I may have mentioned that I will be on for a session at the 2011 Front End of Innovation conference next month. So, in addition to polishing final draft of the book I’m bound and determined to get out VERY soon, I’m preparing for the presentation part of the session.
This is hard. (Maybe I’m putting too much pressure on myself.)
Attendees at the conference come from all areas of business and elsewhere, run the range from academic to practitioner, engineer to designer, entrepreneur to executive to the people who actually do the work of innovating. The opportunity is a bit intimidating. On the one hand, only at a conference like that could you have 10, 20, or 100 focused and smart people in the same room working on the same thing–to learn something. On the other, I and everyone else will be speaking to 10, 20, or 100 people who probably have as much or more experience and knowledge about the area of innovation as I do.
At best, everyone should come out learning one thing. That’s what I’m shooting for. At the very best, they should come out learning one thing and inspired to look at the world just a little differently (for a while). The the ultimate best, they should learn one thing, see the world differently, and say, “That was entertaining. It could have gone on for another hour…”
No doubt others have had this problem: how, in such a short time (15-20 minutes) can you impart knowledge of value AND be entertaining, without being Malcolm Gladwell. If anybody has the secret and is willing to share, please send me a note.
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