BIF10: Filling makers with ink while creating graphic recordings.
PHOTO CREDIT: Eirik v Johnsen
Saul Kaplan onstage at BIF10
This past Wednesday and Thursday I had the best seat in the house at the 10th Business Innovation Factory conference (BIF10): the balcony of the Trinity Repertory Theater in Providence, Rhode Island, where I created live the graphic recordings of the 32 storytellers invited to share and inspire from their own lives.
The conference is designed, created and curated by author and innovation provocateur Saul Kaplan. The core of his story is that chose to find a unique path in life, guided by connection to his heart and imagination, after discovering that living under the constraints of a traditional business career was killing his soul and, in the practical world, was the pathway to extinction for business, commerce, and society at large.
The BIF conference started 10 years ago with some ideas from TED creator Richard Saul Wurman (a speaker at this milestone year’s event), and the 32 guests on stage were invited as storytellers, each reflecting on what in their personal life provided the impetus for exploration, discovery, innovation and connection with others.
Some of the speakers brought tears, all brought laughter, and each 20 minute-length talks contained nuggets of ideas and life lessons about engaging with one’s own imagination and the people around you in being a creator and valuable member of the world.
The annual gathering draws approximately 400 people: that’s as many as will fit in the theater, and a comfortable size for these people to make “RANDOM COLLISIONS OF UNUSUAL SUSPECTS”, to spark connection and community during and after the event.
Technologists, artists, educators, city planners, journalists, teen-aged geniuses who make life-altering discoveries in health… these are just some of the unusual suspects, both on stage and in the audience.
Here are the graphic recordings, which are stored on Flickr and may be shared through a Creative Commons License, or viewed as a gallery.
