Large Group Innovation Summits

At Fortune Magazine's recent Brainstorm conference Launch Institute tools were used to ensure the ideas of the large group of attendees (a group with VERY large egos!) were heard, considered and built upon ( brainstorm.fortune/index.htm ) to see attendees click here (fortune_archive/2006/08/07/8382578/index.htm). I have a strong bias for group based idea generation; with a high level of diversity in the group, sources of alternate points of view and challenging mindsets that are not satisfied with the status quo better ideas will develop. But if you are to ask such diverse individuals to gather, it is critical that technique and tools are available to stimulate idea development, work the ideas to create even more powerful ideas, and finally to select the top ideas for further work after the gathering.


Launch Institute works with companies to conduct multi-day Innovation Summits where a group of individuals representing diverse insights (including external experts) come together with the specific purpose of developing new business ideas related to products, services or business models focused on a specific business opportunity or need. These sessions generally are attended by a group of from 35 to 70 individuals (although members of Launch Institute coordinated a two day brainstorm with 5400 Pepsi Managers at the Dallas Convention Center; 2.4 acres of breakout tables!).

See how Eaton Corporation uses Innovation Summits by clicking here to view the video overview of their Innovation Process by clicking http://www.arclightning.com/eatonvideo/

Here are some general principles Launch Institute uses when conducting one of our Innovation Summits:
1. Define the objective and scope of the Innovation Summit.
Sessions where there are no boundaries or starting expectations have their place (we call them White Space Summits), but most of your innovation work is guided by business goals and objectives you are looking to achieve. Linking the work of your innovation team to the needs of the business and the business strategy is essential to business focused innovation.

2. Ensure senior executive commitment.
We often encounter situations where executives state they will review the ideas developed in some meeting after the Innovation Summit or gathering. To us at Launch, senior executive commitment is being involved as the Summit is being planned to ensure the objectives of the Summit are aligned with business strategic needs, the senior executive committing resources for the further development of the ideas selected at the Summit, the senior executive showing up at the start of the Summit to give the group gathered its marching orders and set expectations and then attending the final presentations of the top ideas to allocate the committed resources. There is nothing worse in my opinion than asking individuals to share their thoughts and ideas and then do nothing with those ideas.

3. Establish your current understanding of the Innovation Summit topic area
It is important to acknowledge that there is current information and points of view related to the topic of your Innovation Summit. This information can be gathered from previous projects or efforts, market information and research, customer interactions, etc. At Launch Institute we select a small team, the “Insight Team”, to spend some of their time collecting this information and, at times, adding to this information. Prior to the Innovation Summit this team generally collects this information in a form they can share before and/or at the Innovation Summit.

4. Prepare participants for the Innovation Summit
It is important that people know why they are attending a Summit, have some background on the topic of the summit, and see how their point of view will be important at the Summit. Generally the goals and objectives are forwarded several weeks ahead of the Summit along with readings, websites to visit and other pertinent information.

5. Hold the Summit at an inspiring location
There is nothing worse than asking a group to give you their best creative thoughts and then conduct your event in a stale corporate conference room. Location is important to giving individuals a sense of importance and engaging their various senses needed for the act of creativity. There are many great locations available for such sessions, including museums, monasteries, brand centers, and institutes.

6. Conduct the Summit with discipline but remain flexible
It is important to understand when individuals begin to work in the area of “what they don’t know they don’t know” whole new lines of thinking emerge. As these lines of thinking surface they must be acknowledged and nurtured for it is from these new lines of thinking breakthrough ideas emerge. In fact, the event agenda might change. The facilitators must be able to spot these changes and then have the tools to redirect the work of the group as needed.

7. Ensure follow-through and communicate
After the Summit make sure the “next steps” identified for each idea at the Summit are adhered to and communicate progress to the entire organization. Again, it is important that people know their ideas will be taken care of

For more on Innovation Summits please feel free to contact us at Launch Institute.