BusinessWeek Editor Bruce Nussbaum and Mavericks at Work Author Bill Taylor to Co-Host BIF-4 Summit

Duo to take stage at the Business Innovation Factory's fourth annual Collaborative Innovation Summit on October 15-16

BIF announced today that BusinessWeek Assistant Managing Editor Bruce Nussbaum and "Mavericks at Work" author Bill Taylor will co-host the BIF-4 Collaborative Innovation Summit on October 15-16, 2008 in Providence, Rhode Island.

Now in its fourth year, the BIF Collaborative Innovation Summit has earned a national reputation for its unique storytelling approach to an event that has been described as more conversation than conference. BIF-4 will bring together many of today's most compelling innovators, business model renegades and true transformers to reveal the secrets of innovation success through personal storytelling.

"I'm looking forward to co-hosting BIF-4," says Nussbaum. "The Collaborative Innovation Summit brings together a diverse line up of original thinkers to share stories in an intimate way – stories that are personal but have deep business value, too. BIF-4 will surely be memorable for all who attend — storytellers and participants alike."

Two important things distinguish the BIF Summit from other events. First, BIF doesn't pay storytellers or hosts to participate. Second, storytellers only get 15 minutes on stage and must commit to sharing a personal story about their first-hand experience creating innovation and driving change. This means no canned presentations and no company infomercials.

"The BIF Collaborative Innovation Summit is my favorite event of the year," says Taylor, who also served as co-host at last year's BIF-3 Summit. "By replacing canned presentations with something personal, the summit successfully weaves together multiple voices from very different disciplines in a very provocative way. It's a pleasure to be part of this unique experience again."

BIF-4 has big shoes to fill. BIF-3, co-hosted by Taylor and The Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg, featured storytellers such as Dallas Mavericks owner and technology entrepreneur Mark Cuban, Zipcar founder Robin Chase, MIT Age Lab director Joseph Coughlin, 37signals founder Jason Fried, Harvard Business School's Clay Christensen, former IBM Vice President for Technical Strategy and Innovation Irving Wladawsky-Berger, and information architect and author Richard Saul Wurman, among others. This year's line up promises to be even more exciting.

Video transcripts from past summits can be found in the BIF Innovation Story Studio at www.businessinnovationfactory.com/innovationstorystudio.

The sold out BIF-3 Summit hosted participants from 174 organizations. More than 65 percent of the attendees were CEOs, presidents, founders or senior leaders within their organizations.

"The BIF summit storytellers are all pioneers who created environments where transformative innovation emerged," says BIF Chief Catalyst Saul Kaplan. "They don't just talk about the importance of innovation, they talk about how to get the job done. That's our storyteller litmus test and it's the reason so many participants return year after year."

The Business Innovation Factory will roll-out the BIF-4 storyteller line up in the coming weeks. Participants are limited to 350 for this intimate and full-access, two-day event. For more information or to register, visit www.businessinnovationfactory.com/bif-4.

More about BIF-4 Co-host Bruce Nussbaum

Bruce Nussbaum is an Assistant Managing 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.

In addition to his numerous cover stories for the magazine, Mr. Nussbaum is the author of two books: "The World after Oil: The Shifting Axis of Power and Wealth" and "Good Intentions," an inside look at medical research on AIDS. His essays have appeared in "The Best Business Stories of the Year – 2002" and "The Best American Political Writing –2004." In 2005, he was given the John F. Nolan Award by the Design Management Institute. Mr. Nussbaum has been recognized by I.D. magazine as one of the 40 most influential people in design.

More about BIF-4 Co-host 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 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.

Posted February 6, 2008 02:02 PM by Melissa Withers | Permalink