Wow! I spent yesterday at the very first Innovation Camp, which was held here in Austin. It was a great gathering of people that “want to learn about innovation by doing it rather than listening.” I got to meet a number of techies, entrepreneurs, startup folks from Austin and the surrounding communities. The best way to describe the sort of people who were there would be to say that they are the folks that want to take their businesses, projects, or communities in unconventional directions - forward-looking thinkers.
It was an ad-hoc style conference (based off of the BarCamp concept) where there were no set-in stone panels speaking at the attendees; instead, there were sessions set up with loose topics and voted on by the attendees with free discussion and debate. It was a very egalitarian setting in which everyone was encouraged to participate and argue debate about a very wide range of topics with the common thread of changing the way things are done in our community.
Here are a couple of the discussions that I participated in along with a few of my thoughts (stay tuned this week as I go into more depth on some of these discussions):
- Co-working in Bryan/College Station, TX
The guys from The Creative Space were there to discuss their experiences as the first co-working space in Texas - very interesting discussion about the different issues and approaches that a group encounters going from an informal group of independents working together to a group with common business interests and a shared space. Here is an interview with Cody Marx Bailey, one of the founders of The Creative Space. - The University of Texas ACTLab
The ACTLab is a group folks at UT doing a whole lot of creative and innovative projects centered around doing, not standard educational regurgitation. Their enthusiasm was infectious and inspiring to everyone there - they are building the sorts of free-thinkers that we can always use more of in the world… - Austin as an Emerald City
Everyone has different ideas about why Austin kicks ass, we wanted to find a shared vision for what we can do as Austinites going into the future - Co-company Case Study
The guys from Conjunctured had a great discussion about how they are developing the co-company concept - taking a group of independent creative workers and allowing them to maintain a great deal of autonomy while still having the resources of a larger brand to depend on - The Austin Startup District
Dane led a discussion about his and John Erik Metcalf’s vision for building a cohesive environment and community for independent entrepreneurs and startups here in Austin. It was a very thought-provoking view of how enterprising millienials in Austin want to change how the startup game is played as we enter and take the the reigns in the community and business worlds
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