I’ve been mulling over the transition from ‘brain for hire’ to ‘products for purchase’. In my innovative world, the goal for me is always to help people re-discover their creative talents and passions and apply them at work. And, given I’m an Ideas guy, I end up using Ideas as the touchstone to help them rediscover their talents to innovate…ideas. Its a circular conumdrum that makes sense in the verbal telling but doesn’t translate so well to type.

That said, for the past lets say 5 years I’ve been working up different Ideas about ways to truly help people have Better Ideas. The curiosity is that I’m on the verge of collecting all of these ‘ways’ into a ‘product’ that others can use to help have Better Ideas, because these products will help them become aware of their own creativity, do more with it and collaborate around theirs and others to innovate Better Ideas. I believe in this product, I’ve walked my own talk and created it based on real audience need (and unknown wants), it’s been tested, piloted and developed. I’ve had some of the UK’s finest help me think, craft and execute. And we’re on the verge of signing a real client who see’s the smarts, has the conscious need and strategic foresight to make bold steps into this space - and is passionate about making it work.

Thats taken a long paragraph to describe and you still may not know what the hell I’m talking about - which brings me to my point. I’ve funded this venture to date and will keep funding it because it’s such a big opportunity, it’s an innovate solution and it could blow up big whilst truly delivering value - a project worth doing on all accounts. However, I need to connect and collaborate ongoing with smart people and organistions around the project to realise it’s potential.

And so to Innovate UK - otherwise known as Technology Strategy Board. Here’s the rub. They have currently got a competition to ‘give-away’ £18milion to start ups that are working in the digital innovation space to help drive innovation capabilities across Britain.

My project fits the bill - no question. I’ve run it by a few authoritative persons and they 100% agree.

Like lotto tho - you gotta be in to win. What that requires is for me to down tools, spend a quantity of quality time to fill in pages of documentation - not my best of skills lets be honest - and post it in blind i.e. no other supporting materials, no presentation, no mockups, pilots, links, images, testimonials etc etc ec bloody cetera.

I don’t have the time to stop. doing. so that I can apply for ‘free’ govt cash to help with this project that will help others get innovating. Maybe I should look at my priorities - but innovation in business is my business, I gotta keep innovating to stay in the innovating business - so who has the time to stop doing that to fill in a load of forms when a ‘dragons style’ 5 mins would explain all.

This competition opportunity will go begging because I’m furiously working to stay smart and keep doing. Needs must.

Maybe it’s meant to be this way. I don’t mind - I really don’t. I’m excited as all hell and am going the extra miles because I’m so pumped.

Maybe in a bit I’ll pitch the TSB to see if I can’t help tart up how they facilitate their competition offers - and use Wayne to show them how…

Well it’s been a long shall we say pregnancy (altho want to be careful about carrying that metaphor too far!) but finally our very own Wayne is here and in the ‘beta’ world. Who would have thought a proposed 4 month build would take a year - but there you go, take that for your naivety in all things webby software world.

Of course this will mean nothing to our 4 blog readers - because even if you did click thru to meet Wayne you won’t be able to get in because it’s invites only. That said, if you are keen please email ‘wayne@usingwayne.com’ and am sure we can sort you out for a ‘meet and greet’.

For the rest of the innovating world, we give our silent promise that the name Wayne will soon be manifest  above any and all World Cup footballing frustration to the dizzying heights of Creative Mastery…

ps - many thanks to the Nike commercial for metaphorically writing our Waynes future (we like to think the positive on bended royal knee version!!)

Norville Barnes, originally from Muncie, Indiana but arrives in New York City as the inventor of the Hula Hoop - so goes the film The Hudsucker Proxy in which Norville uttered those simple words when ‘pitching’ his idea (which consisted of a round circle sketched on a note, him holding this piece of paper out in front and stating confidently ‘you know…for Kids’). Well, we ourselves are off to NYNY next week to ‘pitch’ one of our IndustryApproved Ideas and it is certainly - well, you know…for Kids. It’s an exciting idea, an app for iPhones and iPads that translates our innovative expertise for the youngest audience in fun, imaginative ways. Could be really cool - and starts us down a new productive path. You know…for others…

Last week I helped Sony Music craft a pending fresh release from the 1 time genius that was Jimmi Hendrix. Without diving into the creative details, one thing it inspired in me was the nature of ‘rebellion’ or more specifically ‘cultural rebellion’. You might recall that Jimmi Hendirx is kinda synonymous with the 60’s and specially that period of turmoil around 68′ and 69′ with the anti war period etc - see any clip of Vietnam and chances are it’s soundtracked by a Hendrix guitar riff. That’s not to say Hendrix was a rebel, he was just doing his virtuoso thing. But his fans, the times, the cultural mood was one of rebellion and it seems they chose Hendrix music as part of their playlist. Which got me thinking about ‘today’ - what or who is a rebel today? And what are they rebelling against? And how are they doing it? What is todays modern expression of that kind of rebellion? It’s an intriguing question that actually doesn’t have a lot of answers or icons…which is either slightly depressing or a massive creative opportunity. Hmmmm.

My idea was to use this blog as my creative digital journal - but given I take the moleskin everywhere I haven’t really had the wordpressing need. But we’re currently helping Random House publishing take a quick temperature check into the gifting book market - discovering some fresh learnings around who gives what to whom and why when it comes to gifting and receiving books as chrissy gifts. And pictures can say so much more than words eh - so thought I’d get posting my pictures again.

We all know there is a recession on and this downturn is having a big impact on high street shopping and who knows when it’s going to upturn. . What we also know from our work with Sony Music over the past 2+ years is that more and more of the shopping of entertainment ideas is going online, which is having a major impact in the way things like books, CD’s, DVD’s etc are discovered, purchased, enjoyed and shared.

So last weekend we were in Kingston doing some people ‘meet + greets’ and I walked past the local Borders - or what was left of it. The whole place was on sale, and not just the things on the shelves - you could actually purchase the shelves themselves if so motivated!! I took a few pics of this seemingly sad demise of another high street store and then asked the people we were recruiting their thoughts about the closure of Borders - you know the mad thing about this, leaving aside their perceived differences of Borders vs Waterstones vs W H Smiths etc, they said that all the 40-50% off sales signs actually put them off going in, that it made it all seem a bit street bazaar - so they continued on past and headed to Waterstones. I guess that’s why it’s called ‘down’ and ‘out’!!!

And so finishes this US book retailing import experience (interestingly this store had a Starbucks in it as well…more about that lot soon me thinks)

so most of our friends know we’ve been working with SonyBMG people to help launch a fantastic new album. we innovated the concept and then engaged some new friends at WorkClub to create a gorgeous album experience that is currently 4 short films inspired by the tracks on this new album (7 more films coming)…take a look here and experience it for yourself, we’re sure you’ll love it - cos its industryapproved!

so went the name of our conference - under the banner of ‘london in prague’, taking the innovation expertise of london on the road. this year we wanted more of a ‘workshop’ approach; a morning of insight from our invited speakers and then an afternoon of creative inspiration - using the 2.0 insights and generating ideas against the working brief of ‘water conservation’ in czech. even tho it was a big blue sky challenge, the teams did a great job applying the stimulus. we’re loading the ideas onto the site & 1 specific idea is being developed further to be launched. brilliant.

check out london in prague

ps points for counting how many times I say ‘inspiring’