Enter to Win a Free Ticket to The Economist's March Event

Want a chance to win a free ticket ($1,500 value) to The Economist's event - "Innovation Fresh Thinking For the Ideas Economy" at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley on March 23-24, 2010?

It's easy, here is all you need to do is fill in the blank on our LinkedIn or Facebook discussion:

1. When it comes to innovation, I wish somebody would write about ______________.


• Fill in the blank in our Continuous Innovation group on LinkedIn.
  
• Fill in the blank in our brand new Facebook page (and become a fan)

Enter by midnight GMT on March 2, 2010. Winner will be announced March 3, 2010.

If you don't want to enter the contest but would like to save $150 off event registration, see the discount code at the bottom of this article.


There will be a lot of great, top-flight speakers at this event, including:

• Clayton Christensen and Michael Porter (by Video Link)
  
• Arianna Huffington - Editor in Chief, Huffington Post
  
• Tim Brown - CEO, IDEO
  
• David Kelley - Head, Stanford Design School
  
• Judy Estrin - Author, "Closing the Innovation Gap"
  
• Scott Berkun - Author, "Myths of Innovation"
  
• Roger Martin - Dean, Rotman School of Business
  
• Paul Saffo - Visiting Scholar, Stanford Media X Network
  
• Matt Mullenweg - Founder, Wordpress
  
• John Kao - Author, "Innovation Nation"

As an added value for our loyal Blogging Innovation readers, we have negotiated a $150 discount when you register using our discount code - "BLINN" - register now.

We hope to see you there!


EDITOR'S NOTE: Winner is still responsible for all travel costs and the ticket is granted at The Economist's discretion not ours. There is only ONE (1) ticket up for grabs in this contest and it will be awarded to ONE (1) winner.


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Braden Kelley is the editor of Blogging Innovation and founder of Business Strategy Innovation, a consultancy focusing on innovation and marketing strategy. Braden is also @innovate on Twitter.

Innovation Through Design Thinking

Here is another video from Tim Brown of IDEO, this one is "Innovation Through Design Thinking" from a visit to MIT (skip ahead three minutes if you're pressed for time):





According to IDEO, Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation.

This video highlights how companies use design thinking in their businesses, from Motorola thinking about strategy to P&G thinking about moving into new markets to Microsoft thinking about the application of new technology.

I've always believed that:

Innovation = Invention + Insights

It was good to see Tim reinforce this core belief when he says "Insights are the fuel for innovation."

Some of the key things to consider when looking to use design thinking as an approach to innovation:

1. Analogous situations (example: hospital operating teams versus pit crews)


2. Insights come from the extreme users (example: working with kids on cooking tool project)


3. Getting out there to look, listen, try


4. Building to think - prototyping for thinking and learning not as an outcome of what you've done


5. Using storytelling to develop and express ideas


6. Design thinking is not just about methodology, it is just as much about culture

Finally I'd like to leave you with one thought from the video:

"Many great ideas fail not because they were not great ideas, but because they could not navigate the politics and processes of the organization."


What do you think?


Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)

Tim Brown - Powerful Link Between Creativity and Play

I came across this great video from Tim Brown of IDEO about creativity and play that I thought I would share with you:





It is interesting as you watch the video to think about what narrowing behaviors you've taken on as an adult, and to think about how you might step outside them to achieve greater creativity.

As I was watching the video, I found myself wondering why design is not part of the core curriculum for students growing up and going through elementary school and high school.

I know there are movements out there to merge b-school and d-school thinking, but it's a lot more work to get people to unlearn old behaviors and learn new ones. How much more efficient and enjoyable would our society be if we all thought like designers?

What do you think?

Braden Kelley (@innovate on Twitter)