After writing 7 Essential Tips for Planning a Successful Conference I realised that I wanted to write more in-depth about 3 very successful conferences that will spark your innovative thinking. The three in question are TED, Inbound and Burning Man. Each of them all very different in experience but equally have much to offer the attendee, making them memorable and worthwhile events to attend.
Image from my keynote at a local TED-event at San Juan Island close to Seattle.
Check out the my TED-talk via this link.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, and is as you may know a platform and a community where people from differenct disciplines and areas of expertise meet and share thought provoking ideas, innovative solutions and new perspectives about the world. The first conference started back in 1984, and was not a financial success despite attracting many prominent scientists, researchers and business leaders. This was the reason why it took more than six years until the second TED conference was organised, and after that it became an annual event. Today the brand TED is probably most known for its video platform where you can access over 70,000 presentations on all sorts of subjects, everything from biomimicry and psychology to digital disruption. The big offline event is held in Vancouver every year and next one is in April 2017. Since the tickets are sold out for the main event I highly recommend that you try to visit a local event close to where you work or live.
Inbound is organised by the marketing automation platform HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS) and is one of the most important marketing conferences in the world. During the last years they have had talented keynote speakers such as Simon Sinek, Seth Godin and this year they had Gary Vaynerchuck. Check out Gary Vaynerchuck's keynote at Inbound 2016 here.
But the great thing about Inbound is not that they have booked the most successful and recognised speakers, it's the experience and value and ideas you get out of meeting and networking with other HubSpot users.
Another reason why I love Inbound and HubSpot is that the Inbound Methodology is so closely aligned with the key message in my book Digilogue: how to win the digital minds and analogue hearts of tomorrow's customers (Wiley 2013) and my also my upcoming book Seamless: a hero's journey of digital disruption, adaptation and human transformation (Wiley 2017).
"The way people shop and buy has fundamentally changed. Through the unique lens of the Hero's Journey, Seamless takes the readers on a tour de transformation of buyers and businesses in the digital era."
- Brian Halligan, Co-founder &
CEO of HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS)
Burning Man is not your typical conference. It can more accurately be defined as gathering where a lot of people meet up in the middle of the desert. The annual event takes place in Nevada's Black Rock Desert and attracts more than 50,000 visitor each year. Among the visitors you can find all sorts of people like performers, artists, free spirits and yes futurists like myself.
Image from The Atlantic.
So why do people go and spend a few days in the desert with complete strangers? People go to Burning Man to get away from the ordinary world and experience music, art and of course be part of and shape the unique community that's co-created during the festival.
When you visit conferences and events such as TED, Inbound and Burning Man you'll get more than just insights about the latest trends that will impact your business. By observing and networking you'll get fresh perspectives which can help you develop new ideas for your business or the organisation you are working for.
Observing and networking are according to Clayton Christensen, the author of The Innovator's DNA: Mastering The Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators, two essential skills which will help you amplify your associational thinking and thus enable you to become a disruptive innovator. Christensen argues in his book that innovators are so innovative because they have the ability to connect and put together seemingly mismatched ideas. So, in order to be creative, innovative and upgrade your thinking I recommend you to go to conferences like the ones mentioned in this blog post and observe, network and interact.