BIF-4 Collaborative Innovation Summit

Wednesday, October 15, 2008 - Thursday, October 16, 2008

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. The slate of storytellers included fashion mogul, Marc Ecko, 37signals founder and CEO, Jason Fried, and Zappos.com CEO, Tony Hsieh.

John Abele: Serendipity, Social Networking and Finding a Needle in a Haystack

As a leader of the Grunion expedition, Abele recently rediscovered the WWII submarine his father disappeared on in 1942.

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Gary Koelling and Steve Bendt: The Accidental Innovators

This duo shares their experience creating Best Buy’s successful Blue Shirt Nation employee engagement program.

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David Berry: Thinking Big With Microorganisms

Principal at Flagship Ventures and dishes about the status of VC funding in earliest days of financial market crash.

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Deborah Brooks: In the Catbird Seat

In an interview with Bill Taylor, Michael J. Fox Foundation co-founder Deborah Brooks talks about how the fund began and what has driven their success in years since.

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Curt Columbus: Creating Community Connections Through Theater

Trinity Rep artistic director reminds us of the important of theatre in community and democracy.

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Matt Cottam: Channeling the Power of First-Person Perspectives

Cottam shares the story of BIF’s Nursing Home of the Future lab.

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Joseph Coughlin: Meeting the Demands of an Aging Population

Director of the MIT AgeLab weaves a powerful story about the truth of aging and the social and economic opportunities our country has to make more of, and more for, our elders.

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Marc Ecko: Fashion Icon Turned Business Mogul (With Heart)

Global brand-maker shows how fame and community can unite to create a platform for educational reform.

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Jason Fried: Merchant of Simplicity

37signals founder expounds on the unexpected sources of inspiration for his company.

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Jeffrey Hollender: Authentically Green

In an interview with Bruce Nussbaum, Seventh Generation President candidly reflects on real-world sustainability and how his company overcame a major image crisis.

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Exclusive Post-Summit Workshop

Following the BIF-8 Summit, get your hands dirty with Saul Kaplan and Alex Osterwalder, in an exclusive Workshop digging into the challenges and opportunities of business model innovation. Only 100 tickets are available for this exclusive event. Register by April 30, 2012 and save $150 off the regular ticket price .

BIF-8 Storytellers

This year will bring us another amazing group of storytellers. Check back often for the latest. Here are our early additions.

Check out all of our past storytellers