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ite Selection Publisher McKinley Conway has certainly never wanted for new ideas. Now, though, the development industry pioneer is taking that quest to a broader scale with his new book, The Great Global Idea Race.
     "The key element in the development success equation today is ideas," Conway writes. "How can these idea development processes be improved? Where? By whom? What will be your role? That's what this book is all about."
     Conway starts with a look at how great ideas have developed through history. Chapters focus on the brain storms behind the creation of important infrastructure elements, high-tech ventures and leading governmental systems, for example.
     "The great works of man exist today because someone had a dream and took a chance," he notes. "Great plans were made, great efforts were expended in implementation, and, sometimes, great results were achieved."

      Conway also investigates the vital ideas driving corporate growth - a subject he knows well. Conway's voluminous legacy includes founding the first-ever magazine focused on corporate real estate and economic development, and founding two precedent-setting industry associations - the International Development Research Council (IDRC) and the Industrial Asset Management Council (IAMC). And that's not to mention creating the first development-focused Internet site, SiteNet, all the way back in 1983.
     The NASA veteran particularly notes how real estate executives' potent synergies with area developers have made for smarter growth.

McKinley Conway

     In the past, he notes, "area marketers got about as good a view of a corporate facility planner as tourists do of the Loch Ness monster. . . . Many facilities were located without any contact whatsoever with area organizations. Today . . . veteran corporate planners seldom undertake a project without contacting them."
     Similarly, generating the best ideas for future growth "will require a strong cooperative effort by private corporations and public development agencies," Conway contends.

     Conway reviews some interesting "near-term possibilities" in the idea race, including frost-proof fruit trees, an "invention to give artificial eyesight to the blind," and "a method for quickly neutralizing greenhouse gases."
     Conway shares his thoughts as well on the areas that are developing dominant ideas today.
     "There may be as many as 100 emerging super cities around the world," he observes, with U.S. contenders including Atlanta; Dallas; Denver; Honolulu; Orlando; Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; Salt Lake City; and Seattle. Global cities "most apt to attain super status" include Bangkok, Thailand; Bangalore, India; Istanbul, Turkey; Shanghai, China; and Wuhan, China.
     "Top projects" is another facet in Great Global Idea Race (available online at Amazon). A few of the developments profiled in the book include U.S.-Russian nuclear weapons disposal; Saudi Arabia's desalination plants; Canada's LaGrande James Bay complex; and Shanghai's Pudong waterfront development.
     But creating ideas is no idle exercise, Conway emphasizes.
     "There is more to success than generating ideas," he writes. "Idea harvesting, follow-up and implementation are equally important. Even that is not enough. The best rewards go to those who implement ideas and put them into use in the shortest time. The timeline is all-important."