Fresh Takes on Innovation

Recently, we ran across a very interesting column in the NY Times about 3M’s new “World of Innovation” showcase at their customer innovation center in St Paul, Minnesota.

Although 3M is the inventor of thousands of products (the Post-it, most famously), the “World of Innovation” showcase isn’t a museum dedicated to glorifying their most successful inventions.

Instead it’s a room filled with 40 of what 3M calls “technology platforms” – which are technologies that 3M has developed in areas like optical films, reflective materials, abrasives and adhesives.  And none of those technologies are shown as the finished products that they’re currently used in.

The goal of this Innovation Center is to inspire visitors to look at 3M’s range of inventions as potential solutions to their business challenges – whatever those challenges are!   And it works.  Customers discover new uses for the same technologies in vastly different fields.

Here at BrainStore, we love this concept and use a variation on it ourselves!

At 3M, engineers develop the technologies that are displayed in the “World of Innovation” showcase and then customers who have challenges (e.g. need to find a better adhesive for repairing ducts) arrive at the Innovation Center to search for technologies that will meet their needs.

At BrainStore, we don’t have a range of our own inventions that we display.  Instead, our clients come to us because they need new ideas about how to get more out of a current product, whether that’s cheese or chemicals.  Our challenge is to get the people who are who are involved with the product every day to see new possibilities and come up with new uses themselves.

And this also works!   Amazing, isn’t it?

Time Magazine just came out with a list of the 50 best inventions of 2009.  We took a look and selected 5 of our favorites.

Those might not be the 5 best inventions on the list from a commerical or social value, but they’re the ones that got our vote.

	The Foldable Speaker We like this speaker because it’s perfect for travel.  It starts off as a cube, but all you have to do to fit it conveniently in your laptop bag is to unfold it into a slim piece of paper.  Plus, part of the profits from sales of this speaker go to charity!
	The Solar Shingle Solar power is great, but it’s not very practical for most people.  It costs a lot to install giant solar panels, which don’t have a nice appearance. The Solar Shingles takes the solar panel and turns it into small shingles that can be installed on the roof right next to the normal shingles.  To make them even better, the solar shingles will cost 10% to 15% less than normal solar panels and are easier to install.
	The YikeBike We love our Brompton fold-able bikes at BrainStore and this is a new twist on an old favorite.  Imagine: an electric folding bike that charges in a little over 20 minutes and can reach speeds of up to 20 km/h (12 mph).  Yup, we think that sounds great too.
	Vertical Farming Vertical farming makes it possible to get more out of smaller parcels of land – which could be a huge benefit as the population increases and people want more locally-grown food (especially in urban areas).  It’s also cool that the vertical farming uses far less water than conventional farming while still making sure that plants get all the nutrients and sun that they need.
	The Human-Powered Vending Machine This invention doesn’t change the world, but it makes us happy.  The concept is simple: to get something from the vending machine, potential customers will have to pedal a certain distance.  We like the image of people pedaling madly away to get their afternoon treat, but we also like how an old technology gets a different spin.

Take a look at Time’s list and let us know which ones you like best!

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.

In Long Beach, California (home to one of our Brains) the TED Conference is currently in progress.

For those of you who haven’t heard of it before, TED is a conference that brings together an enormous group of brilliant thinkers who are all challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes or less.

We love their motto: “Ideas worth spreading.”  And we love watching the fascinating talks that are posted after every event.

We can’t wait until the 2010 talks arrive online, but while we’re waiting, we thought we’d share one of our favorite talks from last year:

In this short (under 7 minute) talk, Tom Wujec covers a topic near-and-dear to our heart: the brain!  He talks about how our minds processes information and develop meaning.  He also explains how to use the brain’s capabilities to create a common mental image among members of a group so that the entire group can move forward.

Fascinating stuff!  We can’t wait to see what they’re talking about at TED this year!

Look at this amazing invention by designer Andrew Bosley: The Brainstormer. Turn one of the three wheels or just press “random” to get a new and absolutely crazy suggestion for… well… I don’t know, but the design is awsome!

What about using this as a real tool for coming up with combined solutions, for instance for products or services? Or even just as a tool for decision making, for instance on how to spend your free time.

When developing scenarios for the future, many people struggle because they are trying to get inspired by thinking hard about the future, and feel overwhelmed when they do not find something “awe-inspiring” to say.

What about letting them invent “Headlines of the Future” for the industry or topic you are working on? It puts them in the shoes of a different group (journalists) and generally produces great insights that people can relate to better because they are more familiar to them.

This fun commercial sent to us from Japan shows people at the moment of inspiration in their everyday lives.

The commercial shows people being inspired in bed, in the park, in the WC, in-transit, at the beach and even in board meetings.

What’s really remarkable about this commercial though is how similar it is to the grumpy thinker who stars in the first part of the presentations we give about BrainStore!

Check out some of our images for where people get ideas:

And, we both have the same conclusions: that it’s much better to be proactive and actively try to get ideas than to just wait for creative inspiration.

Of course, our solutions are a little different!  In the commercial, the solution to lacking inspiration is a stick of gum.  Here at BrainStore, our solution is the Idea Machine – which seems like a much more reliable method of ensuring results!

Matthew Inman aka “the Oatmeal” says his site “The Oatmeal” is about comics, stories and quizzes, but in fact it is so much more. It is a site that explains facts, products and things. It even explains, for example, which 10 words we need to stop misspelling.

As we have been dealing with coffee a lot lately at BrainStore, we particularly enjoyed the Oatmeals “15(ish) Things Worth Knowing About Coffee” which explains where coffee comes from, how it came to be our favourite morning drink and how it is served in different countries. What makes Matthews work so interesting are his great texts and great artwork.

You can follow the Oatmeal on Facebook or Twitter and get great and colorful explanations about lots of things regularly. Check it out!

I visited www.eternit.ch today. Eternit is the market leader in the roofing and façades sector in Switzerland. The company also acts as an important partner for fireproof and aesthetic interior fittings and design products.

Mr Daniel Hauri, who is responsible for the sales of garden and design products kindly showed me the production and explained the process of fibre cement, which is fascinating.

In the factory in Payerne (in the French speaking part of Switzerland) the company produces roof tiles and wall claddings in different forms and colors, but also gardening pots and design objects like the Guhl Chair (by Willi Guhl, Swiss Designer 1915 – 2004).

What impressed me is the way the company has expanded it’s product portfolio from typical building elements to design objects.

But what truly convinced me today about eternit was a very simple and meaningful marketing idea that was presented to me by Daniel Hauri.

“Because the design products section grew significantly over the last years, we had to hire new workers for our manufacturing process here in Payerne. As the demand rose, the quality (the gardening pots and design objects are produced largely by hand) was getting a bit below standard. We searched some ideas on what we could do and found a very simple solution: A sticker with the personal signature of the person who made the object can now be found in every finished object. It was great marketing in the shops because people realised that the object was actually produced by a person, but it also helped us raise the quality standards, because suddenly the workers went to the shops as well and searched for the pots and objects they had made”.

What I really liked about this idea is the fact that one idea worked perfectly to solve to issues at the same time: Quality and Image.

Thank you, eternit and Daniel Hauri, for sharing this idea with me.

At Brainstore, we have a special liking for ideas that incite controversy.  Whenever we see an idea that half the groups hates, we know it’s a good one.  Even if that idea isn’t adapted, by simply including it in the discussion, we can often open up the group’s thinking to totally new horizons.

A recent article from the New York Times is one of those ideas.  In it, the author proposes that if we want humans to travel to Mars in the near future, we should send them on a one-way trip!

While it sounds like an awful idea at first, the article points out that there are benefits to sending astronauts only one-way.  It would be significantly cheaper and would move up human-travel to Mars by decades (at least).   It could even be staffed by  aging scientists who dreamed of going to space their entire lives, thought their chances were over and who would be thrilled to “boldly go where no one has gone before”.  It would let astronauts build-up a sustainable colony on Mars where other humans could eventually live – and the technology to make the return journey could be built there for future two-way travel.

See how considering a “ludicrous” idea can actually lead to new paths of thinking?  The first idea might never pan out… but by simply considering it, we end up looking at the challenge from a new angle.