Dialogue & Innovation: Carnegie Mellon School of Design hosts Ben Fry 2006-2007

Innovation and idea creation is accelerated by exposing new thinking through dialogue. This year Information Designer Ben Fry is the Nierenberg Chair of Design at the Design School at Carnegie Mellon. Read here.Theodore D. Nierenberg, a founder of Dansk International Designs, realized that the presence of innovators like Ben will accelerate new idea creation wherever they work by the conversations they participate in.

Tuesdays@FUTURE offer a place for strategic conversation. Open Source Economic Development process leverages a disciplined approach to what we call "strategic doing" - moving ideas quickly to action. This simple process is anchored in four basic questions: "Where are we going?" (Set a clear vision with understandable metrics), "Who's on the bus?" (explore & connect interests), "Who can contribute what?" (align resources), "What's next?" (focus on practical next steps).

The goal in establishing the Nierenberg Chair of Design is to enhance the vitality of the School of Design for students and faculty by encouraging dialogue on important issues of the field, the exploration of contemporary forms of design practice, and promoting research that will affect future practice and understanding.

Ben explains: “For the type of work that I do, one of the most common questions that I get is: how do I do this? And where can I find other people that can do this type of work? Addressing the first part is a personal goal, that I'm always trying to learn how to explain it better. If I'm successful in that, then I'll have a better answer to the second part because there will be more students exposed to this kind of thinking.”

What would this look like in NEO?