More about Dana Whitney Wolcott

As a youth, Dana realized he did not like getting up at 4:00 a.m. to milk the cows nor did he find any glamor in being the “milkman.”  But he did find the matter of fact and necessity-driven way a farmer could persuade even tempermental anmials to produce and repair every piece of his own equipment exciting and fascinating:  how could one person know so much about so many things? Dana’s 38-year career at Eastman Kodak in the heyday of new product and new technology development was awesome, and the opportunity to work with some of EK’s most successful inventors and innovators was truly inspiring. 
 
Dana started with Kodak as a drafter in 1970 and immediately helped deliver the new 110 film format products the Pocket 608 Dual Lens Camera and the Pocket Carousel Projector. With a shiny new degree in Math with Science and Studio Art emphasis, Dana was assigned to the prestigious Advanced Development group to work for inventor Don Harvey who holds over 150 patents. Building on Don’s idea for a new film format, Dana designed and built the first prototype models for the Disc Film Format line of products, including the industrial design model that ultimately sold the program to upper management. The Disc program went on to sell over 25 million cameras, hundreds of millions of films discs and billions of prints.

In the 80s, Kodak made a venture into Consumer Electronics, and Dana was there with new ideas to enable consumers to make prints at home.  After an aborted attempt using instant film, a better technology called thermal dye sublimation came along.  A new billion dollar business was born when Dana and his team delivered the SV6500 digital printer.

After helping the Single Use Camera unit grow into a major business and bringing numerous opportunities to Kodak’s in-house innovation group called the System Concepts Center, Dana settled into his last Kodak assignment:  heading the Novel Printing Concepts Group in the Kodak Research Labs.  There, he was charged with evaluating the potential of all new printer technology development proposals and managing the technology portfolio process.

Dana started attending Innovation Network’s annual Convergence in 1997 and was immediately blown away with the breath and depth of the knowledge of conference presenters and the IN leaders Joyce Wycoff and Ruth Ann Hattori. Their passion for creativity and innovation lead Dana to enroll Innovation University in 2000 and finally graduate in 2002 after a remarkable training and final “exam” in Machu Picchu, Peru.

After leaving Kodak in June 2008, Dana started his own innovation consulting business, Dana Wolcott Consulting, and has done work for BASF, SCJohnson and Innovation Focus.

Dana’s other passion is basketball, and when he’s not drumming up new concepts, he’s on the court with his 3-on-3 team which has won tournaments in Maine and New York in 2008, and qualified for the National Senior Olympics at Stanford University, California, in the summer of 2009.

Dana can be reached at staff@innovationnetwork.biz