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Kim Garretson

Kim Garretson

2013-2014 Reynolds Fellow

  Nonresidential fellow
  Reynolds Journalism Institute
  Director
  Realizing Innovation
  Edina, Minnesota

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Account Details

Member ID: 639

Group Title: Content providers

Join Date: June 15, 2015

Activity

Last Visit: December 31, 1969

Last Activity: December 31, 1969

Total Entries: 4

Technical

Timezone: UM6

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About Kim Garretson

Garretson is a digital media and advertising technology innovator, having launched numerous digital products and companies starting in the early 1980s.

He is co-founder and adviser to Ovative/Group where he works with major brands and agencies on innovation discovery through the venture capital industry. Garretson also is an adviser and board member for venture-backed digital media and ad-tech startups. He is a board member of Twin Cities Public Television and a committee member for NextAvenue.org, a new public media initiative for boomers.

Earlier, Garretson was a Best Buy corporate strategy and innovation executive where he developed digital media products monetized with advertising. He also was Best Buy’s liaison to the venture capital industry.

Garretson also was a partner and founder of the digital practice at an agency now owned by Interpublic Group, and he co-founded the digital agency NOVO, which was acquired by Publicis in 2001.

Garretson holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.

He lives in Edina, Minnesota with his wife, Carla Bender, who is a retired corporate communications executive. His son Mark works for the software company Concur, and his daughter Jessie works at Random House in New York.

In his free time, Garretson enjoys collecting art, cooking and spending time with his two Havanese dogs, Chloe and Hobbs.

Kim Garretson is a digital media and advertising technology innovator. He was a 2013-2014 RJI Fellow.

Stories about Kim Garretson

Bridging startups in media and strategic communications to corporate open innovation initiatives

Kim Garretson’s fellowship intends to bridge a gap between disruptive innovation and the industries needing to embrace the change.

Corporations in media and strategic communications increasingly look to sources of innovation outside their own organizations to meet the speed of change. Major sources of innovation include the venture capital industry and startup incubators and accelerators.

Yet, according to Garretson, most corporations, including media companies, brands and agencies, are not staffed and lack resources for discovering, vetting and validating the best outside innovations. Meanwhile, several thousand new companies launch each year in these fields, all scrambling for the attention of prospective industry customers.

Garretson’s fellowship will research new processes, tools and platforms for RJI to become a center for connecting the best innovations in the open marketplace to the corporations that can best accelerate the pace of change with the new ideas.

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