John Kao, chairman of the San Francisco-based Institute for Large Scale Innovation, who is also dubbed as “Mr. Creativity” by The Economist, set the pace for the first panel session. Eleven top-notch speakers rubbed shoulders in the first two panel sessions Sunday morning. The first session was anchored by John A. Quelch, dean of China Europe International Business School.

Speaking during the first session, Drummond said that Saudi youngsters are using mobile handsets for social networking and viewing videos. He pointed out that the total number of 3G subscribers in the Middle East exceeded four million. Drummond, who works as senior vice president and chief legal officer for Google, also spoke about the growth of Google and its salient features.

Kao, on his part, touched different aspects of innovation including collective effort, setting clear rules for collaboration between the government and private sectors, and turning intangibles into tangible matters. Kao said that there was a need to build an environment of innovation, which drives wealth. He asserted in his comments that there is a need to bring “innovation to innovation.”

Kao explained that “we have to be specific about what we mean, that creativity and innovation, for example, are not the same thing.”

Creativity is enabling the human ability to be able to generate new ideas, and innovation is creativity applied to a specific purpose to realize value, he added. Innovation is the muscle that brings creativity toward some intended end, said another panelist.