Arizona Innovation Summit drives the State’s High-Tech Future

The Innovation Summit will united Arizona’s top industry leaders, innovators and partners to exchange ideas, spark collaboration, and highlight cutting-edge technology in action. The event serves as a dynamic forum to explore the future of Arizona’s innovation economy and the joint efforts essential to driving sustainable growth across key industries.

The Summit kicks off on November 14th at ASU’s Media and Immersive Experience Center in Mesa.

Former CEO of Honeywell, Mike Madsen, joined “Arizona Horizon,” to discuss more about the summit.

“It’s fostering innovation amongst the innovators here in the Valley, identifying the challenges they face and then helping them solve it,” he said.

He emphasized how broad Arizona’s innovation economy has become.

“These days innovation encompasses a lot of things,” Madsen said. “Innovation occurs when companies invest in technology to improve their products and services… it creates high-value jobs, it helps generate business for our local suppliers. Everyone benefits.”

Panels will cover med tech, aerospace and defense, CHIPS and A.I., and workforce development. It’s a theme Madsen said every sector raised as a top concern.

“Workforce and talent… was the number one thing mentioned by all the folks in all the different innovation sectors.” Companies, he added, are navigating rising demand for “hiring new folks, reskilling and upskilling their existing workforce.”

The challenges across industries often mirror one another, Madsen noted. “The challenges we see in semiconductors, the challenges we see in aerospace, are similar, around workforce, infrastructure, policy, and a supplier network.”

That overlap means solutions developed in one sector can have impact across many others.

Madsen also said the shifting political environment hasn’t shaken the private sector’s drive to invest.

“These companies are making their own investments in this space, so I don’t know that they’re too nervous about the political horizon,” he said.

Ultimately, he said, the Summit is about collaboration—and momentum.

“There’s a little bit of something for everyone… and that’s really why innovation matters,” he said. “It makes our economy more resilient, and that’s good for the citizens.”