NTC2012-Innovation+Plenary


 * Innovation Plenary Notes**

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 * 1. Think about the end first**

What action or new way thinking do you want your audience to embrace. If you doing a plenary discussion panel at a conference, it is a good question to ask the host. One of the first questions I asked Holly, "Why do you want a panel on this topic?" This panel was design to have a conversation that unpacked innovation for the nonprofit technology field - openly discuss barriers and share inspiring examples.


 * 2. Scaffolding Questions and Diverse Views in the Answers**

Next, it is important to think about the framing for your topic. I almost always start with a set of neutral questions that try to pinpoint the divergent perspectives related to the topic. These questions included:


 * What does innovation really mean? Is it big change or small changes?
 * What are some examples of innovative nonprofits and technology? Why do think they illustrate innovative ways of working?
 * Why is innovation so hard for nonprofits?
 * How can funders and others encourage innovation in the nonprofit sector?
 * What are some of the processes and practices in the for-profit (or already exist in the nonprofit sector) that nonprofits can embrace to be more innovative?
 * Prompts (transparency, failure, scaling, partnerships)
 * What can people in this room put into practice in the next week or year to be more innovative?

With questions formulated, it is now time to think about who should answer them. The first obvious criteria is to pick people who have spent many years thinking, speaking, and writing about the topic. Or as I said in my introduction, "Eat innovation for breakfast." The question in my mind was - how can we get different points of view so could learn through the discussion. I wanted to make sure that we had diversity in gender, but also from different lens including business, a nonprofit, philanthropic, and social investment. It is also great to find thinkers and who will disagree (respectfully) with other panelists.


 * 3. Just Enough Preparation To Avoid Anxiety, But Not Too Much So It Isn't Boring**

I've organized a lot of discussion panels so this advice varies depending on your speakers. I usually set up a [|google document] for the panel that includes the script, online interaction design, timings, and logistics (when to arrive for the AV check, etc). We have a preparation call and I ask panelists to add their bullet points (in different colors) to the questions in the script and suggest different ways of asking the question. Depending on the panelists, I schedule a second call to have the discussion close to the panel using the bullet points, making refinements in the questions, etc. For this panel, we didn't do that given the caliber of speakers and I wanted to keep some spontaneity in the discussion.

I also ask the speakers to include links that would provide good background for someone who didn't know anything about the topic as well as links that represent their point of view on innovation. I also did a quick and dirty literature search on practical information about innovation from people who write for the nonprofit audience. I use this for my own preparation as well as for resource blog posts or if I'm really prepared, I share the list of links in a google documents with live Tweeters.

We Think Differently http://www.scribd.com/doc/29028646/WeThink-Differently-Final

Innovation in the Nonprofit Sector http://www.newempirebuilders.com/2012/03/11/shiftcast-episode-sxsw-daily-roundtable-day-two/

Daniel Pink's FLIP Manifesto http://t.co/bKDnfE1w

Eric Reis, The Lean Start Up http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307887898/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bethkanterorg-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0307887898 http://blog.box.com/2011/11/qa-best-selling-author-eric-ries-on-innovation-in-business-part-1/

Seth Godin on Nonprofit INnovation []

Innovator’s Dilemma http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_i/innovators_dilemma1.asp

Brian Reich's Interview About the Panel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHqQCxNvcVM&feature=player_embedded

Infographic on Innovation http://visual.ly/eloqua-x-jess3-disruptive-innovations-infographic

How To Innovate More? Practice, Practice, Practice http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204831304576596714181439514.html

Innovation/Culture of Play http://www.inc.com/riley-gibson/5-reasons-your-start-up-should-be-playing-more.html

Mary Joyce http://www.meta-activism.org/2012/03/how-nonprofits-can-encourage-digital-innovation/


 * 4. Design the Audience Interaction**

I had initially designed something more complicated, but decided to keep it simple. The complicated design involved the use of text or online flash polls that could be shared on the screen and have the audience take the poll. These would have questions that allow their audience to share their experience or attitudes about the topic or a speaker's particular point. This works well your discussion is going to be linear and ours ended up as a non-linear format, so I decided to ditch the live polling.

Instead, we used the conference hashtag and asked people to tweet their comments and questions. Holly Ross was moderating the stream and captured the questions. These were shared on a google document that was projected on the speaker screen.

I would have added some offline audience interaction. Typically, I like to incorporate some "share pairs" some reflective questions that people in the audience can share with each other. I opted to keep this simple. If this was smaller audience (we had seating for 1750), I would have requested a wireless handheld mic and wandered into the audience.


 * 5. Knowledge Capture**

It is important to have someone capture the conversation in notes and graphic recording (I've been arranging my own for many years, but NTEN has Rally sponsor this at the conference) []

Notetakers []

Live stream []