological change and geopolitical rivalry. She opened by noting that the first Competitiveness Conversation of 2025 will continue galvanizing regional innovation ecosystems, insights gathering about best — and next — practices for place-making innovation, and build on the momentum of innovation-led development, which were important outcomes from the previous editions of the Competitiveness Conversations Across America series. Acknowledging President Eighmy’s work in expanding connections with Mexico, she described San Antonio as a vital economic anchor, supporting both regional and national development.

To introduce the Council’s work, Ms. Wince-Smith explained that the organization was founded as a response to economic competition with Japan. During the Reagan administration, concerns over industrial productivity led to the creation of the Commission on Industrial Productivity, which ultimately gave rise to the Council as a private-sector-driven organization. She then articulated the Council’s definition of competitiveness, describing it as a combination of productivity and prosperity.

To promote productivity and prosperity throughout the nation, the United States must continue to support science and technology. Ms. Wince-Smith noted that the world is experiencing an era of extraordinary turbulence, characterized by multiple technological revolutions occurring at an unprecedented pace. For the first time in history, she observed, machines may surpass human intelligence, surfacing tremendous opportunities but also raising critical questions about the regulatory landscape. She challenged policymakers to strike a balance between fostering innovation and maintaining necessary safeguards, asking how they can shape the regulatory environment without stifling private enterprise and how the U.S. can develop new technologies at both speed and scale.

One of the most pressing global challenges, she noted, is the resurgence of great power rivalry, particularly with China. “The Great Power rivalry has returned,” she said.

China’s technological advancements pose distinctive challenges as they are inherently dual-use in nature, meaning they can be applied for both civilian and military purposes. To counter this growing threat, Ms. Wince-Smith called for a renewed focus on U.S.-Mexico collaboration, as well as a broader effort to reignite the United States’ innovation engine.

Ms. Wince-Smith warned that depending solely on a few isolated innovation hubs is not a sustainable strategy for maintaining national competitiveness. Instead, building on the Council's groundbreaking work from the 1990s with Harvard Professor Michael Porter on innovation clusters, she argued a new model for place-based innovation is needed — one driven by intentional place-making to dramatically expand the number of participants and locations engaged in the innovation economy.

Ms. Wince-Smith then introduced the Council’s latest report, Competing in the Next Economy: Innovation in the Age of Disruption & Discontinuity, which lays out an ambitious vision for U.S. competitiveness. The report calls on stakeholders nationwide to take bold and strategic actions to achieve a tenfold increase—10x—in innovation. Reaching this goal, she explained, will require sweeping changes, including new efficiencies, investments, coordination, realignments, and programs. Such a private-led effort will be possible only through collaboration among policymakers, industry leaders, academia, labor groups, and other key stakeholders. This collective push must include the formation of new public-private partnerships, a revitalization of international engagement, enhancements to the nation’s innovation infrastructure, regulatory streamlining, and an expanded, highly skilled U.S. workforce prepared to lead in the innovation economy.

The Competing in the Next Economy: Innovating in the Age of Disruption & Discontinuity report, a significant document form the Council’s flagship initiative the “National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers” (Commission), is the result of extensive discussions conducted throughout 2023 and 2024, involving over 50 National Commissioners and hundreds of leaders across various sectors, regions, and disciplines. It contains 55 recommendations aimed at unleashing innovation in the United States, with seven designated as urgent priorities requiring immediate national attention and action. These recommendations are structured around seven key pillars of innovation, addressing the critical barriers and opportunities necessary to achieve 10x productivity growth. The challenges facing the nation—ranging from technological disruption to geopolitical competition—demand a proactive, collaborative approach from all sectors of society.

Like the Competing in the Next Economy report, the Competitiveness Conversations Across America series is also a Commission initiative. National Commissioners, like President Eighmy, cohost the Competitiveness Conversations with the Council to better understand the dynamics underpinning their regional innovation ecosystems, to activate these activities even further and, through the Council’s extensive network, scale the best practices nationally.

The introductory remarks from by Dr. Eighmy and Ms. Wince-Smith set the stage for the important discussions scheduled to take place the following day at UTSA's impressive $92 million, 167,000-square-foot San Pedro 1 / National Security Collaboration Center building in downtown San Antonio. Before breaking, however, dinner attendees had the opportunity to hear from the Hon. Peter Sakai, Judge of Bexar County. In this dual role, he oversees both judicial and administrative duties, presides over the commissioners court, serves as the county's chief executive officer, and leads emergency management efforts.