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« links for 2005-05-26 | Main | Innovation: Organizing Strategic Design »

Conference Tidbits

I just made it back from the 3rd annual Front End of Innovation Conference in Boston.  Plenty to digest and share.  This conference, sponsored by IIR and the PDMA looks to expose companies' approaches to handling the so-called "front end of innovation" -- that time before a specific development project is agreed to and funded.  It is where the exploration of what to pursue happens.   Big themes from the conference included ethnographic research, cross disciplinary collaboration, prototyping, and experimentation.

Companies like Clorox, Johnson & Johnson, Exxon-Mobile, Visa, and others presented.  Academics presenting included Thomke (Experimentation Matters), Chesbrough (Open Innovation) and Senge (The Fidth Discipline).  And Jack Welch, yes former CEO of GE, came for a question and answer session and to hawk his new book.

This conference is one of the few that mixes such a broad range of companies and disciplines.  Market research, R&D, engineering, product managers are all there.  There may be a slight tilt toward the technical R&D community and if the momentum continues, I think they'll begin to lose the marketing and product development communities. 

I'll follow on with more specific posts from some of the presentations, but I'll finish this one by highlighting the most impactful talk of the conference.  Suprisingly, it was the dinner speaker on Wednesday night that captivated the 500 attendees.  His name is Benjamin Zander and is the condictor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchetra.  While that seems a major acocmplishment and role in and of itself, Zander seems to have translated his passion for music and education into motivational speaking.  He wouldn't agree with the label of motivational, in fact he calls it transformational speaking. 

It is hard to describe what we experienced.  He basically worked through a series of stories and activities that included conducting the audience in singing Happy Birthday to one of the audience members, helping us see new distinctions through music, and demonstrating how he works with his music students by working with one right in front of everyone.  His main theme is how life is a series of possibilities and how we can make amazing things happen through passion and excellence.  He has a book which is now on order called "The Art of Possibility."

It was truly transformational.

Posted by Chris Conley on May 26, 2005 in Rants | Permalink

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Comments

Chris, I really envy you. In a positive way though, I am glad you attended and will be able to tell us all about what happend there. I have wanted to meet Benjamin Zander since I first read about him almost 10 years ago.

I am currently reading an autographed edition of Jack Welch's latest book "Winning" and so far it's actually not that bad. Comparing his age with his wife, I also envy him ;-)

Posted by: Jacob Bøtter | May 26, 2005 8:32:43 PM

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