Innovation Cluster in Thailand

I attended a breakfast meeting yesterday hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce focusing on the Creative Economy initiative in Thailand. To kick-off the meeting, the U.S. Consul General provided an overview of the US government's efforts to sync with the Thai government's efforts to promote a creative economy.

Interesting to note that the U.S. government is focusing its efforts on Chang Mai, in northern Thailand. Also interesting to note that the U.S. government seems to focus its resources on a single industry--technology.

This appears to be an effort to create the kind of "innovation cluster" that David Brooks references in today's New York Times column. Brooks defines an innovation cluster as a place in which tech obsessives work in close proximity and feed off each others ideas.

Obviously, it takes years to develop an innovation cluster, but given the pace of technological progress, it could happen sooner than we think. This would be a great development for Chang Mai and Thailand.

The conference is called "Northern Thailand's Creative Economy: Opportunities and Challenges in the IT sector." The conference takes place Feb 18-19 in Chang Mai.