This time I have a question. Albeit not yet concrete, my question offers a promising direction for cooperative exploration.
First, please close your eyes (…then open them fast so you can continue reading). Now, try and think of an innovation conference in which you’d like to participate.
As a reader of this blog and an obvious innovation-phile, I imagine that conferences crammed with speakers from 9-4 are not exactly to your style. You’re looking for something a little different; a conference that’s, well, a work of innovative itself. From the moment you get the invitation to the moment you go back home, a conference that feels different - new, interesting, effective and is informative to boot.
Can you think of such a conference? A conference you once attended that had such elements? An idea for a conference you once dreamed up, and wondered why it hadn’t been done before?
I would love to hear. Maybe we’ll manage to actualize some of the ideas.
Here are some of the smart ideas that I’ve personally come across in conferences:
1. A conference without a physical location - organized on a virtual internet site, the remote participants could enter and participate in their chosen panels and/or discussions.
2. A conference in which people were encouraged to talk - during the session, on their mobiles, to people not attending the conference, in order to share their experiences and discuss their newly acquired knowledge.
3. A conference in which the speakers were randomly chosen from the conference participants.
There’s more, of course, and that is the exploration part of this post: to find, extend, contribute and utilize ideas to innovate the innovation conference.
I look forward to reading your contributions in our pursuit of innovation.
Photo copyrights: ©iStockphoto.com/Vinko Murko
What about… ?
A conference without speakers: Just composed by facilitator lead workshops.
A conference without a pre-established agenda: The agenda would emerge from first day collective interaction.
A conference with a price depending on a final innovation skills assessment grade.
Be well…
Fabian
a couple more…
A 100% Outdoor conference, something like an “Innovation Picnic”
A bottom line focused, and also without speakers conference fee: Participants go to conference “just” for networking with other “innovators to be”, venture capitalists, and other innovation ecosystem incumbents. Some of them would pay a conference “sponsor” fee (which would help to cover conference costs and having some profit). The twist here is that Sponsor fee would be associated to their bottom line improvement having come from a pre-commited and pre-implemented SIT service
Be well…
Fabian
I would like to particiate in a conference that will be based on actual creative activities that will lead to initial results and will give the participants a feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day (or perhaps in the raise of dawn?).
The activities can be organized around a certain innovation challenge and will range from jugling to blue sky brainstorming and even a basic modeling workshop.
Take a look at http://www.Techcrossing.com (and http://www.Innovationplayground.net). Very interesting Innovation programs that are different from every seminar or conference.
I have gor some for you:
1/ An Innovators conference, where people are invited without being told what the conference is about, and they need to follow clues to find the purpose of the conference
2/ An Innovators conference, where people are forced to sit in a swimming pool, up to their waists, and must explain any ideas they may have into mobile phones, where a confederate in another room writes them on a whiteboard. The purpose is to improve their communication skills. After two hours of this, they change places with their partners, and “run” the whiteboard side.
3/ An Innovators conference, where every idea is immediately voted upon, and at the end of each hour, a “top 10″ is calculated, based on votes. At the end of the day, only the Top ideas of each hour are considered, and they are put in competition with each other, to get a “top of the tops”