Eclectic Curiosity

BIF-3


BIF-3 – Reflections

Posted on October 12th, by Steve Hardy in Archives, BIF-3. No Comments

If you’ve read the last couple posts it should be pretty apparent just how fantastic an event like BIF-3 is. It’s really two days of concentrated inspiration. And what makes it so inspiring is that so many different and disparate ideas are unleashed upon the willing audience all at once. Just when one brilliant speaker finishes telling her story another one is already up telling his. The cumulative effect is a cocktail of new learning, mind stretching, and perhaps a couple aha moments. Not to mention, there’s ample opportunity to meet and interact with some incredibly smart and open-minded people.

BIF-3 was great.… more


BIF-3 – Thursday

Posted on October 11th, by Steve Hardy in Archives, BIF-3. No Comments

Day 2 at BIF-3

The second day began with an outstanding morning session. And the first storyteller of that session was Irving Wladawsky-Berger, VP of Technical Strategy and Innovation at IBM and visiting professor of Engineering Systems at MIT. In an on-stage interview with Walt Mossberg, Wladawsky-Berger covered two main ideas in his 20 or so minutes: near-death and the future of learning. On the former, he spoke about how the things that make companies great – like mainframes were for IBM in the 70s and 80s – are typically their undoing. Why? Because management think the success is due to their brilliance and tend not to pay much attention to innovation, to what’s next.… more


BIF-3 – Wednesday

Posted on October 10th, by Steve Hardy in Archives, BIF-3. No Comments

So, first, some background to set the scene. BIF is hosted at Trinity Rep Theater, a cute little 300-or-so seat repertory theater in downtown Providence. Each speaker – or as they are more commonly referred to here, storyteller – is alloted about 20 minutes to make their presentation. Some choose to use powerpoint as a visual aid while others wing it on words alone. The audience is seated in a semi-circle and many of the presenters stick around, sit in the crowd, and mingle during the generous inter-session breaks. Basically, it’s rapid-fire ideas.

Day 1 at BIF-3

The morning session began with Matt Cottam, cofounder and principal of Rhode Island design consultancy Tellart.… more


BIF-3 – This Week

Posted on October 9th, by Steve Hardy in Archives, BIF-3. No Comments

I’m soooo looking forward to this… I’ve returned again to the lovely town of Providence, RI, for another Collaborative Innovation Summit (put on by the tireless folks at the state’s independent and non-profit Business Innovation Factory). You may remember me posting a thing or two from BIF-2 last October. Well, BIF-3 promises to be packed with at least an equal punch of talented people speaking passionately about their ideas and pursuits. On the bill: Mark Cuban, Clayton Christensen, Steven Johnson, Jack Hughes, and many others.

Over the next few days, be sure to check out the BIF Speak blog.… more





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