What makes a conference innovative? Let´s learn from Finland!

I myself have participated in 3 TCI Conferences.  Is this enough experience to say that this 12th one in Finland was the most innovative one? 3 are not 12, that´s true.  And it is also true that every conference might have had its special highlights. Then let´s phrase it differently: This conference was one of the most interactive and innovative one!

What makes a conference innovative? Before jumping directly to the answer let´s lean back and imagine the following: You are entering a large hall with many strange machines standing around, and a lot of noise. On a desk next to you many thumbnail sketches and drawings are lying around, in a laboratory at the room´s corner  there is steam bubbling out of pots and test tubes. What the hell is going on here?, you might ask yourself. Then you see a small person with red hair coming out of the other corner of the room. He comes closer to you, shakes you the hand and says: Welcome in my inventory hall . I am Gyro Gearloose, the best inventor of the world!

How would you react if he shows you his newest inventions, like one that makes chairs walking around, a table cleaning itself, a machine that can massage your head, or small robots who look like aliens but are very helpful? You might be excited, or you might think: for what does the world need this?

What has this to do with an  innovative conference or with large group facilitation approaches? A lot. In most conferences on innovation you are not finding new inventions in the program design, a lack of innovative interaction, facilitation formats and of the use of social media. You seldom get surprised in this sense. What we in general still experience in many of these events is a very frontal style of communication. The principles of this static approach are the following:

• one is talking, the others are listening
• one is the master who teaches the others, the others are the the ones who are there to learn
• the presentation style is normally power point with many content, less visualisation and lack of use of different interactive media
• the discussion time after the presentation is normally short and exchange of experiences often gets less attention

This structure of events is good if participants want to get mainly input of information. Nonetheless this input can also be given via a video show or through searching the internet for cluster expert speeches on on youtube. The main advantage of a conference like e.g. the TCI is the opportunity to exchange with experts, who are working in their daily live on cluster development issues, and who have collected so much experiences. The question is how to bring the participants together in the way where the share their experiences and expertise in the most effective way?

The TCI Conferences always used the format of workshops as one method for interaction. Nonetheless the workshops again were often, not always,  again based on Power point presentations from different experts.

So what was new in this TCI Conference?  For me it was obvious from the first moment I entered the TCI hall and saw the program and in which design some  ”Gyro type” seemed to have been involved. It entailed new methods, story telling elements, and interaction. I then visited the cluster lounge that provided a nice atmospehere for conversation, a newsletter on the table that did not only looked nice, but also had interesting headlines and was even nicely written. When I then entered the plenum hall the chairs were not standing in line. Instead the whole hall was set up like a cafe, with many small tables standing around and decorated with nice smiling pumpkins.

there were other screenplay elements that enriched the whole design of the event:

• the use of new media tools (like chat and recordings during the plenum sessions),
• the  Learning Journey,
• the Cluster Clinic,
• facilitated working groups through a team of facilitators,
• the TCI and Cluster Café,
• evening tours like the “walk on the moon”
• and the whole scene arrangement at the Kalevala night (including boat trip, arrival at the harbour with welcome drinks, candle- and fire design as well as traditional story telling).

Similar to the visit in Gory´s hall, what have you thought while being confronted by these new TCI Conference inventions? For some it was fascinating, for others strange or even totally crazy, some liked some elements and others not, some would like to go back to the traditional and comfortable style, others would like to continue these explorative elements. Finally it is all about innovation, about implementing something new, about inventing a new process, challenging the participants and taking the risk (and the opportunity!) of getting critisized and/or celebrated.

What was different in this Conference? It entailed

• the emphasis on interaction (e.g. TCI Cafe),
• different entrance points  for different characters (learning journey, workshops, academic summits, presentations)
• a new style of facilitation through a group of facilitators in most of the working groups
• a funny and professional style of moderation by Erkki Toivanen
• presenters like Madeline Smith, Patrick Dixon, and Pekka Himanen who brought new elements of thinking into the Conference
• elements mentioned above like the scene, the setting, the golden thread of the Conference.

Some of the participants felt overwhelmed by the self-organizing expectations the organization team expected. Useful would have been

• a more profound explanation about the different new methods and instruments
• a bit more “faci-pulation” in the sense of guidance and strure provision during the faciliation process of the working groups
• an introduction into the “screen-play of the week”
• as well as a short introduction about the interrelation between the term “innovation” and the new style of the Conference design

New inventions and innovations of products or processes cannot and do not have to be perfect on the first spot. Gory Gearloose and the TCI organisational team knew that and took the risk. What we as participants have to learn is that invention and innovation is about doing things differently and about doing different things. And it is about having the courage to try out these new paths.

There is much to learn from the innovative style of the Conference in Finland. Going back to the traditional frontal and power-point-packed design would be a discreditation of the innovative learnings that were made. This Conference will hopefully be seen only as a starting point for the further use of innovative tools and methods with the objective to create an even more interactive and learning oriented environment. There are additional elements that could be integrated e.g. like open space technologies, more effective workshop structures, and additional facilitation methods.

he TCI conference needs to become a place where experts from around the world do not only talk about innovation and innovation systems but also use their meetings as a playing and learning field on new formats of change facilitation and interaction. Let us support this process, so that Dubai will not be a step back to tradition, but a way forward to more innovative exploration.

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