Rooftop Garden coming up…

Last week I visited the ‘Nationaal Sutainability Congres’ in The Hague. The largest sustainability event in our country where around 700 people came together to discuss, to learn and to inspire. A bit more of the first than the latter perhaps, but it’s very comforting to be in a room full of people working (and talking) on sustainable change!

Two main conclusions stayed with me after the conference.

The first was stated quite clear and shared by all people present: It’s time to stop talking and start doing. Which is kind of a dual message in a room full of people talking about the topic. But still.. Read the rest of this entry »

Very succesful co-creation of a Business Modeling book

Here comes an inspiring story.

When researcher Alex Osterwalder was looking for a model for making business models, he could not find it. Or he could not find one he liked. None of them he found he could use across mutiple industries. So he decided to makes his own model together with a few other people. Enter Patrick. When Patrick van der Peijl found out about Alex’s project, he joined in and suggested to set up a community to make the book and model even stronger. The Hub was born.

What was so inspiring? When coming up with the idea to co-create abook on business modeling, they invented a new businss model with it. It was done before, but not with people actually paying for contributing. 400 People paid an average of 50 euros for being part of it, being able to suggest content, get the book first and be mentioned in the book. I thought it was a great examples of our 5 guiding principles of co-creation and presented my toughts on the official launch of the beta version of the book a few weeks ago in Amsterdam. 60 People showed up for a very well organised and inspiring day. The drawing is our model summarised by Paul den Dulk. The book launches later this year.

Anyone else with a new co-creation business model that works?

Creative Company Conference 2009 - Amsterdam

This week, I visited the Creative Company Conference in Amsterdam. A number of speakers was very interesting, including mister Amnon Levav of the Israeli firm Innovation SIT who spoke inspiringly about how innovation is often stimulated through challenges or discomfort, and usually found at the end of the path of MOST resistance. His analysis of structural, functional and relational ‘fixedness’ traps was a minor breakthrough to me.

The undisputed highlight of the day however was Sir Ken Robinson, who lectured about the importance of changing the way we look at education, chilling with Paul McCartney and his wife’s love of Elvis. I intend to read his new book “The Element” soon.

All in all, the event was fun, and I left inspired. I feel that in this day & age however, a conference like this should have wi-fi. Interestingly, there were rumors of a TedX event to be organised in Amsterdam soon. Let’s hope we can get a program together that deserves the ‘accolades of Ted-ness’.

Applause to Delft University for practicing what we preach!

That co-creation is hot right now, we already know. And that many companies are looking for ways to implement it… also no hot news. But sitting still will not lead you in any new direction either. Some advice? Just do it! It doesn’t have to be hard or complicated. Invite some people who know more or different things than you do and voilà: fresh input!

A good example was presented to me yesterday, when we were invited at Read the rest of this entry »

We need a community!

One thing is clear, communities are hot. They seem to be popping up all around us as an increasing number of companies and people have the growing urge to ’start a community’. But where to start?

Last week we attended the 3rd Social Strategy Talk at the Westerunie, titled ‘Doe mij een community’. PSV, de Rabobank, a podcast priest and an Obama campaign member shared their experience and knowledge on creating and maintaining a community. Below a little more on the lessons learned. Read the rest of this entry »

You think people love Apple now? Watch them scream 25 years ago

You can find Steve Jobs’ first big presentation from 1984 online. Hear the crowd soaring. When we at Fronteer talk about smart brands, we talk about Apple (sometimes). The thing is, this brand is built in a quarter century. It was carefully constructed and nurtured over the years.

When you have people screaming for more at your first real introduction, and 25 years later still… what can we add to that? Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome on board - Or rather not?

The Joys of Airline Travel - published in Second Sight Trend magazine. Sorry - only in Dutch

Verdoemenis in het Inferno van Dante? Een zondagse wandeling in het bos – met pannenkoek! – vergeleken met het lot van een hedendaagse reiziger.

We gaan er even vanuit dat we niet bij de 5% “sorry overboekt” horen die met een McDonaldsbon het riet in worden gestuurd, noch dat onze vlucht wegens omstandigheden (niet vol) wordt gecancelled.

We hebben dan na de dame van de marechaussee nog precies een uur en achtendertig minuten om bij de gate te komen – en die hebben we nodig ook, want het is naar C99 nog 8 kilometer lopen. Snelwandelend geven we nog even 9 euro uit aan een flesje water. Read the rest of this entry »