On Sunday, I was checking out the advertisements in the newspaper and came across Target’s toy catalog. As I was looking through it I came across a familiar face. There staring back at me with his goofy smile was Pleo the robotic dinosaur.

If you haven’t heard of Pleo, you owe it to yourself to check it out. I met Pleo last year at an Eagle coffee shop along with his creator Caleb Chung.

Chung, who lives in Boise, is the co-founder of a California company called Ugobe, but Chung keeps the research arm of the company in Eagle. That’s where Pleo was born.

If you don’t know Chung, you probably know his work. He was the co-creator of the late 90s toy sensation Furby. Much of what Chung learned developing Furby he incorporated into Pleo.

Pleo is a wonder. Plea is packed with technology. Dozens of motors and sensors control Pleo´s movements and responses to the environment. Sensors detect touch, light, sounds and motions.

Information from the sensors is sent to a processor that determines Pleo’s response to stimulation. Spend a few moments with the dinosaur and it’s easy to forget that he’s really not alive. To find out more about Pleo, visit Ugobe’s Website.

Seeing Pleo again, reminded me how important innovation is to Idaho. I’ve had this discussion with Julie Howard at the Idaho Office of Science and Technology. Howard says one of the things the state is trying to do is not just focus on how important technology is to Idaho, but to broaden the focus and get the message across that it’s innovation that drives Idaho’s economy.

It’s a good strategy and one we should all embrace. If anything it may help close the divide between tech companies and the other industries in Idaho.

After all, for the good of Idaho’s economy, do we really care if innovation comes from a technology company or from a company like Nampa-based 2Moto Snowbikes, which one could argue isn’t a tech company.

But the kit developed by 2Moto’s founder Vernal Forbes that turns a dirt bike into a snow bike is really taking off. He'll probably have to increase production and that means more jobs.

Much of Idaho’s early economic success can be tied to billionaire J.R. Simplot and the success of his company. But it wasn’t just potatoes that drove his success. It was what Simplot did to potatoes. In 1953, Simplot’s company perfected the frozen french fry, and as they say the rest is history.

If we unite all industries under the common banner of innovation, just think what we could accomplish. We could also have a little fun promoting the idea. How about teaming “Spuddy Buddy” and “Pleo” in an advertising campaign?