How would your next presentation go if you only had twenty slides and could show each one for "only" twenty seconds (for a total of 6 minutes 40 seconds?  A format embracing these very constraints is called Pecha Kucha, and was started by two architects in Tokyo as part of a designers' show and tell.  It seems like a natural fit for an Idea Market, as a replacement for a panel presentation, or any time a lot of presenters have something to say.

I'm doing a very short speech (nine minutes) on innovation in two days, and am going to give this presentation format a try.  I'll let you know how it goes.  In the meantime, if you'd like to learn more, check out several examples on You Tube, or this recent Wired magazine article.  If you are in the St. Louis area and want to have a Pecha Kucha night, let me know.

Check out this video from the Experience Economist of a new, interactive video game shown before a movie that relies upon the audience (working in mass) to control the game.  This could be a GREAT tool to get a large conference audience engaged.

Here are the results from the Idea Market's "Connection Wall" I wrote about Monday.  Everyone drew themselves and we taped their "self-portraits" on the wall.  After every exercise, folks went to the wall and drew lines between themselves and their new connection, along with a word or two describing that person.  Look closely and you'll see some pretty interesting descriptions.  The nametags on the pictures come from this exercise.
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Another exercise I'm going to try for the first time at the Idea Market tonight is a mix of drawing, knitting and conversation.  Here's how it will work:

1. People get a blank piece of paper (or a 5x8 note card) and a box of crayons. 
   
2. In groups of 3-5 (so they can share the crayons), they have to draw themselves.  No points will be awarded for artistic excellence, but ideally they'll draw a reasonable approximation of themselves and the clothes they are wearing that night.
   
3. We will post the pictures on a wall in a large circle, using painter's tape.
4. After every exercise we do during the evening, I'll ask people to use cut pieces of yarn to "connect" their picture with the pictures of the people they've just met.*
5. At the end of the evening, we'll have a graphical depiction of the interactions that took place where people can see (and remember) the folks they've met that night.

If this works like I think it will, it could be a great exercise to do in conferences, retreats or even in the corporate world.  Imagine if everyone inside an organization drew their picture and they were posted on a huge wall.  Every time employees "met" one another in person, they could literally add the "connection" to the company wall.  Managers could even use they yarn connections to map out who people should meet on a weekly basis.

I can't wait to try it!

* I may do this with markers and a grid of large post-it notes to make it work faster.

Worth a read is this Business Week article about ways vendors are seeking to increase their trade show ROI. 

Kathy Sierra talks about an Ultra-Rapid-Design Party with some great brainstorming tips that I'm going to shamelessly steal for my Idea Markets and Innovation Retreats.  Here's how she describes it:

Forget focus groups. Forget endless meetings and brainstormingsessions. Throw an ultra-rapid-design party, and do it in a single day.This approach exploits the wisdom-of-crowds through a process ofenforced idea diversity and voting, so no consensus, committee, or evenagreement is needed. And it's way more fun.

The Product Design Dinner Party takes 9 people, a pile of diverse"inputs", and has each of the 9 people voting on--and pitching--oneanother's ideas to continuously reconfigured groups of 3 people,letting the best ideas rise to the top. The process is a littlecomplicated, but it's derived/modified from an existingrapid-prototyping design I'll talk about later in the post.

Go to the post for a step-by-step guide.  Definitely worth a try.

If you are looking for something cool to give away at your next conference (or to your clients) try to find someone who makes this (courtesy of Autoblog).  It is a feature on the new Renault Twingo, and may not be for sale, but if you can find it and give it away, you'll be the talk of the conference.  I know I want one.

Here's a great tip from the Never Eat Alone Blog:

When following a presentation by an important person at a convention there is a call for comments or questions and there is dead silence, the last thing that speaker thinks is that he or she has been profound.

It’s an awkward  silence (that I’ve experienced as a speaker). This is a great opportunity. If you are the first one to ask a question that the speaker will like answering, the audience will admire you for breaking the ice, you will preemptively serve as a deterrent to irrelevant and insulting questions and the presenter will be grateful to you and make solid eye contact with you to show it. This will give you the opportunity to then introduce yourself afterwards and follow up with a letter following the meeting.

Want to distinguish yourself even more? Contact that speaker ahead of time, tell them you’re attending the meeting, looking forward to hearing him/her speak, and would be very happy to ask the question that they would like to you to ask to help the ensuing Q & A and discussion go in a constructive direction.

Hands down, my favorite part of the Fortune Innovation Forum was the Innovator’s Studio.  The Studio was developed and staffed by Play, an innovation consultancy headquarted in Richmond, Virginia.  Intended to be an immersive innovation play-pen designed to engage the otherwise-conservative conference audience and get them to think differently, the Studio was an extremely cool place to think about innovation, talk with like-minded innovators, and (of course) play.

First, the Good:

• Play employees were awesome.  Engaging, talented, enthusiastic, and smart.  Every one of Play’s people I spoke with (almost thirty of them) shared the same fantastic qualities, but were unique in an interesting way.  Kudos to Play’s founder, Andy Stefanovich, for assembling such a great group of people.  If I were looking for a job, the first place I’d apply is Play. 
• The Studio looked amazing.  I’ll update this post with some pics by tomorrow.
• The creative concept behind the Studio was well executed.  There were huge paint-by-numbers murals, video “confessional booths” for attendees to record their thoughts, artists drawing attendee’s creativity and innovation visions, binoculars to look at things differently, etc.etc.etc.  Everything worked, and for those attendees who took the time to play in the studio, the immersive experience was first rate.
• The “Lending Library” was a fantastic idea (and one I’ll steal ASAP).  Play brought in a series of cool “experts” that Studio attendees could “check out” for conversation for 20 minutes at a time.  Very innovative concept and very well done.  Look for this at the next Idea Market and future LexThink! events.

Next, the Not-So-Good:

• The Studio was rarely full.  This is not Play’s fault, but rather a fault of the conference as a whole.  Instead of integrating the Studio with the rest of the Innovation Forum, there was very little connection between the two.  If the speakers in the auditorium were like class, the Studio was recess.  And just like I remember from third grade, there was never enough time dedicated to recess.
• The Studio dumbed-down Play’s capabilities.  Play does incredibly high-level strategy and brand consulting for a number of Fortune 500 companies.  The “play” metaphor helps them to more quickly engage their customers to get better work done.  The Studio didn’t demonstrate just how smart Play can be, but instead seemed a fun diversion from the heady innovation concepts the speakers talked about.
• Some of the creativity exercises were too complicated.  There was a huge story that attendees were supposed to read, and then, with the help of artists, draw the ending (or something like that).  The story was too long and the exercise not explained well enough.  I think it scared away some participants who would have benefited from the experience.

What I’d Change:

• Build a more seamless connection between the Studio and the rest of the Innovation Forum.  Speakers would be required to spend at least an hour in the Studio, interacting with attendees, answering questions, and even participating in the Lending Library.  Play’s talented facilitators would take turns attending the speeches in the auditorium, and then head to the Studio to continue the conversation, by using Play’s methodology to coax breakthrough ideas from attendees. 
• Dump the conference’s “networking” breaks, label them “recess” and hold them in the Studio.  Break attendees into small groups based on their interests, companies, challenges, or the color of their shoes and make them “do” something.  The networking would happen accidentally, instead of on purpose, and attendees could practice what the speakers preached. 
• Organize 10–20 person hour-long “field trips” out of the conference venue and on to the streets of New York.  Each could be focused on a different aspect of innovation, or be designed to solve a certain common challenge.
• Create an “Idea Wall” or “Idea Gallery” with tons of provocative questions and answers posted by the attendees.  I’ve done this a bit with the Idea Market and at my retreats and it works well.
• Reserve 30 tables at NYC restaurants, each staffed by a Play employee.  Attendees would sign up, and answer a few silly questions.  People with common interests would be seated together.  Amazing conversation would ensue.

Finally, I’d give Play an entire track (with speakers, workshops, etc.) at next year’s Innovation Forum to see just what an Innovation Consultancy could do with an Innovation Conference.  If Play wants some help on making it happen, they know where to find me.

 

Warning, incomplete thoughts ahead:

For me, the one insight (among many I’ll share) from the Fortune Innovation Forum came when the forum was over.  I was having lunch with Yvonne DiVita and her husband Tom Collins and we were talking about things we’d change about the Forum.  We all agreed there was plenty of great info poured into our heads, but wished there was more application of that info. 

I’ll elaborate more when the thoughts coalesce in my head, but I think a conference is most successful when it is both a “learning” opportunity and a “doing” opportunity.  There was a lot of the former, but not much of the latter.

In other words, a great conference must help attendees Collect the Dots and then Connect the Dots.