Brad and John will explore - with a particular focus on the Defense industry - how Open Innovation allows businesses to identify and utilize solutions that simply wouldn't have been discovered otherwise. These solutions from external sources make it easier for an organization to achieve strategic goals and drive real progress across an entire industry or sector.

From 2013-2016, Brad Chedister was the Lead / SME supporting USSOCOM HQ Commander’s Science and Technology Initiative. Before that, he spent 2004-2016 as a Technology Scout / SME supporting multiple Special Operations Command priorities. Additionally, Chedister was selected to lead a brainstorming group for the Ebola crisis dealing with key technologies in collaboration with the World Health Organization and White House R&D leadership. Chedister currently serves as a Co-Chairman for the Warfighter Sustainment and Performance Working Group (NDIA / DOD entity); Co-Chairman of the Automobile Industry’s Exoskeleton Working Group; Advisory Member of the Cognitive Performer Working Group, and Northwestern University’s Kellogg Institute TWIN Member. Jon Fredrickson is a well-known and respected innovation executive. He is one of a small handful of people in the world with deep global enterprise-level experience in Open Innovation. His insights and capabilities have been used by global enterprises, both private and public, through the world’s largest and most effective open innovation/crowdsourcing platform: the Wazoku Crowd. Jon has worked with companies and governments across the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, and South America in defining key innovation priorities and delivering superior results in these competitive and dynamic environments.