ThinkBalm: Immersive Internet insights & expertise

by Erica Driver.

Last fall I attended the most impactful conference I’d ever been to: the Business Innovation Factory’s sold-out BIF-3, which was held in Providence, Rhode Island. I talked about it for weeks ― more like months ― to anyone who would listen and wrote a couple of blog articles about it (“Reinvention Requires A Near-Death Experience” and “Serendipity: A Critical Innovation Success Factor”). What made it so special was 1) it took me outside my field (information technology) for two solid days, and 2) the TED-style format put leading innovators on stage for 15 minutes each to tell their story. Literally. None of this boring PowerPoint stuff. I heard about the design of the trauma bay of the future and watched an artist-in-residence paint during BzzAgent CEO Dave Balter’s story-telling. As serendipity would have it, I ended up relying heavily what I learned about design in a strategy session I had with a software vendor a few weeks later.

So ― while it pains me to be thinking about October when summer is just kicking off here in New England, I am eagerly looking forward to BIF-4. The event will again be held in Providence at the historic Trinity Rep theater. The storyteller lineup is almost complete, and there are a few storytellers on the list who are of particular interest to me and might be to you too:

• Dr. Richard Satava will talk about his pioneering in the use of Immersive Internet technologies like video and 3-D imaging, telepresence surgery, and virtual reality surgical simulation.
• Steve Bendt and Gary Koelling will be talking about how they founded Blue Shirt Nation for Best Buy. Blue Shirt Nation is a corporate sponsored social network that is voluntary, open source, operates outside of the corporate firewall, and is moderated by its users. Via the site, Best Buy associates help each other solve retail store operation issues.
• David R. Yaun, VP of corporate communications at IBM, will talk about IBM’s annual Global Innovation Outlook program, global “InnovationJam” program, and “ThinkPlace” idea generation program.
• Clay Shirky, a writer, consultant and teacher, will talk about the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. As an adjunct professor at New York University’s graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program his courses address the interrelated effects of the topology of social networks and technological networks, and how our networks shape culture and vice-versa.

If you are planning to attend BIF-4 on October 15-16 do let us know. We’d love to get together before or afterwards, or meet up with you at the event.

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