The summiteers met at the summit to summit.

The conveners convened to convene.

Did they get anything done? Anything concrete? Well, maybe. But, hey, there was magic in the air. Just ask Gov. Hickenlooper.

"From the moment the summit began you could feel magic happening," he said.

That's nice, but, really, where did it all lead?

Well, at the end of the two-day Colorado Innovation Network Summit in Denver last Friday (Aug. 31), the organizers put out a press release saying the event had wrapped up with "commitments for action from the state's most innovative leaders on ways to make Colorado the most innovative state in the nation."

The "most innovative state in the nation?" Wow. I think a lot of us would be happy if Colorado could simply move up a few notches in the innovation rankings.

Innovation's important, of course, because the more Eli Whitneys, Henry Fords and Steve Jobs we can encourage, the more jobs we'll create, the more competitive we'll be, the more wealth we'll create.

Colorado has many of the ingredients necessary to develop its innovation economy but we're far from leading the way.

What's the problem?

Stephan Weiler, a