By Jim Lundy
I attended Spigit’s third annual SIS summit in Dana Point two weeks ago and it was one of the more memorable customer summits I have attended in a long time. The biggest reason was that it was almost more of a retreat that discussed the entire spectrum of innovation, rather than a vendor event. This blog post summarizes some of our findings.
First, if there was anything that was crystalized during the event, it was the commitment of the attendees to the topic of innovation. Nearly every conversation was about the art and science of innovation and idea management. The attendees were engaged and because of the forum and the discussion, it was more about the topic and less about the product. That said, the Spigit team cleverly wove their product and services messages into the sessions.
Innovate
Paul Pluschkell, the Founder and CEO of Spigit gave a great talk about where innovation is headed, particularly with the new features in their Spigit Engage platform. Sir Ken Robinson, a popular author and speaker, gave a great talk about Innovation and about people that drive innovation, such as Apple’s Jonathan Ive. His talk was very good, the private lunch he had with some customers was even better.
Later that day, I gave a talk about the coming Innovation Revolution and how enterprises will start to manage innovation as a process. Many customers spoke too, including Citibank, MetLife and others. It was interesting to hear Susan Andrews of Citi discuss how they approach innovation. It was also interesting to see the largest bank from Russia at the event too. Highmark Blue Cross, from my home state of Pennsylvania was also there.
Collaborate
The relaxed atmosphere of Dana Point, California (near Laguna Beach) was perfect to get people out of their work focused atmosphere. Informal gatherings started the minute you arrived. It made it easier to interact, especially after the Musical Drum attendee jam session that happened the opening morning. The mix of sessions and topics made for a relaxing environment. Not too tech heavy, a good blend.
Learning to Innovate
It was generally agreed via informal consensus that people were leaving the event invigorated and motivated. Spigit gave a nice overview of their forward looking product roadmap and they got some nice kudos from the audience. It was a social learning experience, one of the best I’ve seen. The reason for that was people were learning from each other and they were liking it.
It isn’t easy to pull off a summit that focuses exclusively on innovation, which involves software, culture, process and lots more. The Spigit team, led by veteran CMO Shail Khiyara, did that. Now, Spigit gets to take the Innovation messages from #SIS13 to the masses.