BIF-5 Storytellers
Co-hosted by Bruce Nussbaum and Bill Taylor, the BIF-5 Collaborative Innovation Summit brought together today's most compelling innovators, business model renegades and true transformers to discuss innovation success through personal storytelling. Over two days we heard more than twenty five stories about creating change and directly connected with pioneers who created environments and opportunities where transformative innovation emerged.Video transcripts from this incredible event will be available soon. Please stay tuned and in touch.
BIF-5 Co-Hosts
Saul Kaplan
Chief Catalyst, Business Innovation Factory
"Spreading of ideas is critical, but the end goal is solving a problem or creating a new opportunity. The real question is, can an idea translate into action and can it scale?"
Saul Kaplan is the founder and Chief Catalyst of the Business Innovation Factory. He also is the chair of the non-profit’s Board of Directors. Kaplan started BIF in 2005 with a mission to enable collaborative innovation. The non-profit is creating a real world laboratory for innovators to explore and test new business models and system level solutions in areas of high social importance including health care, education, energy independence, public safety, and quality of life.
Bruce Nussbaum
Contributing Editor, BusinessWeek
"Design gives people the ability to be one with the consumer culture–to be anthropologists and sociologists and deeply understand the myriad of cultures around them."
Bruce Nussbaum is a professor of innovation and design at The New School and a contributing editor for BusinessWeek, responsible for coverage of design and innovation. He is founder of the Innovation & Design online channel, founder and editor of IN: Inside Innovation, a quarterly innovation supplement, and blogger on NussbaumOnDesign. He is also an essayist and commentator on economic and social issues, and leads workshops on design and innovation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Bill Taylor
Author, Mavericks at Work
"There’s nothing wrong with your organization that can’t be fixed by what’s right with it."
Co-Author of Mavericks at Work, Bill 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 co-founder 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.
BIF-5 Storytellers
Paola Antonelli
Senior Curator, Architecture & Design, Museum of Modern Art
"I would like to position design among the arts and among science and technology as an agent of change. Design doesn’t yet have the position that it deserves in people’s culture."
Paola Antonelli is one of the world's foremost design experts and was recently rated one of the top one hundred most powerful people in the world of art by Art Review. She is a Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art. Antonelli received her MA in Architecture from Milan Polytechnic in 1990, and worked at the design magazines Domus and Abitare before coming to MoMA in 1994. Antonelli is known for her eclecticism, and has curated well-received shows such as Design and the Elastic Mnd (2008), an exhibition on science, design, and innovation and Workspheres (2001), devoted to the workplace of the near future. Antonelli has taught design history and theory at UCLA and Harvard and is the author of Humble Masterpieces: Everyday Marvels of Design, and co-author of 2008 book Design and the Elastic Mind.
Bill Buxton
Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research
"Always be bad at something that you are passionate about. By this, I really mean two things: always be a beginner at something, and always be in love with what you are beginning."
Bill Buxton is a designer and a researcher concerned with human aspects of technology. He is Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and has a 30-year involvement in research, design and commentary around human aspects of technology, and digital tools for the creative endeavor, including music, film and industrial design. Prior to joining Microsoft, he was a researcher at Xerox PARC, a professor at the University of Toronto, and Chief Scientist of Alias Research and SGI Inc. – where 2003 he was co-recipient of an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement. His book, Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design, approaches design and design thinking as something distinct that needs to be better understood— by both designers and the people with whom they need to work in order to achieve success with these new types of products and systems.
Sarah Endline
Mastermind and Chief Rioter, Sweet Riot
"sweetriot was never about extracting cacao beans from developing countries to give the value to some Belgian factory. Instead it’s about delivering that value to the community in the form of economic independence."
Mastermind and Chief Rioter Sarah E. Endline has lived, traveled and worked in more than 50 countries. After years of contemplation, she founded sweetriot, a small mission-based company in NYC, which strives to build tasty little morsels in a different way for a different generation. Through Sarah's travels, she stumbled upon cacao and knew she had to share it with others. The Rioter team began testing it with their friends and learning that many did not know the true story of cacao. Sarah has been an active member of many non-profit boards including those for NFTE, Harvard, UMichigan, and AIESEC, but her true passion in life is leading the "sweetriot" that is building a sweet movement to fix the world.
Max Geiger
Simulation Expert, Host, Spike TV's Deadliest Warrior
"To be entirely honest, this is kind of blind dumb luck, how I sort of stumbled into this job. It’s probably the most, like, fun job I’ve ever had. It was getting to wake up and go to Willy Wonka’s magical murder factory."
Max Geiger is the simulations expert and host of Spike TV’s Deadliest Warrior, a job that combined his background in game development with his passion for history. A graduate of the Interactive Media Division within the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, his calling is to use the tools of game design and systems thinking to improve and illuminate the world around him. Outside of his work in television, Max remains active in the world of game development and social media as a producer and designer within an as-yet-unannounced startup (trust him, it’s very cool) and a small games studio.
Per-Kristian (Kris) Halvorsen
Chief Innovation Officer, Intuit, Inc.
"Speed is the best way to avoid being copied. Putting up walls is much less effective than moving faster than your competition."
Kris Halvorsen is chief innovation officer at Intuit, Inc. A renowned scientist and research and development leader, Halvorsen has more than 25 years in the information technology industry. His background, starting as a scientist and professor, spans positions in academics - where he spent time as a professor and research scientist - to several years leading research at Xerox PARC and HP Labs. Halvorsen, a Ph.D. from the University of Texas, also pursued post-graduate work at MIT and executive education at the Harvard Business School.
Natalie Jeremijenko
Artist, xDesign Environmental Health Clinic and Lab
"People know how to ring up and make an appointment at their health clinic. But they don’t really know what to do about toxins in the air and global warming, right?"
Natalie Jeremijenko is an artist whose background includes studies in biochemistry, physics, neuroscience and precision engineering. Jeremijenko’s projects—which explore socio-technical change—have been exhibited by several museums and galleries, including the MASSMoCA, the Whitney, Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt. A 1999 Rockefeller Fellow, she was recently named one of the 40 most influential designers by I.D. Magazine. Jeremijenko is the director of the environmental health clinic at NYU, assistant professor in Art, and affiliated with the Computer Science Dept. Jeremijenko directs the xDesign Environmental Health Clinic. The Environmental Health Clinic develops and prescribes locally optimized and often playful strategies to effect remediation of environmental systems, producing measurable and mediagenic evidence and coordinating diverse projects to effective material change.
Jonah Lehrer
Author and Editor-At-Large, Seed Magazine
"The brain is the Windows Vista of our anatomy."
Jonah Lehrer is the author of the critically acclaimed Proust was a Neuroscientist. His latest book, How We Decide, is the latest entry in the growing field of cognitive science and presents an excellent synthesis of how many leading mind scientists view decision making. He is also Editor-at-Large for Seed Magazine and a contributing editor at Radio Lab and Scientific American Mind. A graduate of Columbia University and a Rhodes scholar, Lehrer has worked in the lab of Nobel Prize–winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel and studied with Hermione Lee at Oxford University. He has co-authored a peer-reviewed paper in genetics and worked as a line cook at Melisse in Los Angeles, Le Cirque 2000 in New York, and as a prep cook at Le Bernardin. As a journalist he has profiled Brian Greene and Elizabeth Gould, spent several days in the kitchen of the Fat Duck, recorded bird songs and ruminated on Stravinsky for National Public Radio.
John Maeda
President, Rhode Island School of Design
"I think my MO has always been to find design and art even in the most inane tasks. If 'administration design' was a field to invent, or even 'administration art,' then I am up for the challenge."
John Maeda is a world-renowned artist, graphic designer, computer scientist and educator whose career reflects his philosophy of humanizing technology. For more than a decade, he has worked to integrate technology, education and the arts into a 21st-century synthesis of creativity and innovation. In September, 2008 he was inaugurated as the Rhode Island School of Design's 16th president. He was also named one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century by Esquire magazine. In 2001 he earned the National Design Award in the US; in 2002, the Mainichi Design Prize in Japan; and in 2005, the Raymond Loewy Foundation Prize in Germany. His book, The Laws of Simplicity, proposes ten laws for simplifying complex systems in business and life.
Roger Martin
Dean of the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
"In an economic climate like this, the most important thing is to maintain your sense of inner confidence and strength. It's not bravado. It's not talk. It's a quiet stability in your inner core, and it ensures that, if you have to take a shot from the economy, you can get right back up."
Roger Martin, the visionary Dean of the Rotman School of Management, is a champion of innovation, cross-disciplinary study and learning-by-doing. One of the most respected business minds in the world today -- and a man changing the face of business education -- Martin is the leading proponent of Integrative Thinking, a bold new approach to solving the business problems emerging in the global economy.
Greg Matthews
Director of Consumer Innovation, Humana
"The consumer revolution is still spreading. It's already upended a whole slew of industries . . . publishing, media, entertainment, consumer goods, retail . . . but until now it's left healthcare relatively untouched. But that's changing."
After spending a career helping to build and operate businesses, Greg Matthews is today focused on using social media to create different kinds of interactions with consumers – with the goal of supporting a social revolution in health. Greg is the Director of Consumer Innovation at Humana and has been tasked to come up with "creative ways to help people be healthy while having fun." During his tenure at Humana, he has had responsibility for the start-up HR operations for joint venture companies like Green Ribbon Health and Sensei, and in Humana’s first European subsidiary in London. Most recently he led the design and launch of CrumpleItUp.com, where he blogs regularly.
Nell Merlino
CEO & Founder, Count Me In
"Entrepreneurs are problem solvers. That is one of the things that I am. And if you’re solving a problem for $250 thousand worth of customers, why not do it for a million dollar’s worth?"
Nell Merlino is Founder, President and CEO of Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence, the leading national not-for-profit provider of resources for women to grow their micro businesses into million $ enterprises. She is author of “Stepping Out of Line: Lessons for Women Who Want It Their Way in Life, in Love, and at Work,” from Broadway Books. Throughout her career, Nell Merlino has been inspiring millions of people to take action. She is the creative force behind Take Our Daughters to Work Day, which moved more than 71 million Americans to participate in a day dedicated to giving girls the opportunity to dream bigger about their future.
Neri Oxman
Designer, Researcher, MATERIALECOLOGY
"A new idea is like tasting spruce gum for the first time: the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts."
Neri Oxman is a designer and researcher whose work establishes a new approach to design at the interface of computer science, material engineering and ecology. Her research promotes the aesthetics of material formation and behavior as a scientific contribution to ecological activism. She is the founder of an interdisciplinary design initiative, MATERIALECOLOGY and is currently pursuing her PhD at MIT as a Presidential Fellow. In June, 2009, she appeared on the cover of Fast Company magazine featured as one of the 100 most creative people in business.
John B. Rogers, Jr.
President, CEO & Co-Founder, Local Motors
"We're like Ikea. You come as a customer, and you pick the car that you want to buy. You take it for a test drive around this little track. Then you come back and you build your car with us, on the line."
John “Jay” Rogers is President, CEO and Co-Founder of Local Motors, a next-generation car company that is changing the way cars are designed, built, and owned. Born into a long line of automotive enthusiasts, Jay's grandfather owned the legendary Indian motorcycle company and was the first Cummins Engine Distributor on the East Coast. Jay left 9 years of infantry leadership in the Marine Corps to make a difference in the world through the car industry. Local Motors has the world's largest community of car designers and engineers who embrace open collaboration to develop innovative cars for under-served, passionate enthusiast communities. Local Motors cars are built in regional micro-factories, which are a groundbreaking fusion of advanced, small-volume manufacturing and unprecedented ownership experiences.
Carne Ross
Founder and Director, Independent Diplomat
"Diplomacy is too closed a box. More often than not, we took decisions with little understanding of the situation."
Carne Ross is a former senior British diplomat who served on the British delegation to the UN Security Council as the UK's "expert on Iraq, including weapons inspections and sanctions. He resigned after giving then-secret testimony to an official inquiry into the use of intelligence on Iraq's WMD. The rupture of his career over Iraq made him realize that much of his time as a foreign service diplomat gave little thought to the people he was trying to affect. He now runs the world's first non-profit diplomatic advisory group, Independent Diplomat, which works on diplomatic issues affecting marginalized countries and groups around the world. His book, Independent Diplomat: Dispatches from an Unaccountable Elite, provides a compelling account of what's wrong with contemporary diplomacy and offers a new vision of how it might be put right.
Michael Samuelson
President and CEO, The Health & Wellness Institute
"At times I felt very much like a stranger in a strange land. And, I'm certain - particularly in the early days - I was viewed that way by my colleagues inside the parent company."
Michael Samuelson is the President & CEO of The Health & Wellness Institute, a health management solutions company focused on improving quality of life at three levels—individual, community and worksite. An advocate for the integration of prevention into every consumer touch point, Samuelson travels the US to help facilitate a dialogue on the difficult challenges and potential solutions for the healthcare industry. An educator at heart and by trade, Samuelson is also one of few men to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Told he'd never regain full use of his arm following a radical mastectomy, Samuelson asked his doctor if he could climb a mountain and was told that while it was possible, the chances for success were slim. Samuelson responded by trekking across a glacier and climbing 18,000 feet to the base camp of Mt. Everest and the Kumba Ice Falls. He is also the author of Voices From the Edge: Life Lessons From the Cancer Community.
Leonard A. Schlesinger
President, Babson College
"At the end of the day, on the things that need to get done, my orientation is to get it done before it’s not interesting"
Leonard A. Schlesinger became the 12th president of Babson College on July 1, 2008. He came to Babson from Limited Brands, where he served in executive positions since 1999, most recently as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer. Earlier in his career, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Au Bon Pain. His academic career includes twenty years at Harvard Business School. President Schlesinger is well-known for his pioneering research and publications on the “service profit chain.” He is the author or co-author of nine books, including The Value Profit Chain, The Service Profit Chain and The Real Heroes of Business…and Not a CEO among Them, and has written over 40 articles for academic audiences as well as for The New York Times, Fast Company, and Harvard Business Review.
Bob Schwartz
General Manager of Global Design, GE Healthcare
"I have worked in some big companies and I’ve had highly gratifying experiences working for non-profits. What I have surmised from both is that it is not always a bad thing to make money while doing some good for the world."
Robert Schwartz is the General Manager of Global Design at GE Healthcare and is responsible for overseeing the company's Global Design function encompassing human factors, industrial design, ergonomics, and user interface and design research. Bob joined GEHC from Procter & Gamble, where he was a global design leader working to transform the design function there to a strategically relevant capability, which is now comprised of 300 global designers and design managers.
Patricia Seybold
Founder, CEO and Author , Patricia Seybold Group
"The good news is that customer-led innovation is one of the most predictably successful innovation processes. The bad news is that many managers and executives don't yet believe in it. Today, that's their loss. Ultimately, it may be their downfall."
With 30 years of experience consulting to customer-centric executives in technology-aggressive businesses across many industries, Patricia Seybold is a visionary thought leader with the unique ability to spot the impact that technology enablement and customer behavior will have on business trends very early. She is also an internationally acclaimed best-selling author. Her latest book, Outside Innovation, was published by HarperCollins in October 2006. This book describes the “new” approach to the process of business innovation, customer co-design. It offers insights into how to make it easy for customers to do business with you and how to measure and monitor what matters most to a company’s fundamental source of value: its customers.
Bill Shannon
Chief Wisdom Officer and Senior Vice President, DaVita Inc.
"Philosophically, when we say the words 'We are a community first and a company second,' that in itself is our manifestation of social responsibility."
Bill Shannon is the Chief Wisdom Officer and Senior Vice President of DaVita, Inc., an organization that provides dialysis services for those diagnosed with chronic kidney failure, a condition also known as chronic kidney disease. DaVita was recently named by Fortune magazine as #1 rated in the field of Health Care Medical Facilities for innovation, long-term investment and quality of products and services. Shannon captures wisdom and passes it along to others based on the company's mission and values, thereby enhancing the DaVita culture and personal and professional lives of its citizens. Known as "Coach," Shannon also leads a team who owns and operates DaVita University, which includes The DaVita Academy.
Don Tapscott
Author, Business Strategist and Chairman, nGenera Insight
"Billions of connected individuals can now actively participate in innovation, wealth creation and social development in ways we once only dreamed of."
Don Tapscott is one of the world’s leading authorities on business strategy, with emphasis on how information technology changes business, government and society. He is the author or co-author of 13 widely read books, including Wikinomics, which was the best selling management book in the United States in 2007 and is now translated into 22 languages. His latest book, Grown Up Digital, draws upon a 4 million dollar research study of more than 11,000 young people to deliver a dynamic look at how the current Internet generation is changing the world – and all of its institutions. He is Chairman of nGenera Insight, a global business innovation company, headquartered in Austin, Texas with offices in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
Stephen Trachtenberg
Authority on Higher Education, former President of George Washington University
"Professors tend to be risk-averse - that's why they're not pirates. They're not opposed to progress. They just don't want change."
Stephen Joel Trachtenberg is one of the most high profile and dynamic leaders in education today. Having served as a university president for over 30 years, he has greatly influenced and shaped the field of American higher education. Trachtenberg served as the 15th president of The George Washington University for nearly two decades, after arriving in 1988 from the University of Hartford, where he had been president for 11 years. He currently presides as President Emeritus and University Professor of Public Service at the University and is an adviser to Korn/Ferry International, where he is helping to find the next generation of university leadership. In his most recent book, Big Man on Campus: A University President Speaks Out on Higher Education, Trachtenberg reflects on his years of experience in transforming America's educational landscape and assesses the current state of higher education.
Helmut Traitler
Vice President of Innovation Partnerships, Nestlé
"Why should open innovation be taught in business schools? I believe that this might be the wrong place. Open innovation needs to be taught where innovators receive their education [because] only innovators work in open innovation mode."
Helmut Traitler is Vice President of Innovation Partnerships at Nestlé focused on exploring and developing the company's open innovation model. His initiatives have led to the build up of a network of more than a million researchers worldwide, including science universities, venture capital, strategic suppliers and government laboratories, that supports the 4,500 people in Nestlé Food and Beverages R&D.
Gerard Van Grinsven
President and CEO, Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital
"Even if you have the best facilities that cost millions of dollars, if you don't engage practically with patients, you won't have loyalty. You can have all the technology in the world. But what patients remember is the care they receive."
Gerard van Grinsven has more than 24 years of global experience in the luxury hospitality industry with experience in operational, corporate and general management positions. He is the former vice president and area general manager for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. Today, he's applying his luxury hospitality experience to healthcare as the President and CEO of the Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital. Van Grinsven's vision for the hospital is for the community to embrace it as a wellness center instead of a traditional hospital. The hospital will feature state-of-the-art equipment and best practices as well as exterior amenities such as a pond and landscaped courtyards. This LEED-certified and Feng Shui-designed hospital will also feature an upscale grocery market, a lifestyle center-style retail mall, and private rooms featuring 24-hour room service and live feeds of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Alan Webber
Author, journalist
"Each of us - and all of us - are in charge of generating our own rules of thumb to guide us through times of great turbulence, uncertainty, and opportunity. We need to be our own best thinkers and best doers, best teachers and best learners."
An award-winning, nationally-recognized editor, author and columnist, he co-founded (along with BIF-5 co-host Bill Taylor) Fast Company, the fastest growing, most successful business magazine in history and winner of two national magazine awards, one for excellence and one for design. He is also the co-author of three business-related books, including most recently, Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self. His columns and articles have appeared in numerous national publications, including the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The New York Times Sunday Magazine and The Washington Post.
Alice Wilder
Educational Psychologist, Television Producer, Writer, Blue’s Clues, Super Why, Think It Ink It Publishing
"The only way to understand what children are capable of doing, what appeals to them, and what they know, is to ask them!"
As a producer and director of research and development for Nick Jr.’s break-out preschool series Blue’s Clues, Alice was part of the creative team responsible for all content and creative decisions related to every aspect of the series and co-authored the curriculum on which Blue’s Clues and Blue’s Room were based. She has been nominated for Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Preschool Children’s Series as well as Outstanding Writing in a Children’s Series. Currently, Alice is Co-Creator and Head of Research and Education for Super Why! airing on PBS Kids. She is also the co-creator of Think It Ink It Publishing a new venture that is designed to promote creative writing for children from the ages of 4-12 years old.
Melissa Withers
Executive Director, BIF
"...Contributing to the world isn’t just about success or failure, it’s about finding the place where your talents make the most sense."
Melissa Withers is the Executive Director of the Business Innovation Factory. In addition to her work overseeing day-to-day operations at BIF, Melissa plays an active role in projects conducted in the BIF experience labs.
Melissa previously served as Director, Communications and Market Development for the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. In addition to overseeing the corporation's market development and communications activities, Melissa led the development of the state's innovation programming and was responsible for the launch of programs such as the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council and RI-Nexus initiative.
Richard Saul Wurman
Author, Information Architect
"I was passionate about understanding things that I didn't understand. Making the complex clear. I haven't wavered in that passion, but I've grown up with adding more and more to my repertoire as far as making it a definable field for myself and rules for how to do it."
Richard Saul 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 book tentatively titled 33: Understanding Change by Changing Our Understanding. He says it’s a dynamic, multi-layered presentation of conundrums and opportunities we face in the modern world. Architecture, design, science, health care, technology, and connectedness are themes that weave throughout.
Jocelyn Wyatt
Social Innovation Lead, IDEO
"The traditional NGO approach is to do these drive-by field visits…. But when you really spend time with the people of a village, the types of stories and information they give you is so much richer."
Jocelyn Wyatt leads IDEO’s Social Impact domain where she is focused on building social enterprises and advising businesses in the developing world, using the market to create social change. A former Acumen Fund fellow, her path toward social impact began when she was 12 and spent a weekend shoveling manure at a Heifer International farm in New Hampshire, cleaning out the pens of livestock that would be sent to Africa. At IDEO, she has brought a business perspective to a variety of social impact projects with clients including Rockefeller Foundation, Kickstart, and Gates Foundation. Jocelyn also teaches social enterprise at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
Ethan Zuckerman
Founder, Global Voices
"There’s so much information on the net that choice becomes a factor. We have an imaginary cosmopolitanism—we feel more global because it’s there. In reality, the net has helped us fool ourselves, because we have actually become more parochial."
Ethan Zuckerman is an activist, academic and engineer and xenophile whose work focuses on technology in the developing world. In 2004, he co-founded Global Voices, an award-winning international citizen media network and was named a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. Zuckerman became a fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School in January, 2003 focusing on the impact of technology on the developing world. In 2002 he was given the Technology in Service of Humanity Award by MIT's Technology Review magazine and named to the TR100, TR's list of innovators under the age of 35. Zuckerman also writes prolifically on his My Heart's in Accra blog where he muses on Africa, international development and hacking the media.
With the 2007 merger of CVS Corporation and Caremark Rx, Inc., 
Whether providing traditional media services, developing concept-to-distribution projects, or driving the genesis of novel media solutions, 
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BIF-4 took place on October 15-16, 2008 at Trinity Rep in Providence, R.I. and was co-hosted by BusinessWeek Contributing Editor, Bruce Nussbaum and 'Mavericks at Work' author, Bill Taylor. Storytellers included fashion mogul, Marc Ecko, 37signals founder and CEO, Jason Fried, and Zappos.com CEO, Tony Hsieh.
BIF-3 took place on October 10-11, 2007 at Trinity Rep in Providence, R.I. and was co-hosted by Walt Mossberg and Bill Taylor. Storytellers included Mark Cuban owner Dallas Mavericks, founder of Zipcar and GoLoco Robin Chase, author and Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen and 37signals founder and CEO Jason Fried.
BIF-2 took place on October 4-5, 2006 at Trinity Rep in Providence, R.I. and was moderated by Richard Saul Wurman and WSJ technology columnist Walt Mossberg. Storytellers included Inventor, Dean Kamen, Titanic discoverer, Bob Ballard, and Doblin co-founder and President of Innovation and strategy, Larry Keeley.
Co-hosted by Richard Saul Wurman and John Seely Brown, the BIF-1 Collaborative Innovation Summit was held at the Hotel Providence in Providence, R.I. on October 19-20, 2005. Storytellers included Monitor Networks CEO, Chris Meyer, artist and architect, Michael Singer and MIT science photographer, Felice Frankel.