#bif2015

I’d never been to an education conference that took seriously the issue of educator health. But upon picking up my bag and badge for Big Ideas Fest 2015, I was informed that FitBit was a sponsor and that I was invited to sign up to compete against other attendees by wearing a FitBit Charge during our time in San Jose. I’ve long been a strong proponent that we need to pay more attention to our health and it made perfect sense that we would wrap physical health into our ongoing conversations about student emotional, psychological, and relational health. One of the panelists even reflected upon how her experiences as an educator affected her psychological health!

Being part of this social experiment wearing a FitBit for the past two days, I have made a couple of observations. First and foremost, I’m far more cognizant of my need to take the stairs, get up and walk around more, and generally seek ways to keep my body in motion. We know from research that bodies in motion facilitate higher quality learning, but having a peer group around you that are also participating in a ‘movement challenge’ places more emphasis on the need to keep active. 

For full disclosure purposes, yes, I did pack running clothes and I had already planned on getting in a short run during my stay. But the FitBit challenge upped the ante. Instead of a 2-mile jog, I found myself waking up early Friday morning to knock out 4 miles. Instead of taking some down time on Thursday afternoon during the ‘break’ time, I grabbed my headphones and an audiobook and went for an hour-long walk. I was very intentional about trying to be more active. 

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N56zkdKISO0)

Wanda McClure on Innovation, Clarity, and Women Who Innovate, at #BIF2015 (Business Innovation Factory Summit, in Providence, Rhode Island).

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I have studied the power of purposeful self-organized networks; it was at the recent BIF2015 summit that I saw it at play for the first time. First let me admit that I did not know much about the BIF Summit or at the very least what BIF stood for. Business Innovation Factory has been convening leaders, thinkers and doers for over a decade and has been disrupting conversations on business models employing – wait for it – the art of storytelling.

UnConference

As someone who does minimal research intentionally when I go to events, I am alright with being uncomfortable and enjoy the organic experience. At BIF2015, I noticed the purposeful un-conference approach that was novel and disorienting at first. As a newbie to a decade old community the lack of structured format was confusing. Quickly, I noticed the conversations, the relationships and the intentional self-organized network design. As a frequent “corporate session organizer” let me tell you how much of control the organizer is giving up! The genius though with such design was the creative autonomy each speaker had.

Saul Kaplan, founder and chief catalyst at BIF, unabashedly shared many times how he had no idea what the speakers were going to talk about in their TED styled 20 mins talk. Saul and the BIF team believe that a good story can change the world. After the two day Providence experience, there is little doubt that they have, they can and they will. Speakers had to follow only two rules; to make the talk personal and less formal. Saul has created an adaptive learning environment that reminded me of servant leadership and responsible individual citizenry.

Disrupting Narratives

Robin Chase of ZipCar and Peers Inc took the stage first day, starting with her story and shared economy. Joshua Davis’s unusual and comic journey from arm wrestling to Wired magazine was one of my favorites. His message, say yes to life’s experiences and let the journey guide you. Steven Keating advocated for open source patient data and greater patient involvement in their health decisions. He showed video and pictures of his brain tumor being surgically removed while he talked throughout his surgery with his doctors. There are few who were not impacted by Catherine Hoke’s personal journey from Wall St to setting up a nonprofit to work with prisoners on entrepreneurship opportunities that is Defy Ventures. Dennis Whittle reformed World Bank executive, previously with Global Giving, shared how he did not have a story to tell and how he was still figuring out what to share with the audience. Dennis knows how to work the crowd. Jeff Sparr’s own battle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) led him to using art to make mental illness cool.

This was just the morning of day 1.

One after another, the speakers spoke passionately about justice, education, art, music, removing cultural barriers, creating opportunities, leading innovation at corporate giants, to battling cancer and creating resourceful communities for patients. Rhode Island’s State poet Rick Benjamin, Chris Emdin and Carla Dirlikov (Carla drop me a note when you move to DC, you have my card) left a lasting impression through their narratives that made them vulnerable and brave on the stage in front of a 500+ people and many watching online. The architect from Sandy Hook also took stage.

Purposeful Communities

Day 2 was similarly filled with inspiring life experiences of performance artists, educators, inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs who were generous in sharing their narratives. One of another they spoke humbly about the impact they were making, what drove them and how inspired they were on experimenting and doing their part to add to the purposeful community. There were pianos and guitars on the stage. There was a dry eye when Julius Searight took to the stage to share he was crack baby, lived in 13 foster homes before the age of three. This young man found his own non-profit. Food4Good is a mobile food truck that serves paying customers during the and at night turns into a mobile Soup Kitchen. His truck was parked outside the Trinity Rep venue.

Alex Osterwalder of Business Model Canvas fame is now on to mapping culture. James Siegal of KaBOOM spoke about the state of play for children.

I was equally inspired by the attending participants, many who loyally return year after year. They were innovation junkies, change makers from industrial companies, Capitol Hill staff turned writer to an immigrant kid who grew up in Hell’s Kitchen and is now Chief Education Evangelist at Google, Inc. Not only were the stories matter of fact for the narrators, they not only shared to inspire but to be inspired, and in their vulnerability to connect and extend a hand to learning of others. I met product designers, city officials, community designers, writers, artists, documentary film maker, students, activists, and bloggers.

BIF has cultivated a community of continuous learning with likeminded restless stakeholders who are constantly on the edge of their thinking, to borrow the phrase from Saul. Inspired people are driven to accomplish great things when they are fired by a purpose bigger than themselves. Thank you BIF and Eli Stefanski for inviting me to be part of the rich vibrant community of BIF. I cannot wait to return next year. In closing, I leave you with some factoids.

Factoids

In America 1 in 7 people rely on food banks.

France spends $10 billion on funding arts in a year and US spends $158 million.

70% of children of prisoners follow in their fathers’ footsteps. Source.

I’m going to be a guest with Donya at the Brighton Illustration Fair this weekend.