One-day Workshop: Innovation Architect
On June 6th (the day before the forum), Paddy Miller and I will host a one-day Innovation Architect workshop, aimed at experienced innovation leaders. The workshop is a concentrated version of our regular program and also includes lunch sessions during the Forum.

Keynote speech – Innovation Architect
On June 7th, we are featured as keynote speakers at the forum, presenting our work on the Innovation Architect and sharing a few insights from our forthcoming book. We will be sharing the stage with a great line-up of speakers this year, including Clayton Christensen, Tony Hsieh, Daniel Pink, Roger Martin and Paola Antonelli.

Red Thread Breakfast
On the morning of June 8th, we host a ‘Red Thread’ breakfast at IESE which is open for all Forum participants. Apart from some good breakfast grub, the Red Thread session will provide something which is often missing from big seminars – namely some concrete take-aways about how to apply the insights from the forum to your own situation.

You can find more information at IESE’s website.

This Friday I will be moderating a panel discussion on Smart Tech at the annual Doing Good Doing Well conference in Barcelona.

The panel is on the role of innovation and technology in CO2 emissions, and will feature some pretty interesting speakers: Molly Webb from The Climate Group, Emmanuel Lagarrique, Senior VP of Scheider Electric, and Andy Eggleston of Eggleston Partners. Details below.

“Smart Technology: Can IT reduce CO2 emissions?”
This panel, based on the Smart 2020 report written by The Climate Group, will focus on the potential of IT in cutting CO2 emissions across industries: energy, transport, buildings, etc. This transformation will be driven by climate change but will also reduce costs and create competitive advantage. The panel will put into light a new field of innovation, which generates tremendous job and entrepreneurial opportunities.

On the day after New Year’s Eve, 1962, the nervous young band members and their manager entered the Decca Records studio to do an audition for a record contract. The manager had great confidence in the band’s potential, but he had trouble convincing the record labels to offer them a contract. In fact, the labels wouldn’t even give them an audition. He had only managed to get that day’s audition with Decca because he had privately contacted the record label and, without the band’s knowledge, offered to pay the cost of the audition out of his own pocket.

The tape that the band recorded that day, containing 15 songs, was sent to one of the record label’s producers, Dick Rowe. Rowe, an experienced professional with more than 20 years in the business, was known as a great talent spotter, and spent most of his time searching for new bands. After he had listened to the recording, Rowe contacted the manager, bringing bad news. Rowe was sorry; he did not think the band had commercial potential, and Decca would under no circumstances offer them a recording contract. He then made the statement that would become his public epitaph: “Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein.”

If Brian Epstein hadn’t entered his life on that day in January, Dick Rowe would still be known to the world as a great and talented record producer. But after a fateful day, based on one rapid judgment call, all that was forgotten. After that day, Dick Rowe would forevermore be known as only one thing: the man who said no to The Beatles.
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Read the rest of the entry on our Creative Cultures blog.