To keep innovation moving forward – especially in these tough economic times – there must be a broader partnership between business and the cultural sector, argues the keynote speaker at an upcoming OCRI (Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation) event.

Ken Robinson, a professor emeritus at Britain's University of Warwick, will draw upon his experience as a consultant for educators and businesses when he addresses OCRI's Leadership Conference on Oct. 16.

"We're living in highly volatile times, and I think of this really as a time of resolution in the sense that many of the things people work in – institutions and organization we take for granted – it's changing," he says.

Due to the pace of technological change and the violent downswing of the market these past few weeks, "it is almost impossible to predict the course of future events. These are times of tremendous turbulence."

Mr. Robinson, now based in Los Angeles, has worked with governments, international agencies, Fortune 500 companies and a variety of cultural organizations.

He is known for arguing for greater emphasis on the arts in schools, especially in a 1997 report he authored for the United Kingdom government.

In the report, titled All of Our Futures, he says creativity should be fostered in schools to get children used to thinking outside of conventional patterns, helping them prepare for business opportunities upon graduation.

"We must develop a curriculum that develops all the talents of the students," he says. "It still amazes me how many adults went through their education and never found anything that they were good at."

Innovative thinking is what drives the best companies forward, including Google – which allows its employees to devote 20 per cent of their time to new projects – and Pixar, which has a unique testing strategy for its products, he says.

"Organizations known to be highly creative – orchestras, art galleries, science laboratories . . . what makes them so good is they're all different; they're not the same," he adds.