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Open Innovators - Open innovation and crowdsourcing


The Art and Science of Open InnovationNovember 9

Guest post by Roland Harwood of NESTA.

Open innovation appears very attractive yet can be challenging to implement, especially for organisations that are traditionally used to sourcing new innovations from within. Yet it is an increasingly important business strategy due to the increased connectivity and movement of people, ideas and money.

Successful open innovation requires both careful consideration of various technical and cultural factors and is, therefore, I believe it is both a science and an art. Therefore, in this article I wanted to share some of the lessons we, at NESTA, have learned over the past few years, having worked now on open innovation projects with hundreds of organisations including numerous Multinational Corporations, (including Procter & Gamble, Oracle, Virgin Atlantic, McLaren, and Cancer Research UK), Universities, Start-ups and Social ventures.

All of our projects with corporations are based on the simple hypothesis that they would benefit from opening up and diversifying their approach to innovation as

Creativity World Forum 2008 in AntwerpOctober 21

On November 19-20 all innovators gather again for the Creativity World Forum 2008.  This year’s edition takes place in Antwerp (Belgium), in the Lotto Arena. As always the line-up of speakers and activities is impressive and makes a visit very worthwhile.

The speaker line-up includes:

  • Steve Wozniak - Co-founder Apple
  • Tom Kelley - GM of IDEO and author of ‘The Ten Faces of Innovation’
  • Dan Heath - Author ‘Made to Stick’
  • Chris Anderson, John Cleese, Martin Heylen…

For only 395€ the Creativity World Forum 2008 is an excellent opportunity to be inspired by powerful keynotes and creative co-visitors, and of course, to enjoy the delight of our Belgian food!



crowdSPRING - The Story Behind The Start-upOctober 17

Founded by Ross Kimbarovsky and Mike Samson, crowdSPRING was started to help people from around the world access creative talent, and to help creatives from across the globe find new customers. Mike Samson shares his inspiring story on how the idea was born, how the company was started and how it developed since then:

“In the summer of 2006 Ross and I sat down to lunch. We were discussing my efforts in the area of outsourcing in the video post-production industry and Ross’s ongoing research into Internet trends. Interestingly Ross had stumbled upon a group of designers in Malaysia who were holding open competitions for design work. They would post a project, members would submit entries, they would all vote and the entries with the highest score would advance to the next “round.” Just as striking as the competition model, was the quality of the work being uploaded. These were some seriously wonderful designers who were participating in this competition just for the love of the game: doing the creative work.

Around the same time we became aware of other forums, blogs, and small sites for creatives, where they were discussing, critiquing, and learning from one another’s work. Several insights were born:

  • creative artis
Brussels Innova Fair 2008October 16

Last week I was contacted by Sophie Racquez of The Idea Monopoly. She brought to my attention the Brussels Innova Fair, which will be organized on November 13-15. Brussels Innova is a professional and international exhibition on Innovation, Research and New Technologies. The event is free of charge if you register in advance on the website and will take place in Hall 2 of Brussels Expo (Belgium).

Brussels Innova brings 8000 m² of exhibition space, with 30 countries represented, 3000 professional visitors, 500 innovations presented and a prestigious innovation award ceremony. In addition there is a vast programme of conferences and debates, as well as one-to-one meetings scheduled via an online speed-dating tool.

Open Innovators driveOctober 16

As our loyal readers have noticed, Open Innovators has experienced some difficulties lately with a security breach and related problems. It is with great pleasure that I can announce that those obstacles are our of the way now. We are set to report at full force again on new developments and initiatives in the field of open innovation!

I would also like to thank everyone who send us emails to support and offer their help. Thanks!