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Conference Highlights

	Keynote Presentation: Leveraging User Communities in Your Innovation Process Eric von Hippel, Professor, Management of Innovation, MIT Sloan School of Management		Keynote Presentation: People Powered Thinking, Designing Social Experiences Deborah Schultz, Partner, Altimeter Group
Plus Special Workshop: Building an Innovation Ecosystem Deb Schultz, Partner and Alan Webber, Partner, Altimeter Group

Why this conference is important to you

The emergence of Social Media has radically altered outbound marketing and communications strategies forever. The pace is frenetic. While there are many success stories out there, there are just as many, if not more failures and disappointments. However, organizations are learning quickly and a new set of tools and guidelines for outbound marketing via social media are emerging. 

The true power of social technologies lies in the ability to harness customers and communities for ongoing connections and innovation. The transition for outbound marketing is just the beginning of the transformation.   In fact, leading organizations (like Dell, JC Penney, SAP and more) are already leveraging innovation communities to learn about customer likes and dislikes, generate new ideas for new features, products, and even whole new categories of solutions. 

At its core, innovation has always been about connecting ideas to people and nothing has the potential to connect ideas and people faster than innovation communities. The question is how. 

This groundbreaking conference will explore how leading edge organizations and thought leaders are exploiting the power of innovation communities and various forms of social media to accelerate the innovation-to-market cycle. 

At this conference, you will learn the latest thinking about the following challenges:  

• What is the potential impact of innovation communities on innovation?
  
  
  • Accelerate the voice of the customer process
  • Increase the scale/reach of your VOC research
  • Reduce the cost of VOC research
  • Increase the validity and reliability VOC efforts
    
• How do you get started?
  
• How do you connect with the right people?
  
• Is it a representative mix of the potential marketplace?
  
• How do you keep people to actively involved?
  
• What incentives are necessary to get people to participate?
  
• How do you sort through the noise of social media to find the ideas that will create value?
  
• What techniques are available to effectively filter ideas that come through this process?
• How do you integrate and prioritize these ideas into development?

Keynote Presentations

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Leveraging User Communities in Your Innovation Process
Eric von Hippel, Professor, Management of Innovation, MIT Sloan School of Management

Ever since the industrial revolution, people have focused on producers as the main source of product and service innovation.  Research now clearly shows that users rather than producers are actually the dominant innovators in many fields.  It is also now clear that users are even more powerful as innovators when they combine their efforts in user innovation communities.  In some fields today, these powerful communities are actually out-competing producers as innovators. Producers must learn how to work with user innovation communities, and learn to profit from their innovations.  With proper treatment, user communities can regard producers as valuable collaborators rather than exploiters. 

In this keynote presentation Dr. Von Hippel will specifically examine:

• User innovation communities as new product developers - a potential partner for product producers 
• How user innovation communities develop, distribute and consume new information products completely independent of manufacturers
• How user communities can and do develop strong proprietary brands capable of commanding significant brand premiums

Eric von Hippel is T Wilson Professor of Innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and also a Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT.  His academic research examines the sources and economics of innovation.  He is a recipient of honorary doctorates from Copenhagen Business School (2007) and Ludwig-Maximillians University in Munich (2004). He was a fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and served as Sir Walter Scott Distinguished Professor at University of New South Wales in Australia. He has founded and participated in startup firms, and is a founder of the entrepreneurship program at MIT. He serves on numerous editorial advisory boards for academic journals and is an active researcher with numerous international collaborators. His most recent book is "Democratizing Innovation" (MIT Press, 2005). Copies of this and of his book “Sources of Innovation” can be downloaded free of charge from his MIT Website at http://mit.edu/evhippel/www/books.htm

Professor Von Hippel is known for pioneering research that has shown how product lead users are often the developers of successful new products, rather than the manufacturers as has been commonly assumed. This research, along with that of collaborators and others, is now triggering a major rethinking of how the innovation process works. The emerging view that users are at the center of the innovation process promises to trigger major changes in company business models and also in government policymaking on innovation-related matters.  Denmark recently became the first country to adopt support of user-centered innovation as national policy

Professor von Hippel has developed practical tools that enable product manufacturers to more efficiently participate in user-centered innovation processes.  These tools are used by companies world-wide.

People Powered Thinking, Designing Social Experiences
Deborah Schultz, Partner, Altimeter Group

The most interesting problems on the web are social, not technical. As organizations large and small start embracing the social web, the real work is going to be on how to create ongoing experiences that inspire, inform, involve and evolve. This talk will discuss the underlying frameworks and skills required to develop and maintain innovative communities. We will demonstrate and discuss real examples of thriving communities and connected customers. Think of it as Mind Hacks for Innovative Design. We'll show you how sites like Dogster, Etsy, Moo, Photojojo and others parlay initial passions into deep, sustained, active communities. People-powered thinking extends well beyond messaging. Instead, we'll preach a connected style that addresses a range of operational areas, both coming & going. We'll pay particular attention to what happens after a community launches, as we suggest that an attentive to and fro is the intimate secret of success.

Deborah Schultz is a Partner with the Altimeter Group where she leads the Innovation and Design practice focused on bringing together the complete ecosystem of disruptive technologies for experimentation, active learning and real-world application. She is an Internet industry veteran and early open web advocate focused on the adoption and impact of the social web on culture, society & business.  She has worked with and advised startups, Fortune 50s and VC’s on technology adoption.  Most recently, she consulted with Procter & Gamble where she architected the P&G Social Media Lab to study the impact of the social web on customer relationships and the business benefits of “open innovation.” She continues as a member of P&G’s Digital Advisory Board.  Previously, Deborah was a Director at Six Apart, ran her own technology consultancy firm, was a management consultant, and spent five years at Citibank where she developed many of the global bank’s first internet initiatives. One of her proudest accomplishments was launching the Downtown Info Center, a lower Manhattan community center & online hub to revitalize lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11th. The former Manhattanite is now a tireless road warrior and can be found in SF, NYC, or Tel Aviv. But wherever she is, she’s always ‘connected’.

Building & Sustaining Innovation Communities that Create Value
Barry Saik, Vice President, Product Management, Consumer Tax Group, Intuit

More and more companies are realizing that by tapping their communities of employees, customers and partners they can move faster, make better decisions and identify the next big disruptive idea. In order to engage these groups successfully, leaders must break down the barriers that exist within and outside of their organizations.

Intuit has been able to successfully tap its ecosystem of more than 40 million customers, 8,000 employees and countless partners, but what Intuit has learned is that just building a community is not enough; organizational commitment, process and incentive are key to realizing value from the relationships.

Barry Saik will reveal how Intuit creates and nurtures communities to drive value from their collective power and how others can benefit from that experience. Specifically he will address:

• Creating an organizational mindset to support a network of communities
• Harnessing the power of employees to not only generate ideas, but to evolve them into real products
• Involving customers to inspire product development at every stage and enlisting their help to pick winners.

 Barry Saik is Vice President of Product Management for Intuit’s consumer tax group. Saik is responsible for identifying customer requirements, setting multi-year business unit and product strategy, and driving innovation across the TurboTax business. Saik joined Intuit in 1994 as a product manager, working on early versions of TurboTax Online. He left the company in 1998 to work for two successful internet startups focused on online and mobile messaging and collaboration. Saik returned to Intuit in 2002 performing leadership roles in marketing, tax development and product management. Saik holds degrees in Product Design Engineering and Communication from Stanford University and an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA.

Special Workshop

Workshop: Building an Innovation Ecosystem
Deb Schultz, Partner and Alan Webber, Partner, Altimeter Group

Developing an innovation ecosystem connecting the organization to the 'outside world' via social tools requires passion, trust and fortitude.

This is a new landscape where real time isn't fast enough, identifying signal from noise is complicated and committing to ongoing connections with partners and customers can be resource intensive. In a networked world developing innovative products and solutions demands bringing edge perspectives inside the  organization to drive results. This workshop will explore the future of innovation via scenario planning and collaborative exercises that address the following questions. Be prepared to push past your current expectations to design a more open, collaborative and innovative roadmap. 

• What does the current innovation ecosystem look like? Where is it headed?   Deconstructing examples that inspire.
• What are the key factors and environmental forces on your organization?
• What role do innovation communities and social media play in rounding out your innovation ecosystem?
• Critical uncertainties & deep causes - what are the implications and options? How do you implement these options? What are the skills, frameworks and tools?
• What are the critical steps and approaches for you to take back to your organization?

Alan Webber is a Partner with the Altimeter Group as well as author of the blog “Ronin Research” where he looks at the impact of innovation and disruptive technologies on organizations, leadership, and management in the government and public sector market, the emerging clean technology space, and other areas.

With a strong focus on making government more efficient and more effective, Alan analyzes the impact of emerging technologies on government behavior and interactions between government and citizens and businesses. Alan’s research helps vendor clients understand the government vertical, how technology can make government more efficient and effective, how citizens and businesses interact with government, and how vendors adapt to this shifting market. When it comes to sustainability issues and clean technologies, Alan’s research efforts focus on helping organizations understand the challenges in front of them and how technology and innovation can help them overcome these.

Alan’s areas of government coverage include: eGovernment, Gov 2.0, Open Government, performance measurement, performance management, government contracting, privacy and security, the government market, and technology policy. Alan’s coverage in the clean technology and sustainability space focuses on understanding how technology, innovation, and other issues impact the sustainability efforts of organizations. Alan also looks at the broader trends in technology, organizations, and culture to better understand what is going to be an issue for executives tomorrow.

Alan has more than 16 years of business and government management and technology experience working with commercial and government clients around the globe. Prior to striking out on his own and joining Altimeter Group, Alan was a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research where he had covered the B2B online and social media space, usability, the user experience, and user based design efforts, and in assisting the global government vertical with technology selection. Before joining Forrester, Alan led various strategic planning, performance management, eGovernment, and Web initiative efforts for the US government at the Department of the Interior and the National Science Foundation. Alan has been a technology, management and performance consultant, and was a technology analyst on some of the original Web efforts and designs. He has also implemented enterprise-wide ERP and business systems and managed the accounting department for a Fortune 500 subsidiary.

Alan has been quoted in numerous business and technology publications including B2B Magazine, Business Week, The Washington Post, Government Computer News, Congressional Quarterly, CIO Magazine, CIO Today, Government Technology, and French CIO Magazine.

Alan holds a B.A, an M.A. in environmental policy, and an M.S. in natural resources management from Colorado State University. He also completed his Ph.D. coursework in technology policy, environmental policy, and methods at The George Washington University.

Special Benchmarking Study

Product Innovation & The Social Web: How Customers are Impacting the Product Development Process, How Companies can Reap the Rewards

John Carter & Jeanne Bradford, TCGen

Social media has taken businesses by storm. There are endless examples in the blogosphere on applying social tools to marketing, customer support and product branding. But do these efforts really accelerate companies to the next level of success? Our research looks beyond the current wave of social media tools – and uncovers a more significant application: customers as an extension to the product development process.

The intersection of product innovation and the social web is creating a lot of noise and first timers are struggling to find the right formula. Companies underestimate the cost associated with managing open innovation, and then over estimate the quality of the information that is gained. While the social web should be all about collaboration, in reality, today most examples of innovations aren't collaborative - but the best ones are. And while open innovation encourages free thinking and creative brainstorming, when resources outside of the control of the company get involved (eg customers!), well understood issues such as intellectual property rights, legal disclosures, technical feasibility, and commercialization take on a new level of complexity which can impede most first timers.

In this presentation, participants will learn the following:

• Social Media & Innovation best practices & lessons learned.
• How the role of the customer as an innovation partner changes internal dynamics, roles & responsibilities.
• When it makes sense to collaborate.
• How to avoid the legal barriers that often time trip up first timers

John Carter has been a CEO, founder, and a widely respected advisor to technology firms over his thirty five year career. John has raised capital from private equity to create a rollup of three companies (Klipsch, Jamo and API) in the consumer electronics market. He has led several software technology firms towards funding and acquisition holding positions including CEO of NetLens (Acquired by NextPage), and President and CEO of Chelix. In these positions he achieved sales and business relationships with companies such as Avery, BASF, BMW, JDS Uniphase, and Nokia. He was the founder and a Principal of Boston-based Product Development Consulting, Inc. (PDC), a leading organization in advising Fortune 500 companies in the areas of research, development, and marketing. He has consulted to high technology companies over the last fifteen years, working with clients such as Apple, Cisco, Hewlett Packard, IBM, and 3M. He has been a member of the faculty at Case Western's Executive program, and an invited speaker at MIT and Stanford University. John has served as an advisor to the International Association of Product Development, the Gordon Institute, and the Management Roundtable. Before starting PDC, John was Chief Engineer of BOSE Corporation where he managed the development of technologies such as the "Acoustic Wave Music System", "Wave Radio", "Lifestyle Home Theatre", "Noise Reduction Headphone" and others. He was one of the initial contributors in BOSE's entry into the automobile OEM business and led the product and business development of BOSE's patented noise reduction technology for the military market. He earned his MS in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BS in engineering from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA.

Jeanne Bradford has been a business and technology leader across a broad range of high tech companies over her twenty-five year career. She has led global organizations to deliver compelling products and technologies for some of the industries leading companies, including Apple, Cisco and AOL. During her tenure at AOL, Jeanne was a member of the technical leadership team that executed AOL's ad revenue strategy, aol.com. Her expertise in transforming product roadmaps into action, and leading complex global initiatives contributed to the successful implementation of this strategic initiative. While at Apple she led the re-architecture of the Apple new product development process, resulting in faster time to market of the Macintosh product lines. Additionally, she was a key contributor in the teams responsible for delivering simultaneous global launches, global manufacturing readiness, and customer feedback programs.  As a results-driven leader, Jeanne has a proven track record in building lean, global teams that deliver high value. Her strengths & expertise include product roadmap execution, remote development, product development best practices, and program management. She earned a MBA from Santa Clara University and a BA in mathematics from the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO.

EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT - Register by August 13, 2010 and SAVE $500

PRELIMINARY AGENDA

November 3, 2010   Conference Day One

7:30 – 8:30     Conference Registration/Exhibits Open

8:30 – 8:45     Introductory Remarks, Management Roundtable

8:45 – 9:00     Opening remarks, Conference Co-Chair: Altimeter Group

9:00 – 10:00   Keynote Presentation, People Powered Thinking, Designing Social Experiences, Deborah Schultz, Partner, Altimeter Group

10:00 – Noon  Working Session: Building an Innovation Ecosystem, Deborah Schultz and Alan Webber, Partners, Altimeter Group

12:00 – 1:00    Lunch /Exhibits Open

1:00 – 2:30     Keynote/Extended Q&A – Leveraging User Communities in your Innovation Process, Eric Von Hippel, T Wilson Professor of Management and Professor of Engineering Systems, MIT

Building Innovation Communities to Uncover Customer Needs

2:30 – 4:15     Case Studies

4:15 – 4:30     Refreshment Break/Exhibits Open

4:30 – 5:30     Panel Session

5:30 – 5:45     Summary of Key Conference Learnings: Altimeter Group

6:00 – 7:30     Networking Reception

November 4, 2010    Conference Day Two

7:00 – 7:45     Breakfast Session/Exhibits Open

8:00 – 8:15     Opening Remarks, Conference Co-Chair: TCGen

8:15 – 9:15     Keynote Presentation: Building & Sustaining Innovation Communities that Create Value, Barry Saik, Vice President, Product Management Intuit

Sustaining Innovation Communities – Incentives to Keep the Right Mix/Balance

9:15 – 10:45     Case Studies

10:45 – 11:45   Panel Session: Embedding Social Media in Company Culture – People, Processes and Tools

11:45 – 12:45   Lunch/Exhibits Open

Analyzing Social Media Data, Integrating Feedback into New Products

12:45 – 1:45   Case Studies

1:45 – 2:30     Product Innovation & The Social Web: How Customers are Impacting the Product Development Process, How Companies can Reap the Rewards, John Carter and Jeanne Bradford, TCGen

2:30 – 2:45     Refreshment Break

2:45 – 3:45     Innovation Communities Action Plan – working session, Altimeter Group

3:45                Conference Adjourns

Altimeter Group is a strategy consulting firm that provides companies with a pragmatic approach to disruptive technologies. We have four areas of focus: Leadership and Management, Customer Strategy, Enterprise Strategy, and Innovation and Design. 

Visit us at www.altimetergroup.com or contact info@altimetergroup.com.

TCGen® is an experienced based management consulting firm that enables organizations to grow the top line by creating new products faster and grow the bottom line by executing more efficiently. Our clients receive lasting value because we manage change by measuring behavior. In today’s world, every company is required to create more value with fewer resources.

At TCGen, we know increased enterprise value can best be attained by vision, the right strategy and flawless execution. Given our industry expertise, technology background, and operational experience, we deeply understand your business and appreciate your perspective.
 

EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT - Register by August 13, 2010 and SAVE $500

Program Fees:
$1495/person until August 13, 2010 ($1995/person after 08/13/10). Fees include materials binder, breakfasts, lunches, breaks, networking receptions, follow-on materials and other amenities.

Team and Group Discounts:
Groups of 3-4 or more may deduct $100 per person. Groups of 5 -10 may deduct 15%, groups of 11 or more may deduct 20%. To discuss any special accommodations for your group, please call Tracey Kimball, Conference Director, at 781-891-8080 ext. 214 or via email at tracey@roundtable.com.

Location & Hotel Accommodations:

The conference will be held at the --

Hyatt Regency Cambridge
575 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 492-1234

For room reservations, please call 1.888.421.1442. A limited block of rooms are available at a special discounted rate of $199/night until October 12, 2010 -- mention that you are attending "Power of Innovation Communities" (please reserve early to ensure availability).

Conference Attire:
We recommend "business casual" and suggest that you also dress in layers when possible to remain comfortable. Event facilities are notorious for temperature fluctuations.