Gregg Fraley

I’ve been involved* these past two years with a creativity conference in Oklahoma, now called the State of Creativity Forum. This conference has energy to spare, it feels like an accelerating fire of innovative energy. Last year’s event (for a summary look at this post) exploded with dynamic speakers, cultural, and artist happenings. Even the governor, Mary Fallin, was there to support the notion that creativity and innovation is how Oklahoma moves forward. This year features Sir Ken Robinson and Peter Diamandis of X Prize fame — and that’s just the start. It’s all taking place November 13th in Oklahoma City. By all means, if you want a great taster, or even a major feast of creative stimulation, this is

Read More..

I participate when I can in a Twitter-based chat session, called Innochat. It happens every Thursday around noon USA eastern time. Most of the participants are innovation geeks like myself, consultants, writers, company innovation directors, professors, etc. — tune in, it’s interesting. Last Thursday we were chatting about innovation books. There are a ton of innovation books out there, some of which I’ve reviewed here. The insight that seemed to dawn on several of us at the same time is that there really isn’t a great innovation book geared for small business. Scott D. Anthony’s recent Little Black Book of Innovation comes close, but, forgive me for saying so, there is a certain “MBA-speak” (and just MBA ‘think’) even in

Read More..

Nashville, Tennessee — Saturday May 12, Gonzeaux #6 Nashville is throwing the recession out of town. The building boom cut short by the downturn seems to be back in full swing here. A huge new convention centre is going up, downtown residences, and an extension to the already way cool Country Music Hall of Fame is nearly done. Good stuff, but for me, beside the point — not Gonzeaux Innovation material. The innovation story here has more do do with persistence of effort and entrepreneur’s who simply don’t stop until they make something happen — persistence personifies Nashville innovation — two cases in point: 1. Snappy Auctions: Debbie Gordon had a fairly brilliant idea a few years back to help people

Read More..

While ordering a grande Americano with room at Starbucks the other day, I noticed a counter display. It had a stack of cards with the title “Let’s Create Jobs for USA” across the top and then below it a red, white, and blue wristband. It’s elastic and not the usual plastic you see in these things, and, it has a coupler made of metal with the word “invincible” engraved on it. They requested a $5 donation.  I read the cards and bought one on the spot. I’m proud to wear it. The answer to my question of whether a wristband can create USA jobs is an emphatic Yes. There are already innovation success stories. I’m a wristband-come-lately — this has been

Read More..

It comes like clockwork, once a week, an HTML email letting me know about the latest edition of Innovation Tools.  As I was thinking about what to post today related to innovation and reading Innovation Tools at the same time, I got one of those lovely “aha” moments (or maybe it was just an obvious but good idea hitting me over the head with a sledge hammer). Everyone should know about Innovation Tools. It’s probably the largest ezine/portal related to business innovation. Just as important, it’s a site you can trust has no hidden agenda. If you haven’t checked it out yet, and you are at all in the creativity and innovation space, either as a supplier or on the

Read More..

This mornings Independent brings the story that Britanica is publishing its last set of encyclopaedias — after 244 years of continuous editions. The story strikes a chord. My family invested in those glorious leatherette tomes when I was a boy and I spent many hours delving into those books. This was of course before the Internet — which, by the way, is going to be big. It’s a story of a lack of innovative courage. A hesitancy to ask themselves big, bold, brave, questions (see KILN for how). Britanica is going the way of Kodak. They are being bypassed by a world that is simply doing things differently. A world that is no longer using film to make memories, and

Read More..

Yes, I’ve updated my website and blog. It’s been a surprisingly fun project due to having a great technology and brand innovation partner in the firm Reuben-Hunter. Not only does it look better, it will be easier to change — and I can do it myself! I’m confident it’s more engaging, and will achieve higher rankings, sell more books and speeches and lead to more business. As an innovation expert (God love me) doing my own house cleaning and updating my brand brings me back to some basics. In other words I should listen to my own advice. Anyway, allow me to share two simple thoughts: 1.) If it ain’t broke, break it — my old website worked in the sense

Read More..

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is a creative and innovative endeavor. OWS has reinvented the concept of a protest. This post is a look at the creativity and innovation aspects of OWS, and not a political commentary. Public protest did need to be reinvented. As a brand, protests had lost shelf space — media attention. Protests of the last, say 30 years, have been decidedly ho-hum and almost completely ineffective. Between permits, gates, fences, and area exclusions, they were useless as means of democratic self-expression. The media hasn’t seen protests as news for years, but now that’s all changed. OWS is a big story and it will only get bigger until something — the conditions, government, authorities, laws, change. How did

Read More..

Aye, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, and on this day of saints, I cannot tell a lie. There is a pervasive and growing cliché in the innovation business, and it’s starting to drive me a bit nuts, ready? “Ideas are a  dime a dozen” and it’s usually coupled with the thought “it’s not about ideas, it’s about execution.” If you do a Google search on those phrases you’ll find many current links to blogs, business articles, and famous quotes pages. At a recent innovation conference in Berlin (FEI 2011) I heard this thinking echoed in several speakers presentations. Patrick Lefler, clearly a bottom line guy, wrote this recent piece, which was posted on the Blogging Innovation site, but there are many others

Read More..

I’ve been asked by intelligent people why I bother with Twitter. The short answer, for me, is — marketing. But, it’s not only marketing and that glib answer will hardly suffice for those who really are seeking to understand the phenomena.  I passed 7,000 followers this past week, and I consider that an accomplishment. Now, not everybody needs to have that kind of Following, in fact, depending on your goals, 100 or less might be exactly what you want.  Your goals with Twitter will be different if you’re playing for yourself, or for an organization. They’ll be different depending on your personal desires. This post is more about how and why an individual might get to Tweeting, see my 7

Read More..