What If? Innovation Symposium 2010

Back in May, I had the pleasure of attending this symposium with an impressive speaker lineup. I was fortunate enough to speak with some of the presenters (including Jeni Britton and my former philosophy professor, Larry Sanger). In all, the event was quite a success for The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business.

Below is an excerpt of my summary for the symposium.

Master of Ceremonies
Mike Bills, Executive in Residence, Fisher College of Business

Speakers
Christine A. Poon, Dean, Fisher College of Business
Martin Keen, Founder, Keen Footware
Bruce Lavash, Research Fellow, Vic Mills Society, Procter & Gamble
Sherri Geldin, Director, Wexner Center for the Arts
Peter Thum, Social Entrepreneur, Founder, Ethos Water
Larry Sanger, Co-founder, Wikipedia
Kelly Mooney, President, Chief Experience Officer, Resource Interactive
Jeni Britton, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams

Overview
What If? was the 1st annual innovation summit at Fisher College of Business and was organized by Innovation Fisher (IF), a student-led organization. The summit was created to bring together innovative leaders across diverse disciplines in order to spark thought and dialogue about innovation.

Overall Themes
1. Continually question
2. Diversity of thought
3. Freedom to create
4. Protection to fail
5. Continuous learning process
6. Be aware: unmet needs, environments, societal trends

I was particularly moved by Kelly Mooney's presentation. She touched on building a culture of questioning, embracing simplicity, and empowering clients. In particular, the piece about empowering clients to the point that they no longer need your current services while innovating to meet the clients future needs was mind-bending and genius.