Five Questions with BIF Director Melissa Withers

In the October 21 issue of the Providence Business News, BIF Executive Director Melissa Withers talks with the paper about the successful BIF-5 Summit and what's next for the Student Experience Lab.

Five Questions With: Melissa Withers
By Ted Nesi

Melissa Withers is executive director of the Business Innovation Factory, the Providence nonprofit, which recently held its fifth annual Collaborative Innovation Summit, BIF-5, at Trinity Repertory Company earlier this month.

PBN: How did BIF-5 go?

WITHERS: It went very well. We have sold out three years in a row, but this year it was especially exciting to have so many amazing people from across the country in one place for two days. The audience represented more than 170 organizations and attracted participants from as far away as Switzerland, Canada, Australia and the U.K.

The storytellers were also fantastic, with stories that seemed to touch on every aspect of innovation across both the public and private sectors. The convergence of this caliber of talent on our home turf was exactly what we wished for when we held our first event five years ago. It’s been two weeks and people are still making connections and actively discussing the opportunities that emerged at the gathering. Good stuff!

PBN: I know you won’t want to pick favorites, but could you offer a few highlights of what some of the speakers shared in their stories?

WITHERS: I was especially moved by Jay Rogers of Local Motors and Carne Ross of Independent Diplomat. Both of these men are tough, focused and disciplined in their business. I mean seriously tough – Jay is a Marine who served in Iraq and Carne has worked as a diplomat in places like Kosovo and Afghanistan.

Yet in their stories, you saw a deep and authentic vulnerability that was inseparable from their strength. In both cases, they showed that innovation requires an openness to the world that most of us are afraid of, whether we realize it or not. It was as though a flashbulb went off in my head, and now I can see things – about my business and about myself – that I couldn’t see before. Those are the moments that define the BIF Summit experience, and in part, explain why people travel hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of miles to be there.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW

Stay Tuned: Videos from the BIF-5 Summit will be available soon!