Purposeful random collisions
"I'm at the BIF4 Collaboration Innovation Summit and am blown away. Getting all of these great minds together to think about innovation is a humbling experience. This kind of collaboration is the future." - John Winsor
"I mean it when I say that BIF is the best conference I've ever attended. Thanks again for allowing me to be part of it." - Jason Fried
On October 15-16, 2008 at Trinity Rep in Providence, R.I. BIF-4 brought together many of today's most compelling innovators, business model renegades and true transformers to reveal the secrets of innovation success through personal storytelling.
This week we certainly caught a glimpse of author William Gibson's famous line: "The future is already here, it's just unevenly distributed." For two days, despite all the economic turmoil going on outside, the future seemed more apparent and vividly bright with hope. And It wasn't just the stories or the emotive storytellers — it was the purposeful random collisions among BIF-4 participants that produced the magic.
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BIF-4 Storytellers
John Abele
Leader of the Grunion Expedition
Retired Founder/Chairman, Boston Scientific
Chairman, FIRST
As a leader of the Grunion expedition, Abele recently rediscovered the WWII submarine his father disappeared on in 1942. Abele is also the retired founder and chairman of Boston Scientific Corporation, a 16,000 employee, $6 billion global company that is a leader in the field of “Less Invasive Medicine,” offering a broad range of products used to treat diseases or injuries of the heart, brain, digestive tract, urinary system, lungs, and vascular system. He is also Chairman of the Board of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and is also a member of numerous not-for-profit boards.
Steve Bendt & Gary Koelling
Founders of Best Buy's Blue Shirt Nation.
Blue Shirt Nation was launched in 2006 for Best Buy associates. It is a corporate sponsored social network site that is voluntary, open-source, operates outside of the corporate firewall and is moderated by its users. Currently there are 20,000 members of Blue Shirt Nation and it's become a place for associates to help each other solve retail store operation issues.
David Berry
Principal, Flagship Ventures
Berry is a principal at Flagship Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early stage life science and cleantech ventures. Last year, he was awarded MIT Technology Review's coveted Innovator of the Year award for his work in developing renewable petroleum from microbes. With an MD from Harvard Medical and a Ph.D. in bioengineering from MIT, Berry's work has led to over 21 patents and applications in areas like therapeutic medicine, diagnostic devices, and now, most notably, alternative energy technologies.
Deborah Brooks
Co-founder of The Michael J. Fox Foundation
Brooks is co-founder of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF). Debi spearheads principal-gifts fundraising and advises on strategic and programmatic direction. In addition, she serves as the senior spokesperson for new and existing external audiences. She served as MJFF's president and chief executive officer from October 2000 to February 2007, during which period the Foundation funded over $90 million in research either directly or through partnerships and became the single largest funder of Parkinson's disease research outside the U.S. government.
Matt Cottam
Co-founder and CEO, Tellart
At heart, Matt Cottam is a storyteller. He's also an industrial designer, paramedic, teacher and co-founder of Tellart, a fast growing design firm specializing in web, mobile, and embedded product and service development. But really, he's a storyteller.
Curt Columbus
Artistic Director, Trinity Rep
Curt Columbus joined Trinity Repertory Company as artistic director in January 2006. He was the associate artistic director of Steppenwolf Theater Company from 2000-2005. His adaptation of Dostoevsky’s "Crime and Punishment" was awarded a Joseph Jefferson Award for best new adaptation and is published by Dramatists’ Play Service. Curt's new translations of Anton Chekhov’s plays have been published by Ivan R. Dee, including a volume of translations called Chekhov: The Four Major Plays. Curt has also been director of University Theater at the University of Chicago, where he lectured in the Humanities.
Joseph F. Coughlin, Ph.D.
Director, Age Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Joseph Coughlin is founder and Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab - the first multi-disciplinary research program sponsored by government and business to understand the behavior of the 45+ population as decision-makers, consumers, patients, caregivers, advisors and technology users.
Marc Ecko
Chairman of the Board and Chief Creative Officer, Marc Ecko Enterprises
Ecko’s passion for impacting youth culture is today represented in everything from publishing to multimedia, and from fashion to philanthropy. Since founding *ecko unltd at the age of 20, the company has grown to include 12 separate *ecko unltd. apparel and accessories lines, Complex magazine, and his video game and multimedia division, Marc Ecko Entertainment. During his career, he has also dedicated himself to a number of social consciousness initiatives, including most recently, Sweat Equity Enterprises, a four-year after-school design and mentoring program for underserved teens.
Jason Fried
Founder and CEO, 37signals
Jason Fried is the founder and CEO of 37signals. Fried is a passionate leader in the field of simple, clear, and elegant web-based user interface design. He spearheaded the concept, design, and development of Basecamp, 37signal’s web-based project management tool for designers, freelancers, and creative services firms. Fried is also the co-author of Defensive Design for the Web.
Jeffrey Hollender
President and Chief Inspired Protagonist, Seventh Generation
Hollender is a well-respected leader in the socially and environmentally responsible communities. An entrepreneur at heart, his first business ventures were rooted in adult education. He began the not-for-profit organizations Skills Exchange of Toronto, a learning exchange that offered practical and professional development classes, and Network for Learning, New York City, an adult education and audio-publishing company; both were social and financial successes. After his tenure as president of Warner Audio Publishing, New York City, Jeffrey acquired a small mail order catalog of energy conservation products, Renew America, which eventually blossomed into Seventh Generation.
Tony Hsieh
CEO of Zappos.com
Hsieh originally got involved with Zappos as an advisor and investor in 1999, about 2 months after the company was founded. Over time, Tony ended up spending more and more time with the company because it was both the most fun and the most promising out of all the companies that he was involved with. He eventually joined Zappos full time in 2000. Under his leadership, Zappos has grown gross merchandise sales from $1.6M in 2000 to $840M in 2007 by focusing relentlessly on customer service.
Frans Johansson
Author, The Medici Effect
Frans Johansson is speaker, entrepreneur and bestselling author of The Medici Effect, which was named one of the top-10 best business books of 2004 by Amazon.com and has so far been translated into 13 languages. Organizations worldwide have engaged him to speak on issues of innovation and managing diversity before a wide range of audiences, from C-level executives to human resource practitioners to investment directors. He has written articles on health-care, on information-technology, on the science of sport fishing and how to save our oceans.
Saul Kaplan
Chief Catalyst, Business Innovation Factory
Saul Kaplan is the Executive Director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. Kaplan serves as the Executive Counselor to the Governor on Economic Growth and Community Development. Kaplan created and leads Rhode Island's unique Innovation @ Scale economic development strategy aimed at increasing the state's capacity to grow and support an innovation economy, including an effort to turn the state's compact geography and close-knit public and private networks into a competitive advantage. Kaplan was appointed by Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri to the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council.
Joshua Klein
Mobile, Personal, and Future Technology Specialist
Joshua Klein is a passionate hacker of all things. His list includes social systems, computer networks, institutions, consumer hardware and animal behavior. His projects include The Vending Machine for Crows, a machine designed to autonomously train crow populations to find lost change and deposit it in exchange for peanuts. He's the author of the novel Roo'd, which was the first modern book (after Tarzan) to be ported to the iPhone.
David Kusek
Vice President, Berklee Media, Berklee College of Music
David Kusek is a musician who has been inventing the future of music for the past twenty-five years. At the age of nineteen, he co-invented electronic drums at Synare, which helped ignite the disco era. He is also a co-developer of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) standard that opened up electronic music to literally millions of people. Today, Kusek is vice president of Berklee Media, the continuing education division of the Berklee College of Music.
Cat Laine
Deputy Director, Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group
Lainé is helping people in developing countries get environmentally sound and affordable access to energy, sanitation and clean water. AIDG create small businesses that manufacture, install and repair green technologies for people living between $2-4 a day. These technologies help communities and families meet their basic needs for energy, sanitation and clean water, basic services that will improve their health and change their lives. Lainé is currently a PhD candidate and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute PreDoctoral Fellow.
Dennis Littky
Co-founder and Director, The Big Picture Company
Co-founder and director of The Big Picture Company and The Met School, Littky is one of the most successful school reformers in the country. He's created a new education model based on the belief that schools must be personalized, educating every student equally, one student at a time.
James Ludwig
Vice President of Global Design, Steelcase Inc.
As vice president of global design for Steelcase North America, Ludwig stresses an approach to product designs incorporating environmental and human health concerns with a dose of sophistication. An architect and designer, Ludwig's also been a college professor and creator of everything from homes and industrial complexes to furniture and technology. In spare time, he frantically sketches ideas for many other objects to be revealed at every designer's most hopeful time, someday.
Jacqueline Novogratz
Founder and CEO, Acumen Fund
Novogratz founded the Acumen Fund a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. Since 2001, the fund has made over $25 million in investments in 18 businesses across Asia and Africa, proving that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. Their investments focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services – like health, water, housing and energy – through innovative, market-oriented approaches. Prior to Acumen Fund, Novogratz founded and directed The Philanthropy Workshop and The Next Generation Leadership program at the Rockefeller Foundation. She also founded Duterimbere, a micro-finance institution in Rwanda.
Bruce Nussbaum
Contributing Editor for BusinessWeek
Bruce Nussbaum is a contributing editor for BusinessWeek, responsible for coverage of design and innovation. Previously, he was editorial page editor, a position he assumed in February 1993. He is also an essayist and commentator on economic and social issues. Mr. Nussbaum, who joined BusinessWeek in 1977, is responsible for the coverage of the annual Industrial Designers Excellence Awards, the BusinessWeek/Architectural Record Awards for architecture, and The World’s Most Innovative Companies survey. He leads workshops on design and innovation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Lewis Gordon Pugh
Explorer, Swimmer and Environmentalist
Lewis Gordon Pugh was the first person to complete a long distance swim in every ocean of the world and over a period of 20 years he pioneered more swims around famous landmarks than any other swimmer in history. During this period Lewis witnessed the oceans change rapidly due to pollution, over fishing and climate change. He campaigns for the protection of the marine environment and a low carbon society. Last year Lewis shocked the world by undertaking a swim in an open patch of sea at the North Pole to draw attention to the dramatic melting of the Arctic sea ice. The 1km swim, in water measuring 29 degrees Fahrenheit, took almost 19 minutes to complete, and attracted world wide media attention.
David Rockwell
Founder & CEO, Rockwell Group
Rockwell Group was founded in 1984 and today has a 160-person office with over 200 built projects to its credit. Characterized by rich materials, innovative narrative and a sense of theatre, recent projects by the Rockwell Group include the groundbreaking Mohegan Sun casinos, set designs for the Broadway musical Hairspray, set design for Team America: World Police, a new film by the creators of South Park, the Chambers (New York) and W (New York) hotels, the Kodak Theatre (Los Angeles) and dozens of restaurants, including Nobu, Town, Rosa Mexicano, Pod and most recently Café Gray at the Time Warner Center. David Rockwell has been honored with a lifetime achievement award from Interiors magazine, is included in Interior Design magazine’s Hall of Fame and was awarded the Presidential Design Award for the Grand Central Terminal renovation.
Deb Roy
Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT
Deb Roy directs the Media Lab's Cognitive Machines group and Center for Future Banking, and chairs MIT's academic program in Media Arts and Sciences. Roy studies how children learn language, and designs machines that learn to communicate in human-like ways. To enable this work, he has pioneered new data-driven methods for analyzing and modeling human linguistic and social behavior. He has authored numerous scientific papers on artificial intelligence, cognitive modeling, human-machine interaction, data mining, and information visualization, and has lectured extensively for both scientific and general audiences.
Richard Satava, MD, FACS
Professor of Surgery, University of Washington Medical Center and Senior Science Advisor, US Army Medical Research and Material Command
During his 23 years of military surgery Satava has been an active flight surgeon, an Army astronaut candidate, MASH surgeon for the Grenada Invasion and a hospital commander during Desert Storm, all the while continuing clinical surgical practice. While striving to practice the complete discipline of surgery, he has been continuously active in surgical education and surgical research, with more than 200 publications and book chapters in diverse areas of advanced surgical technology, including Surgery in the Space Environment, Video and 3-D imaging, Telepresence Surgery, Virtual Reality Surgical Simulation, and Objective Assessment of Surgical Competence and Training.
Bill Taylor
Co-Author of Mavericks at Work, Taylor is a provocative and inspiring voice on the future of business - an agenda-setting writer, speaker, and entrepreneur who has shaped the global conversation about the best ways to compete, innovate, and succeed. As a cofounder and founding editor of Fast Company, Taylor launched a magazine that won countless awards, and earned a passionate following among executives and entrepreneurs around the world.
Alexander Tsiaras
Founder and CEO, Anatomical Travelogue
Alexander Tsiaras, founder and CEO of Anatomical Travelogue, Inc., has more than twenty years of experience in the worlds of medicine, research, and art, and has won world recognition as a photojournalist, artist, and writer. His work has been featured on numerous television programs and in Life, Time, the New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, and JAMA, among others. He is the author of The InVision Guide to a Healthy Heart, From Conception to Birth: A Life Unfolds, and The Architecture and Design of Many and Woman: The Marvel of the Human Body, Revealed. Mr. Tsiaras lives in New York City.
John Wolpert
Innovation Consultant, TheThreePercent
Wolpert has twenty years experience managing teams of creative talent in the entertainment, media, and computer industries. He headed IBM's Extreme Blue, an incubator for talent, technology, and business innovation. In 2003, he was engaged by the Australian Industry Group to build an organization that helps innovators in different companies work together. The project became an international enterprise, with operations in the UK, the United States and Australia. Most recently, Wolpert has been working with YET Lab bringing together early-stage business investors, an elite recruiting organization, and an accelerator lab for high-intensity business innovation projects.
Richard Saul Wurman
Author
Wurman is an information architect with a singular passion for making information understandable. He founded the TED conferences, and has written 81 books, including 22 city guides and atlases. Presently, RSW is working on his latest project 19.20.21. which he created and chairs with his four partners: Larry Keeley, Jon Kamen, Michael Hawley, and Robert Friedman. “19.20.21."—is an attempt to standardize the information available on 19 cities that are expected to reach 20 million inhabitants in the 21st century, giving readers tools to easily compare and contrast them.
David R. Yaun
Vice President, Corporate Communications, IBM Corporation
Yaun directs the IBM Corporation's worldwide internal and external communications programs related to innovation and technology leadership. He is the lead executive responsible for the company's annual Global Innovation Outlook program; manages the company's ground-breaking global “InnovationJam” program; oversees The Genographic Project, a joint research program with the National Geographic Society; and serves as an executive sponsor for IBM's “ThinkPlace” idea generation program.
BIF-3 Videos
BIF-3 Collaborative Innovation Summit
Hosted by Wall Street Journalist Walt Mossberg and Mavericks at Work author Bill Taylor, BIF-3 was the best yet. The BIF-3 Collaborative Innovation Summit succeeded in its goal to let great people tell great stories. With the help of BIF member Tango Pix, the video transcripts of all the storytellers are now available at our Innovation Story Studio.
BIF-4 Twitter
BIF-4 Sponsors
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BIF-4 sponsors include Trinity Rep, RISD, Tangopix, RIEDC, CVS/Caremark, Hexagon Metrology, Brown University, basics and RITE-Solutions.
