Where to be inspired this spring and summer…
With spring just on the horizon, it’s almost that time again. No… not wedding season… conference season!
Here at BrainStore, we keep hearing about tons of really innovative conferences in Europe and America. Some are directly about innovation, while others just create an atmosphere perfect for innovation.
So, since it’s often hard to find out about all the cool conferences out there, we thought we’d share some of our upcoming favorites with you. Perhaps you’ll even meet us at some of them!
Upcoming conferences we like (March through July):
SxSW Interactive (12-16 March in Austin, Texas) South by SouthWest Interactive is the place to be if you’re interested in emergecing technology, especially if it’s online. The conference is five days of presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of networking events hosted by industry leaders and a huge showcase of the best new websites, video games and startup ideas. It’s also chockfull of great music, fun events and networking – not to be missed!
Innovation: Fresh thinking for the ideas economy (23-24 March in Berkeley, USA) This inaugural conference, put on by the Economist Magazine, will examine the latest thinking on what makes innovation possible, how innovation is changing, and why innovation matters today more than ever. The goal of this event is to expand or overturn established thinking about what innovation is, where it comes from, and how to make it work.
99% Conference (15-16 April 15-16 in New York City, USA) This conference is unfortunately already sold out, but it’s still so cool that we’re going to tell you about it anyways. Most innovation conferences are all about how to have new ideas – the 99% Conference is all about idea execution – providing road-tested insights on how to make ideas happen. They don’t want to give attendees new ideas, they want to empower attendees to make good on the ones they’ve got. If that sounds interesting to you, sign-up for their newsletter so you can find out about the 2011 conference right away!
Front End of Innovation (3-5 May, Boston, USA) The European version of this conference was last week, but if you weren’t able to make it to Amsterdam, you can still sign-up for the Boston event. The Front End of Innovation Conference features fantastic presentations by visionaries who are passionate about innovation and have delivered real results. The conference has four distinct tracks, from open innovation to green innovation, and most of the presentations are done by companies who talk about how they have applied the innovation concepts to the real world.
LIFT Conference (5-7 May in Geneva, Switzerland) The Lift Conference brings together a community of doers and thinkers to explore the social consequences of new technologies. The conference is a chance to turn changes into opportunities by anticipating the major shifts ahead, and meeting the people who drive them. The three day conference will combine speeches selected by Lift curators with speeches proposed and selected by the online Lift community, as well as artistic and social events.
The PINC Conference (11 May in Zeist, Netherlands) is a conference that combines new ideas, great stories and impressive presentations with speakers from all over the world and from every industry. PINC stands for “People, Ideas, Nature, Creativity” and the conference’s goal is to touch on each one of those subjects while exposing attendees not only to great speakers, but also to an environment filled with creativity.
World Innovation Forum (8-9 June in New York City, USA) A 2-day conference right in the heart of NYC where the world’s greatest thought leaders in the field of innovation come together to provide actionable insights to revolutionize all aspects of business. The conference covers everything from future trends, to innovation in fields such as marketing, health care and green technology and is attended by many of the most innovative companies in the US.
InnoTown (9-10 June 2010 in Ålesund, Norway ) InnoTown is a conference that seeks to open people up to innovation. The conference emphasizes innovation, vision, inspiration, strategy, creativity, promotion and internationalisation. It brings together people from different countries, trades, environments and professions, and challenges all of them to find new ideas, to think new thoughts and to dare to fail (in order to succeed in the end!)
TED Global (12-16 July 2010 in Oxford, UK) TED is a legendary invitation-only conference that started in the US and has become so popular that additional TED events are held biannually in different locations around the world. The US-based TED ended last week (so get your tickets now if you want to go next year!) but the European conference will happen in July. Just like the original version, TED Global will feature four days of short, fast-paced talks on everything from ecological debt to whether music can teach math.
Of course, those aren’t all the cool conferences happening in 2010, but it will give you a taste of what’s happening in the next couple months. Please let us know if we’ve missed any that you recommend, or what ones we should be aware of later in the year. We’ll do another post later on with what’s happening during the summer and fall.
