Tag: Innovation lab

Whether you’re a self­-employed creative professional, or you run a small, shoestring startup, you’ve probably heard about the coworking phenomenon. So, what’s the big deal? In basic terms, coworking is a shared working environment where several people work in the same open space. New coworking hubs are popping up in major cities all over the country. From Portland’s Collective Agency to San Francisco’s Coffee and Power, more and more independent workers are moving to the coworking model. The big question is Why? In this post, we are going to unpack five major reasons coworking mightbe the right choice for you.

Five Reasons to Embrace Coworking

1. Instant Collaboration:

When you first walk into a coworking space, it’s not unlike walking into a new job. It’s filled with complete strangers, and odds are that there are some house rules you...

It was only a few years ago when ‘unconferences’ were a new and different type of event, where people planned online to meet somewhere to exchange about crazy ideas. The web-based model of open innovation developed into face-to-face events. Now, a few years later, we are witnessing how innovation hubs are popping up across the world. Spaces are being opened for anyone to exchange ideas and find help and solutions to seriously implement these. The Internet, as platform for open innovation, has been transforming the way we collaborate; which makes companies, for instance, experiment with incubators, accelerators or open innovation contests.

Luckily, these innovation hubs are not reserved to capitals from the Northern hemisphere; in contrary, the most vibrant communities are located in the Southern hemisphere. I wonder if the dynamic and energy in African or transition countries...

So, you are ready to innovate. You have an open idea contest planned and are ready to measure the positive effects of your campaign to your organisation. It is a couple months before the contest date and you get a short email from one of your participants asking where to show up on the day of. You realise you have not yet thought about where you will be hosting your challenge. You do not want to host it in any old school gym or church basement, you want a space that is going to encourage creative thinking and debate. But what are the sort of things you should look for in choosing an innovation hub? Design? Utility? Size?

We have watched many idea contests succeed and fail - some of our observations can be seen here. But today we...