This course is aimed at corporate executives and senior managers who need to generate new growth opportunities from external innovation by engaging with “innovation ecosystems” around the world. We will explore how to evaluate particular innovation ecosystems (and select which ecosystems to locate and engage with). Participants in the course will learn how to develop fruitful relationships with a range of innovation ecosystem stakeholders: entrepreneurs, risk capital providers, universities and government policy-makers. In particular, we will show how corporations can use MIT’s new “Innovation Diplomacy” approach to build effective networks across multiple stakeholders in complex and dynamic innovation ecosystems. We will show how to assess the relevance of and design various types of programs that corporations can implement to engage with their innovation ecosystem: prize competitions, hackathons, accelerators, commercialization programs etc., taking a series of deep dives into how leading corporations have used these programs internally and externally to drive growth. This course draws heavily on the findings of MIT’s groundbreaking and unique Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP), which brings together cities, regions and countries to study and learn from MIT research and from each other how to create and grow a successful innovation-based regional economy.