GSMP Discusses Disruptive Innovation At 2019 Innovation Summit

By, Terra Rivers | Managing Editor

On Wednesday, September 18, the Greater San Marcos Partnership held their Annual Innovation Summit.

Among this year’s speakers was Adriana Cruz, President of GSMP, Patrick Rose, Chair of the GSMP Board, Dr. Denise M. Trauth, President of Texas State University and Mike Georgoff, Chief Product Officer of HEB Digital.

Dr. Trauth shared with attendees how local college students were staying ahead of recent trends in innovation and technology.

“Our university has many existing centers of excellence,” Dr. Trauth said. “These centers of excellence are research specialties that have gained national or international recognition for contributing solutions to some of society’s most perplexing challenges in the areas of public safety, health and wellness, societal resilience and environmental stewardship just to name a few.”

In her speech, Dr. Trauth talked about Texas State’s Big Ideas that aligned with areas where the school’s research addressed social and economic challenges.

Among these ideas were “the use of augmented and virtual reality to revolutionize training for law enforcement,” improving health and well-being through innovations in healthcare and “finding ways to advance materials in sensor technology in application to improve our lives.”

Georgoff, this year’s keynote speaker, leads his team to weave digital deep into the fabric of H-E-B, according to GSMP.

A veteran of high-growth consumer tech startups, he has played critical strategy and product roles at Redbox and RetailMeNot, propelling each from early-stage development to $1 billion+ publicly traded companies.

Georgoff was most recently Chief Product Officer at Main Street Hub, where he built a world-class product, design, and brand organization from scratch. He led Main Street until its recent acquisition.

In his keynote speech, Georgoff described his experiences with disruptive innovation from his time as part of the leadership team at Redbox and currently with H-E-B.

Disruptive innovation is an innovation that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network.

Following the keynote speech, Cruz moderated a two-person panel between John Kinzer, President and CEO of Visionary Fiber Technologies, and Scott Dunn, CEO of Urban Mining Company.

The event concluded with this year’s Dick Burdick Award for Innovation award presentation to Kinzer and Visionary Fiber Technologies.

Over 250 people registered for the event including business professionals and several elected officials.