At the best of times (or worst), innovation is a key ingredient in the cocktail of a city’s success, and determines how well it is likely to continuously reinvent itself.

So, last year, when Brisbane Marketing joined hands with accounting firm Deloitte and others to measure business innovation in the city, it was a smart move, or shall we say an innovative one.

Sure to enhance Brisbane’s chances of carrying off the new moniker of “new world city,” the campaign begun nearly two years ago by the city’s leaders to distinguish it from Melbourne and Sydney, it also builds on encouraging news.

The Brisbane Innovation Scoreboard, developed in partnership with accounting firm Deloitte and others, found the city’s businesses to be “open” to innovation and generally supportive of the process by adequately funding such approaches. It also found that 2/3rds of the businesses had invested in developing new or significantly improved goods or services over the past three years. Click here to see last year’s winners.

The second annual Brisbane Innovation Scorecard, to be released on July 21 at the Lord Mayor’s Leaders of Innovation Lunch, is bigger – in size for sure and, perhaps, in its significance for the city of two million.

This year’s survey includes almost 400 firms in the greater Brisbane region, compared with only 100 in the inaugural year. Also, the survey is part of a wider international innovation survey being conducted across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

The results likely will tell us if Brisbane really can claim the moniker Australia’s “new world city.”

Brisbane Innovation Scoreboard

The Brisbane Innovation Scorecard uses standards and methodology developed at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School to measure the city’s innovation and its effects on growth, productivity and the region’s economic prosperity. It also will showcase commercial innovations in several different categories.

“As well as celebrating our world-class achievements and entrepreneurial approach, the Innovation Scorecard and Enable2011 will help bring about the future we envision for Brisbane, by supporting industry, education and government as they continue to drive innovation in the region,” Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said.

The Innovation Lunch is part of Enable2011 conference to be held from July 14 to 21. Enable2011 is an initiative of Brisbane Marketing in collaboration with Deloitte, University of Queensland Business School, Brisbane City Council, DEEDI (Queensland Government), and Enterprise Connect (Australian Government).