INNO 2020 Recap 

Posted on May 7, 2020 - Events, INNO

ramon and sloan on crowdcast

INNO 2020 was awesome. Even with moving the event entirely online, there were dozens of small technical issues, but no major disruptions in content. The enthusiasm and turn out reconfirmed the team’s decision to make the event virtual and free in the wake of COVID. While, of course, we wish we could have all been together in New Orleans enjoying cocktails and gorgeous weather, we hope you enjoyed your virtual INNO experience. 

We welcomed industry leaders to the virtual stage to speak about why cross-industry matters in innovation, how innovation succeeds, how to overcome objections to innovation, and so much more. Everyone enjoyed the fun banter and insightful questions asked by attendees in the Crowdcast chat boxes.

Thank you to the hundreds of people from all over the globe who attended. We had strong support from the New Orleans community. Special shout out to the cities that showed the largest support: San Francisco, Chicago, Rochester, NYC, and Las Vegas. As well as those that showed up from Belgium, Slovakia, and the UK.

Whether you missed it or were able to tune in live, there were tons of inspiring and special INNO moments. Let’s dive into the highlights from the two-days of programming, or click a talk title below to jump down. 

Day 1

Cross-Industry Innovation – Lessons from Other Sectors
Go Cross-Industry by Blending Business Models
From Best Practices to Next Generation Practices
Overcoming Objections to Innovation: The Proven Three-Step Process
Why is Your Innovation Process Failing?
Avoid Extinction
Workshop: Creating a Culture of Continuous Innovation through The Momentum Framework
Workshop: Re-Mapping Stakeholders

Day 2

Good Artists Copy. Great Artists Steal.
Pushing the Boundaries to Solve Complex Problems
The State of Digital Economy & New Orleans Innovation Ecosystem
Leverage Your Knowledge Network
What Would You Do If … ?
Don’t Forget About Your People
What are the Right Questions?
Building Your Startup in an Opportunity Zone
Workshop: Avoid the Solution Trap: Design Thinking in Action
Workshop: Let Me Tell You A Story: Driving Change With Storytelling

Day 1: Tuesday, April 28

Cross-Industry Innovation – Lessons from Other Sectors  

Tuesday kicked off with a thrilling talk by Ramon Vullings, Speaker, Cross-Industry Expert & IdeaDJ, about his experience and expertise on cross-industry innovation. Ramon has authored several books on innovation, including ‘not invented here: cross-industry innovation’. He talked to us about ways to form a “remix strategy” to facilitate innovation, plus gave cool examples like the Be My Eyes app. And no, sadly he’s not a real DJ. 

Resources: 

 

Quotes: 

“It’s really interesting to see businesses pivoting their business models.”
“You can innovate on multiple levels.”
“We can learn so much from nature.” #biomimicry
“Apply learnings from Nature’s ecosystem to business.”
“Don’t copy the what, copy the how.”

“Jazz is such a great metaphor for cross-industry innovation with the X factor.” — attendee, Namrata Mundhra

3 building blocks that help shape your “remix strategy”:
1. go find your best ideas…outside!
2. create cool combinations: from + to X
3. don’t copy-paste, yet copy-adapt-paste

Go Cross-Industry by Blending Business Models 

The next talk of the day was a panel with Paul Breslow, Innovation Director at the EDF Group (Électricité de France) Innovation Lab, Sean Flaherty, EVP of Innovation at ITX Corp, and Mark Fancourt, Co-Founder at Travhotech. 

They discussed how to face change as a business and leader by learning blending cross-industry models. Sean presented a decision matrix to be considered as companies approach change.

Resources: 

 

Quotes: 

“Leaders must focus on the core set of people you can turn into advocates for your business.”
“What are the assets we have and how can we redeploy them to help us succeed during this time.”
“We have a choice to make during a black swan event or when we want to grow. The choice is either to diversify ourselves by going out and taking these problems we solve really well, and figure out how do we solve these problems for more people. Or we have to take the people we solve problems really well for and expand into new markets and new problem sets. This model is at the core of strategic decisions we have to make as leaders every day.” 

 

From Best Practices to Next Generation Practices 

This Fireside Chat with Josh Thompson, Co-Founder and CEO at Civics Unplugged + Onward Labs, and Gregarious Narain, Serial Entrepreneur and Startup Strategist at Before Alpha, discussed the motivations behind Gen Z and how they can influence today’s business practices. 

Resources: 

 

Quotes: 

“There is a tectonic shift in the world, and the kids, through CU are leading the way.”
“Ask young people what they want, how they live, what are their experiences? Meet them where they are.” — Josh Thompson
“New gilded age of practicalism.” — Gregarious Narain
“Pick fights you’re willing to lose.” — Josh Thompson
“I want to lose my cynicism that activism is a force for good.” — Gregarious Narain
“Look out for Civics Unplugged Civics 2030 supported by Revelry.” — Josh Thompson

 

Overcoming Objections to Innovation: The Proven Three-Step Process 

This was a fabulous midday keynote by Stephanie Koch, Founder of Flourish Advisory. Stephanie walked us through real-life examples of companies struggling to innovate. Then she broke down her process into clear, actionable steps that anyone can follow to start innovating at their jobs right now. 

 

Quotes: 
“Many businesses and leaders are afraid that change will break something that already works. Employees are afraid to go out on a limb and get shot down. 
But fear of the unknown is not a good enough reason to stop innovating.”

3 steps to overcoming objections to innovation:
1. Is permission needed? If not, take actions in your control
2. Find stakeholder support, specifically start with HR. Who will benefit from the changes?
3. Show the data to prove the benefits of your proposed changes

 

Why is Your Innovation Process Failing?

Jerome Gentes, Principal Content Designer, Financial Data Platform at Intuit, and Drew Mouton, Chief Innovation Officer at LSU Health Shreveport, sat down to talk about what holds organizations back from innovating and why they fail or succeed. Hint: it all starts with having a process. 

Quotes: 

“Being creative is at the heart of being a good innovation manager. There’s a freedom of discovery and development needed to have expansive problem-solving.” — “Translator in Chief” Drew Mouton
“How do you measure if something is innovative?”
“Traditional: adoption, conversion rates, etc.” — Jerome Gentes
“I don’t know what comedy is but I know it when I see it. I would argue the same thing about innovation.”
“The root is solving a problem.”

Resources/Books: 

 

Avoid Extinction 

At this very lively Fireside Chat with Jennifer He, Director of Product Innovation, North America at Visa, and Tyler King, Design Lead at IBM Z Resiliency, discussed the practical application of design thinking at large companies like theirs. 

Resources: 

 

Quotes: 

“It doesn’t need to be user-facing to use design thinking.” — Jennifer He
Redefining design thinking in business: “Even if you don’t have a UI, you can still apply design thinking to literally everything you’re doing.” — Tyler King

 

Workshop: Creating a Culture of Continuous Innovation through The Momentum Framework 

Sean Flaherty of ITX Corp returned to lead us through a very interesting workshop that covered topics like workplace psychology, brand advocacy, sales, marketing, data analysis, and leadership all while using graphs and charts he drew on the fly.  

Resources/Books: 

 

Quotes: 

“All models are wrong. Some models are useful.”

“The most dangerous phrase in the language is, ‘We’ve always done it this way.'”
“You don’t manage people, you manage things. You lead people.”
— Grace Murray Hopper, Computer Programming Pioneer

“Innovation is any tactic you deploy that causes a measurable increase in trust, loyalty, and advocacy.”
“Earn trust and loyalty, then you can ask for brand advocacy.”
“Can’t earn trust without time.” 

 

Workshop: Re-Mapping Stakeholders 

INNO19 alumnus Ruth Yomtoubian, Corporate Innovation, and Strategy at Before Alpha, and Gregarious Narain, Serial Entrepreneur and Startup Strategist also at Before Alpha, hosted an enlightening workshop on stakeholder mapping, engagement and partnership models. 

Quotes: 

What is innovation?
“The ability to anticipate disruptive forces and transform through successful, incremental changes.”

Re-mapping stakeholders takeaways:
1. Who are your non-obvious stakeholders?
2. Consider how your native skillsets could be reapplied to other spaces.
3. Don’t be afraid to pivot and remap your stakeholders!

Considering the needs of your stakeholders worksheet:

✔️What are the functional drivers
✔️What are the emotional drivers
✔️How will your product deliver?

 

Tuesday Happy Hour 

This evening’s happy hour kicked off with a cocktail demonstration by Shannon Kelly of Revelry. She walked everyone through how to make a Bywater Crutch, the signature drink of Elizabeth’s Restaurant in New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood, where she worked in college. 

Next up, DJ Doug Funnie jumped on to spin his first-ever Zoom party. Since it should have been Jazz Fest, he chose local New Orleans music, like Lost Bayou Ramblers and Chocolate Milk. 

 

 

Day 2: Wednesday, April 29

Good Artists Copy. Great Artists Steal.

Gerard Ramos, CEO & Co-Founder at Revelry, and George Aye, Co-Founder & Director of Innovation at Greater Good Studio, kicked off day 2 with a Fireside Chat about the concept of stealing others’ work and what this has to do with creating new ideas and innovation. 

Quotes: 

“Now is the time to pause and reflect on what’s important because those are the things that will carry forward after this pandemic.” — George Aye
“We keep coming back to ‘build the things that matter’ at Revelry.” — Gerard Ramos

 

Pushing the Boundaries to Solve Complex Problems

Panel with Jonathan Bennun, Venture Partner at NextGen Venture Partners, Diego Ortiz Vega, Commercial Innovation at ExxonMobil, and Mark Cousin, CEO at Acubed discussed the importance of timing on innovation. Also where the hashtag #INNOConfession started. 

Resources:

 

Quotes: 

“An excellent solution at the wrong time is of little value, but a good-enough solution at the right time is of huge value.” — Mark Cousin
“When you’re stepping out of the box, it’s hard to put any time constraint on it.” — Jonathan Bennun
“While it’s important to get buy-in from the top down, it’s very important to get buy-in from the bottom up.” — Diego Ortiz Vega
“We’re being forced to look at short-term innovations we need to get people confident about flying again.” — Mark Cousin

 

The State of Digital Economy & New Orleans Innovation Ecosystem 

Another INNO219 speaker, Michael Hecht, President and CEO of GNO, Inc., jumped on to talk to us about his background dealing with disasters, New Orleans’ response to Covid-19, and the digital economy. 

Resources: 

 

Quotes: 

“The way to new prosperity is going to be driven by entrepreneurs—people with intelligence, drive, and motivation to create change.”
“NOLA, with its history of change and pivoting, will be a leader in post-COVID innovation. This ain’t our first rodeo.”
“New Orleans is the most human city in America.” 

 

Leverage Your Knowledge Network

Lisa Song Sutton, Serial Entrepreneur + Miss Nevada US 2014, and Kevin Lin, Co-Founder at Twitch + Gold House, held a fascinating conversation on how to grow and leverage your network. 

Resources: 

 

Quotes: 

“If there’s someone you want to emulate professionally but you feel a huge disparity, provide value for them and follow up. Then build a real relationship.” — Lisa Song Sutton
“Bring a friend along when you network—if you’re an introvert like me. There are so many people I wish I kept up with better. Maybe there’s room in the world for a personal CRM.” — Kevin Lin 

 

What Would You Do If … ?

What can you learn from applying other companies’ models and systems? This Fireside Chat featured Braden Kelley, Director, Innovation and Human-Centered Problem Solving at Oracle, and Logan Jones, Vice President of Boeing HorizonX. These gentlemen discussed diversity in innovation, allowing for autonomy and collaboration, and getting to the heart of the problem. 

Resources: 

 

Quotes: 

“Successful organizations are the ones that let people be mavericks and have a startup within the org to prove itself.”
“Very few organizations succeed at that since very few leaders allow for that autonomy. Netflix is one example.” — Braden Kelley
“All innovation causes pushback, and it’s that collaboration and dialogue that goes into the culture of the team.”
“In big companies, small things don’t start well. We think about the people and process to carry ideas forward.” — Logan Jones
“your ability to innovate is driven in part by the DIVERSITY of relationships you have…”
“to drive change and innovation “don’t underestimate the value of storytelling”
“Get to the heart of the problem, not the industry.” — Braden Kelley

 

Don’t Forget About Your People 

This panel featured Gautham Pallapa, Global CTO, Business Transformation at VMware, Shaaron Alvares, Senior Agile Transformation Coach at T-Mobile, and Mark Cruth, Enterprise Solutions Architect at Atlassian. The crew discussed ways to lead by example, how to lead teams successfully, and when to take a failure bow. 

Resources: 

 

Quotes: 

“As a leader, one needs to be brave enough to fail in public and admit it.
Sometimes you have to take a failure bow.”
“Learn fast, often, and cheap.”
“Failure, and analyzing/learning from failure, is like having your own micro research firm.”
“Give your team an outcome-based perspective, not an order or task. Set goals to keep people accountable.”
“People need to know they are directly responsible for the outcome.” 

 

What are the Right Questions? 

Gina Radke, CEO of Galley Support Innovations, and Ruth Yomtoubian sat down to talk about the importance of asking the right questions as a leader in innovation. 

Resources: 

 

Quotes: 

“Wisdom is gained and #innovation is birthed by listening to customers’ needs and wants.”
“Asking questions shows humility. Pride stops us from succeeding in innovation.” 

Building Your Startup in an Opportunity Zone 

This mega panel was with Scott Shalett, Managing Partner and Head of Public Affairs at Medora Ventures, Anne Driscoll, Founder and CEO at Launchpad, and Ann Rogan, City of Stockton, CA Mayor’s Office. The crew had a passionate discussion about micro-investments, grassroots growth, finding investors interested in high-risk communities. 

Resources: 

 

Quotes: 

“Time, energy, and investment into artists and entrepreneurs will be absolutely critical to reviving communities in a post-COVID context.”
“A coalition of investors and “consultants” who are looking to invest into a community — particularly in the micro-investments”
“Find more investors who have an “Impact lens” — Anne Driscoll
“All-cash investments should be considered for OZ investment benefit, not just those needing to reinvest capital gains.” — Ann Rogan laying out the big vision
“OZ investors aren’t as interested in high-risk communities.”  — Anne Driscoll

 

Workshop: Avoid the Solution Trap: Design Thinking in Action

Josh Frank, Director of Product at Revelry, lead a fun and engaging workshop about Design Thinking. He led all participants in two real Design Thinking exercises, using the moderator, Jeremy of Revelry’s upcoming trip with his son as an example. 

Resources: 

 

Quotes:
“Design Thinking is a set of principles, not practices, that keep the end-user in mind.
If you ignore the chance for ideation, you’ll skip over all kinds of opportunities.”
“Can’t write a prescription without a diagnosis.” 

 

Workshop: Let Me Tell You A Story: Driving Change With Storytelling 

Mark Cruth led a workshop about the power of storytelling in selling your innovation idea to leadership or stakeholders.

Resources: 

 

Quotes: 

“We are ALL already storytelling creatures. We just need to sharpen our skills.”
“We inject emotion into our stories to have an impact that facts alone do not carry. Making us 22x more likely to remember the story.”

 

Wednesday Happy Hour 

Happy hour started off with great conversations about the restaurant business in New Orleans post-COVID, the future of supply chains, and what everyone was drinking. 

Then Nile Ashton hopped on and DJed to wrap things up. 

Thank you! 

Thank you to all the speakers and everyone who participated in making INNO 2020 such an amazing event. Cheers to the Revelry and INNO team working behind the scenes to make sure things ran smoothly. 

To innovation and beyond! 

View all talks: crowdcast.io/innoconf 

 

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