Today we announced our partnership with the UK-based research firm Pure Insight, and it will produce something of real and usable value for anyone interested in learning about and applying innovation solutions! We’re going to be producing Web-based seminars, or “Webinars,” to show and tell the world about amazing insights and innovation best practices from some of the world’s leading innovation practitioners.

Innovationedge will be the sole U.S. solutions provider to host Pure Insight Webinars, which will enable corporate innovation leaders, inventors and entrepreneurs to access the most current innovation best practices right from their desktop. Not only will you be able to learn from and interact with these presenters in real time, you can also access a library of Web-based presentations.

These Webinars will cover a range of topics including strategy, structure, culture, open innovation and portfolio management, to name a few. Each Webinar presentation will provide examples and insights into ways to implement leading-edge innovation practices, and allow listeners to hear the successes and challenges directly from those who have successfully faced and solved them.

Pure Insight is admired by corporations across Europe, and I’m enjoying collaborating with its Chief Excecutive Klaus Schnurr and his talented team!

Be sure to check out the schedule for our live and recorded Webinar sessions. You’ll find them by clicking here:

There is still time to register and plug in to the Global Innovation Exchange 2007. It started today and runs through November 9th, but there is still time to register and get up to speed without missing a thing!  The entire conference is right on your computer, so you won’t need to travel, eat hotel food or even dress for success. 

The virtual conference is a groundbreaking online event focused on collaboratively sharing and diffusing innovation insights, strategies and next practices from around the world. I am one of the thought leaders featured in this three-day event, and I’m joined by leading experts from Johnson & Johnson, the Center, Denmark, and numerous other organizations from the US, Europe, India and the Middle East.  You’ll learn about emerging innovation models, tools and approaches in what is truly a  “learning community.”

Through real-time interactions, you can participate in introductions, presentations, Q&A sessions, informal networking and even facilitated breakout groups. Most of the presentations are delivered in the form of narrated PowerPoint slideshows that can be accessed and viewed at any time during the conference. You can even post questions and interact with the presenter and each other inside the presenter’s virtual conference room.

And while you won’t need business cards, you can do a lot of networking in the “Collaboration Café.”  A directory of participant profiles, instant messaging and virtual meeting rooms encourage additional networking and knowledge sharing. In addition, a variety of resources including speakers’ presentations, white papers, articles, and website links are available to all participants through a searchable knowledgebase.

Here is the site for the Global Innovation Exchange 2007 conference: http://www.innovation-point.com/GIE2007/index.htm

I’m preparing for a live Webinar event this afternoon called “Insights to Innovation,” and it’s a free, 45 minute overview of contemporary tools and techniques for uncovering hidden customer and consumer insights and translating those insights into business building innovation.

Innovationedge is teaming up with EMM Group to host the Webinar, and you can find out more about the webinar at 2 p.m. Eastern time by clicking on this link. EMM Group’s Hunter Hastings and I will deliver a best practice approach to discovering hidden customer and consumer insights and sharing and applying those insights to generate innovation ideas to deliver top-line growth.

Hunter and I also collaborated on another big project, and I’m excited to tell you that Hunter’s new book titled, Improve Your Marketing To Grow Your Business hits the bookstores this week. I helped Hunter pen one of the chapters in the book, and the foreword is by my friend and former boss Tom Falk, CEO of Kimberly-Clark.

My chapter deals with generating insights about your customers and their unmet needs, and then leveraging those insights in unique or unusual ways based on the motivations that drive their behavior to create sustainable innovations. I encourage you to pick up a copy. I’ve posted a new book review under my site’s “Books on the Edge” tab, and you can click here to order online.
 

If you’ve never looked into podcasting before, here’s a chance to treat yourself to a free Harvard Business Online podcast interview on one of my favorite topics: Lean and Green Sustainable Innovation. HBR’s Steve Singer recently interviewed me for his IdeaCast, and it’s a free program.

You often hear experts talk about creating an “Ecosystem of Innovation.” But what is it? I see it as a convergence of clean, green environmentally-friendly practices intertwined throughout your holistic business model. In this podcast I explain how businesses need to start with a clear, articulated strategy, and then enable the right model, talent and people to focus on making that company a good steward of the environment. I give several case studies as examples, and explain why Lean and Green initiatives often require outside partnerships to enhance your model with capabilities you don’t yet have. 

To hear more, click on this link and scroll down to HBR IdeaCast No. 64.

I’ve been doing quite a few Webinars and Podcasts lately on a variety of innovation topics. I recently teamed up with Mike Docherty of Venture2 to record the first of a series of Webinars that will provide a toolbox targeted at senior leaders to ensure success of a company’s open innovation efforts. The toolbox will range from models, processes and metrics to enable leaders to find the right partners to populate their pipeline for growth. 

Our first Webinar is titled, “What is Open Innovation?” It originally aired October 11, but the good news is that if you were unable to tune in you can still get a recording of the session over at the Pure Insights Web site. The great thing about archived Webinars is that you can listen and watch whenever it’s convenient for you.

These recordings are available in MP3 format (audio only) or in Windows Media Player format (audio with slides).  I encourage you to plug in!