Join a unique group of thinkers, doers and innovators at IdeaFestival! The IdeaFestival is a three-day non-linear event that attracts and invites curious minds from around the globe to celebrate innovation, imagination and world-changing ideas. We invite you to join this unique gathering of leaders in Louisville and see where staying curious can take you!

Add a Thrivals ticket for the reduced price of $49 or an IF Water ticket for the reduced price of $35!

Thrivals 7.0 - The Quest: Changing the Future of 2035.  A fun, mind bending, future focused, innovative, leading edge and thought provoking learning experience where humans of all identities are challenged by each other to think about new ideas, rethink old assumptions, build on the minds of others, to become, to do, to understand, to otherwise live this single planetary experience to its fullest.

There’s a famous Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times” which certainly applies now. It seems that every cornerstone we’ve relied on has slipped, creating instability in all aspects of modern life. As humorist Ogden Nash remarked: “Progress might have been all right once, but it has gone on too long.”

We live in a world where seemingly everyone has a cell phone —and a rifle. Every day we learn of breathtaking scientific discoveries and atrocities straight from the Dark Ages. Thanks to technology images of beheadings travel instantly around the world.

It happens every time there’s a big announcement about a national or regional innovation policy that will lead us into the future: We are presented with schemes to strengthen intellectual property rights, enlarge the pool of risk financing, and upgrade the universities while pushing them to collaborate more with industry. If we are truly lucky, we are told about a new science park to be built just around the corner.

There is only one question that is never asked or answered: Why?

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

In 1957, eight entrepreneurs decided to do something that seemed crazy. They launched a new tech company called Fairchild Semiconductor in a small town south of San Francisco. The entrepreneurs had a difficult start, but Fairchild eventually became the first major computer chip company in the region.

Image: http://techcrunch.com

How happy is your city? Study says Richmond is America’s most

contented area – with New York its unhappiest (but they say people

come for the money anyway)

New York is America’s most unhappy region, a new study has found – while Richmond tops the table as American’s most contented place.

The study from the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research relies on a large survey that asks respondents about their satisfaction with life.

Researchers say that despite this, areas such as New York still attract people because of its job prospects.

Image: http://1clicknews.com

One key to successful innovation, a growing body of innovation thinkers believe, is trial-and-error experimentation. Proponents of the Lean Startup methodology urge innovators to create a minimum viable product (MVP)--something that solves a customer’s problem adequately but isn’t perfectly polished--and use it as a vehicle to gather critical in-market learning. The approach makes many executives inside big companies nervous. After all, experiments can fail, which implies taking on a risk that could blow back in some way to harm the core business. And in some industries even developing a good enough product is time consuming and expensive.

Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers#mediaviewer/File:Kitty_hawk_gross.jpg

Whether it’s breaking the glass ceiling or battling stereotypes, no one’s denying women have come a long way. But we still have a long way to go.

From pitching to investors who are used to defining “entrepreneurs” as young, white, and male to tuning out the self-doubt that tears your confidence apart, below eight successful women entrepreneurs share how they take down the roadblocks in their way.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Rick L. Weddle: Considerable change is under way in the research and science park industry. To be sure, some legacy parks continue to enjoy success with their original business model of large, single-user corporate research and development facilities. However, a good many of these older or mature parks are finding it tough to compete with newer, mixed-use and more urban-oriented development models. Moreover, a newer model is rapidly evolving across the world. This new model is less focused on a single piece of real estate and more focused on the overall innovation ecosystem. These new models are being referred to as “areas of innovation.” Such models will typically include one or more research or science parks, a range of business incubation and co-working facilities, a research university, community colleges and technical training facilities and one or more innovation-oriented economic development organizations. These new areas of innovation are less characterized by real estate and geography and more by the range of innovation resources and the people in an area that combine to create a fully integrated organic knowledge and innovation ecosystem.

Image: http://www.siteselection.com - Kilometro Rosso Science Park, Bergamo, Italy

The increasingly complex systems nature of enterprise organizational and information technology design is creating an interesting disruption — and opportunity — for the role traditionally known as the “enterprise architect.” And it is a shift that, by its very nature, puts the very use of the term “architect” in question.

In the past, I’ve suggested the term “enterprise product manager” to describe what the enterprise architect is really being asked to do, but I now think there is a better term that explains this complex (and, quite honestly, complicated) role.

Image: "Split Rock Lighthouse architect design" by Ralph Russell Tinkham - Minnesota Historical Society Collections. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - 

“If you’re in business today, you’re running for office every day.” So says Alan Webber, co-founder of Fast Company magazine and a progressive Democrat who recently conceded his bid for governor of New Mexico.

Webber promoted an education-focused, pro-jobs campaign platform that leveraged his background in social business. The only candidate in the race not formerly involved in the state’s government, his supporters valued his outsider perspective and resistance to local political cynicism.

Image: http://itssaulconnected.com

We are delighted to announce a new collaboration between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to empower entrepreneurial scientists and advance the Lab-to-Market priorities set forth in the President’s Management Agenda. The Federal government invests over $130 billion on research and development (R&D) each year, and the President’s 2015 budget supports a sustained commitment to accelerate the transfer of promising Federally-funded technologies from the laboratory to the commercial marketplace.

Image: http://nexus.od.nih.gov/ 

Our community has been talking recently about the skills needed for entrepreneurs to excel. Some things change while others stay the same. But, to be an entrepreneurial rock star, you need to be aware of all the factors affecting your business. Here the Small Business Trends editorial team has assembled a Community News and Information Roundup with tips from top blogs and social networks to help you improve. Here they are:

MADISON - The managers of the new Badger Fund of Funds say they can take $25 million of state money and turn it into as much as $100 million that could help build 100 companies around Wisconsin over the next few years. Brian Birk and Lee Rand are managing partners of Sun Mountain Capital, a New Mexico firm that handles similar funds in New Mexico and in Mexico. They joined with Kegonsa Capital Partners, a Fitchburg venture capital management firm, to form Sun Mountain Kegonsa. Sun Mountain Kegonsa was chosen earlier this year to manage the Badger Fund of Funds, for which the Legislature allocated $25 million.

There is no shortage of advice on how to find a job, how to prepare for an interview or how to negotiate a salary. While these are all crucial steps in building a career, there seems to be a lack of guidance for seasoned, established employees attempting to make the leap from middle management to the executive level.

At my company Grace Blue, I’ve spent my career working closely with top leaders in the communications space. They are often brilliant and charismatic, but always ambitious, decisive and resourceful. So what makes them different from their peers? Few people start careers as a CEO, CMO or CCO -– so how does one get from point A to point B?

FLICKR, JESUS SOLANA

Every startup needs access to capital, whether for funding product development, for initial rollout efforts, acquiring inventory, or paying that first employee. Most entrepreneurs think first of bank loans as the primary source of money, only to find out that banks are really the least likely benefactors for startups. Thus “creative” really means maximizing non-bank financing.

It’s a free country or so they say.

Like every place, we here in the United States have our laws, regulations and taxes. That’s the nature of things where all governments reside, which is sometimes to the ire and discomfort of business people.

And while the U.S. remains a refuge and haven for foreign direct investment, which was the topic of our blog last week, it is somewhat ironic and interesting to note that some U.S. companies are reincorporating themselves overseas for tax reasons.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Every year, Deloitte releases a survey of venture capitalists from a dozen countries. As emerging markets tech investors, the question that always stands out to us is: “What is your overall confidence in investing outside of your home country…?” Year after year, U.S. VCs always express the lowest confidence level.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

"Doors opened. Opportunities evolved. Law, institutions, and corporations moved forward. Many minds did not."

-- Anna Quindlen

"I really believe that everyone has a talent, ability, or skill that he can mine to support himself and to succeed in life."

-- Dean Koontz

We are living in the post social media era where business etiquette and interpersonal skills reign supreme. Where information overload breeds a tech-driven culture in which rapid trends and rapid access are par for the course.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “For a Startup, Two Heads are Always Better Than One”. The feedback was good, but some readers asked me to be a bit more specific on attributes that might indicate an ideal startup partner. Even if you are looking in all the right places, it helps to know what you are looking for.

image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/91281489@N00/147862875

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, an average of 543,000 new businesses get their start every month in America. What the SBA can’t measure as easily is the number of businesses that fail along the way.

A fear many future or new entrepreneurs have is that they won’t be able to keep the lights on or feed their families, because the truth is that going out on your own is an enormous risk that doesn’t always pay off. So how does one predict success?

Image: http://agbeat.com