COLUMBUS, OHIO — Chris Olsen believes the next great tech firm could emerge right here from the heartland.

Sure, Silicon Valley is home to most huge tech household names (Apple, Facebook, Twitter, eBay and so many more), with New York (Tumblr) and Boston (Trip Advisor) creeping up, but as he sees it, why not Ohio or Michigan?

Image: Drive Capital founding partner Chris Olsen, in front of DC headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. Drive has a $250 million fund to find the next great Midwest tech firm. / Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY 

Here in Washington, we woke up to a thick blanket of snow from the largest snowstorm of an already active winter season.  The federal government, schools and stores have closed. It got me thinking about what a snow day can tell you about your office, agency or company. It’s a good test that reveals a lot about how you are organized, your technology and your culture.

At my company, we regularly work across multiple client sites, at home, in our D.C. office and in multiple states—snow or no snow. Flexibility is one of our core values. So when a snow day hits, we just keep going. It’s not that different than any other day working from home except for the parents of young children whose schools are closed.

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In the current co-working space and accelerator boom here in D.C., it's no surprise to see more and more sprout up every few months. It is, however, quite interesting to note that many of the newer accelerators here are specialized to certain sectors of the tech industry. For instance, CIT's MACH37 accelerator is tailored to cybersecurity startups and Maryland's Conscious Venture Labs specifically accelerates companies with purpose beyond profits. And soon, Northern Virginia will host the first clean energy accelerator in the region.

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What's the office of the future?

For Regus, which operates close to 2,000 business centers globally, it isn't one where workers stand, walk, or even squat. No, it envisions a world in which people are sitting--in a self-driving office, that is.

On Monday, the company gave a sneak peek at an autonomous concept car, one where the two fronts seats swivel backwards to create a meeting space for four people. In partnership with Rinspeed, a creative studio focusing on the automotive industry, Regus unveiled the XchangE, which will be shown at the Geneva Motor Show in March. In addition to the swiveling chairs, the car's infotainment system will let workers connect to their office and create presentations. Yes, traffic jams will become a lot more productive.

Image: Regus 

1. GOPRO For letting everyone in on the extreme-sports video action. Few companies have built their brand identity on the back of content as completely and entertainingly as the San Mateo, California–based camera maker. It's no surprise that a personal high-definition video camera brand founded by a surfer would use action-packed footage as a marketing tool. But GoPro has gone above and beyond amateur and professional sports activities to inspire viral hits. Just hop over to YouTube to see a music video directed by a dog, a fireman saving a kitten, or an eagle's-eye view of flight. Success is measured in views and sales, but when your brand name becomes a verb, you know you're onto something. Later this year, the brand will take another bold step by introducing a GoPro digital channel to Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

So I was on fire this morning at 3 a.m. after this guy decided to give his opinion about the title of my book “Be Ballsy! How Not To Suck At Love, Success, & Happiness” in a comment thread on FB that had absolutely nothing to do with the actual status update.  In fact the status was about discipline but he placed the comment in that particular thread based on the number of responses and attention he would get. I’ve personally spoken with him for several hours and know that by no means is he successful, nor has he sold any books, and while he’s looking for a way to pay the bills because he’s on government assistance, I’m making a living doing what I’m incredibly passionate about. I’m using this example of why you should stop giving your damn opinion if you haven’t walked the talk and have ZERO interest in doing so.

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Four years before Nagano, Japan was to host the 1998 Winter Olympics, journalist Ben Hills traveled to the site designated as the geographical center of the games. What he found there shocked him: “There is not a piece of machinery in sight, not a sign, not even a fence marking the spot,” he wrote. How could this possibly be the place where hundreds of thousands would converge for one of the world’s biggest sporting events?

Image: http://nextcity.org 

There’s that project you’ve left on the backburner – the one with the deadline that’s growing uncomfortably near.  And there’s the client whose phone call you really should return – the one that does nothing but complain and eat up your valuable time.  Wait, weren’t you going to try to go to the gym more often this year?

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The end of the year is a popular time to publish lists of all sorts. A quick glance at CNN, for example, revealed lists such as "75 Amazing Sports Moments," "The 50 Best Android Apps," "8 Very Old Sites in the New World," and many more.

Here are The Top 10 Most Underappreciated Inventions. The criteria for making this list are: 1. the invention has to be of high value, 2. we take it for granted; we just expect it to be there, and 3. it would be hard to imagine life without it; the substitute for the invention would be unacceptable.

Image: http://www.innovationinpractice.com 

Although studying creativity is considered a legitimate scientific discipline nowadays, it is still a very young one. In the early 1970s, a psychologist named J. P. Guilford was one of the first academic researchers who dared to conduct a study of creativity. One of Guilford’s most famous studies was the nine-dot puzzle, presented with its solution here. He challenged research subjects to connect all nine dots using just four straight lines without lifting their pencils from the page. Today many people are familiar with this puzzle and its solution. In the 1970s, however, very few were even aware of its existence, even though it had been around for almost a century.

Image: http://www.innovationinpractice.com 

A new study by Philip Hans Franses of the Erasmus School of Economics in the Netherlands may suggest the point in time when we reach our creative peak.

Franses examined the lifespans of 221 famous painters between 1800 and 2004, and estimated the year they created their most creative work based on the artist's most expensive painting ever sold. "For each of these artists, the most expensive painting was identified and taken as an indicator of peak creativity," Franses said in the study.

Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Golden_Ratio.png 

James M. Danko, president of Butler University, spent two decades in the business world before going into higher education. In a recent conversation with The Chronicle, he talked about how higher education could be entrepreneurial, innovative, open to change, and better at conveying the value of its "product" to students and parents.

Image: http://chronicle.com 

The app economy currently employs one million developers and 800,000 people in marketing and supporting posts.

In 2013, EU buyers and advertisers also spent €6.1 billion on apps, according to a new report by Gigaom Research. As consumer spending and advertising is expected to grow, the report predicts a booming sector which could grow to €63 billion in annual revenue in five years.

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Regardless of industry, most of us enter the workforce with a few basic goals and aspirations: career satisfaction, financial independence and a steady paycheck.

As time goes on and time-cards get punched, however, it becomes apparent that the source of real job satisfaction runs much deeper. The true test of a well-crafted career is the amount of pride and enthusiasm with which you begin and end each day — being proud of where you’ve come from, what you’ve achieved and where you’re headed.

Image: FLICKR, ALEX PROIMOS  

There's nothing more mind-blowing than completing a trivial task, like reheating leftover pizza for breakfast or carrying groceries inside, only for a friend to show you an easier way — forcing you to question how you ever made it in life without this wonderful piece of knowledge.

Welcome to the world of life hacks, where you'll never do anything again without asking yourself, "Is there a better way I could do this?"

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The brain is at the centre of exciting but challenging new times in neuroscience research.

“We have already identified a lot of gaps in knowledge about treatments of brain diseases,” said Gordon Francis, head of the NeuroInflammation Clinical Science Unit within the NeuroScience Franchise at the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis.

Francis was addressing a conference on Friday (14 February) focusing on brain-related issues in Barcelona, Spain, which advocated for a "brain-political road map" under the motto 'Understanding the brain: Where are we in 2014?'

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“How do we move to an exponential approach to innovation” asks John Hagel, Director of Delioitte’s Centre for the Edge in the latest Decoding the New Economy video.

The Centre For The Edge is Deloitte’s Silicon Valley based think tank that identifies and explores emerging opportunities related to big shifts that are not yet on the senior management agenda.

 Image: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/819458

Innovation plays a crucial role in creating sustainable economic growth. Yet we continue to see, particularly in the EU, obstacles being placed in the way of those best positioned to invent new products, services, or ways of doing business. At the heart of the issue appears to be the fear of risk. But investors, managers and entrepreneurs must take risks if their ideas stand any chance of achieving commercial success.

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You are an aspiring entrepreneur, eager to dump the corporate grind, and work to the beat of your own drummer, but you can’t come up with that killer idea to save the world. What are the alternatives that will give you the independence you crave, and challenge your business acumen?

Technically, I believe an entrepreneur is anyone who manages his own profit and loss, and doesn’t meet the government tax definition of an employee. Beyond the traditional new product or service model, you can always buy an existing business, purchase a franchise, join a multi-level marketing (MLM) company, or simply go out on your own as a consultant.

If you are one of the many people still searching for that job lost during or after the recent depression, or about to dump the loser of a job you have now, you should be working on starting your own business, in parallel with looking for that ideal job. Let me explain why this is a win-win deal, no matter what the outcome.

You have probably secretly always wanted to run your own show, but with an existing job, never took the time to consider a startup. Then there was always the risk of failure, which of course doesn’t apply once your real job is gone. Also, for most of us, not having done it before, we have no idea where or how to start.