Idea Crossing Blog

we were interview for this report....check it out.

The most comprehensive framework / study on open innovation was released.

http://mass-customization.blogs.com/mass_customization_open_i/oi-market-study/

"Our motivation to conduct the research for this report was to support a manager's decisions when planning an open innovation venture. Managers shall gain an overview of the intermediaries available for open innovation from a global perspective and will get advice how to identify partners for their project in a directed way."   -Frank Piller & Kathleen Diener

Idea Crossing's Skild (beta) platform is powering the inaugural Cooney Prizes.

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop launched the inaugural Cooney Center Prizes for Innovation in Childrens Learning, a national competition to inspire and identify breakthrough ideas in digital media and learning for kids.

 The goal of the Cooney Center Prizes for Innovation is to identify, inspire, nurture, and scale breakthrough ideas in children’s digital media and learning. The program will annually award cash prizes and provide ongoing business planning support and mentorship to a new generation of children’s media entrepreneurs and visionaries.

Idea Crossing was interviewed and selected as one of a dozen case studies (see page 13 & 83) in a report on philanthropic innovation prizes released last week by McKinsey & Co's Social Sector Practice. Idea Crossing is the only for-profit organization with a portfolio of experience conducting online innovation prizes spanning corporations, foundations and academia. Other organizations such as the X PRIZE Foundation and NetFlix Prize are also case studies.

Several references are made to our Challenge Accelerator software platform as a tool to help give organizations the ability to run their own innovation prizes and streamline the administration of idea contests. Also featured is the Ruckus Nation idea competition.

Download the report

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Philanthropists and governments have long used prizes to drive innovation for societal benefit, and during the past decade they have grown significantly in number, size and diversity. In response to this growth, organizations have started asking smart questions about when to create prizes, how to ensure they are effective, and how best to administer them.

A new report by McKinsey & Company's Social Sector Office, "And the Winner is...Capturing the Promise of Philanthropic Prizes,"  takes a close look at the field of prize philanthropy and aims to provide answers to some of these challenging questions. The intent of the report is to help improve current prizes and stimulate effective future use by offering simple design frameworks and by compiling useful lessons and best practices for sponsors. While the report is geared primarily towards the philanthropic sponsor, we believe these perspectives will also be helpful to governments and companies considering prizes.

Key findings include:

• Prizes are useful tools for solving problems for which the objective is clear, but the way to achieve it is not.

• The strength of a prize is usually derived from its strategy, not the size of its purse.

• There are no short cuts for a distinctive prize; significant resources must be invested in its strategy, design, and administration.

• Awarding the prize is just the beginning. Post-prize investment can reinforce a winning idea or bring it to scale, and can be used to apply lessons learned for future competitions.

Last year, Idea Crossing helped HopeLab design and power the Ruckus Nation idea competition (read case study) and today I received an email that they've been named to Fast Company magazine's 10 Best Social Enterprises of 2009 for their video games for health work!

Read the article

Congratulations to Pat and the entire HopeLab team! They are truly an innovative organization that is changing the world.

Earlier this fall, some of your may have seen our press release, announcing that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was the first philanthropic organization to sponsor the Innovation Challenge®.

We also announced that for the first time in the history of the Innovation Challenge or any idea competition we've powered the ideas generated by contestant teams will be released into the public domain. That means that any organization may utilize the ideas for any purpose.  We hope the ideas spark the imagination of others working on related initiatives and ultimately are used for the benefit of humanity.

Below are the Top 9 of 85 concepts. Each concept plan contains 2 pages of written text, an illustration, judging feedback and score report. Check back later here or subscribe to our blog for the release of the remaining 76 concept plans.

To view the ideas in full screen mode click this button:  

The sponsor Robert Wood Johnson Foundation asked the following question:

How might we use mobile technologies to prevent HIV infection in Gen Y? 

Los Angeles, CA - December 11, 2008 -Idea Crossing's (www.ideacrossing.com) 6th Annual Innovation Challenge® (www.innovationchallenge.com), the world's largest Innovation competition for MBA students, hosted by the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, announces the winners of this year's competition. Teams from the Darden School itself won all three prizes in the finals, including 'Most Innovative MBA Team in the World.'

The Innovation Challenge® was created and is operated by Idea Crossing, whose mission is to help organizations capture the world's imagination and use it to solve crucial strategic challenges. Sponsors of this year's Innovation Challenge include American Express OPEN(SM) and Hilton Hotels which sponsored the winning prizes, as well as the Navy Federal Credit Union, RBC Bank, and the Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

This year's Innovation Challenge® attracted 264 teams from 55 schools for a total of 1139 contestants representing 48 countries worldwide.Ten Teams qualified for the finals this year from a variety of business schools across the country, including the Australian Graduate School of Management, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Manchester Business School (with two teams), UC Davis, VCU Brandcenter and the Darden School of Business, with three teams.

Darden's two winning teams, Team Wildhoos and Team Alchemy won the American Express OPEN Award and the $20,000 overall prize that is presented to the most innovative MBA team, and was designated 'The Most Innovative MBA Team in the World.' Team Wildhoos was made up of Darden students Joanna Johnson, Katie Wilson, Kathryn Adams, Andrew Hutchinson and Austin Collins. Team Alchemy won the Hilton Award, and consisted of Darden students Michael Mills, Andrew Beasley, Jon Pugh, and Doug Hopek.

'On behalf of Idea Crossing, I would like to congratulate the winners of this year's Innovation Challenge competition,' said Anil Rathi, CEO & Founder of Idea Crossing. 'After several attempts in previous years, this was the first time student teams from the hosting institution won the competition. It was also the first year that wechose to allow the sponsors - American Express OPEN and Hilton - to each award their top choice. All the judges together picked an overall 1st place winner across both days of presentations. It was not considered likely that one team would win more than one prize, but Darden teams swept all three top prize categories. 

Philippe Sommer, a director at the Batten Institute commented, 'On behalf of the Darden School of Business and the Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship, and of course Team Wildhoos and Team Alchemy, it is a true honor to accept these awards. We are proud of the 38 Darden Teams and 142 Darden students who participated, and are particularly proud of the students on teams Wildhoos and Alchemy for sweeping all three top prize categories, including, of course, the honorific, ‘Most Innovative MBA Team in the World. This success is all the more gratifying since in prior years Darden teams either did not place among the finals, or if they did, failed to win.''

About Idea Crossing, Inc.

Idea Crossing is the owner and operator of the Innovation Challenge® competitions, the MBA edition is the largest competition of its kind in the world, consistently uniting hundreds of teams from the top 100 MBA programs worldwide with some of the biggest global brands in a groundbreaking experience designed to solve real-world business challenges. Visit www.ideacrossing.com for more information. Idea Crossing helps organizations capture the world's imagination and use it to solve strategic challenges. Idea Crossing helps clients design and produce idea contests or innovation competitions using its customizable software platform called Challenge Accelerator®. Over the last six years, Idea Crossing has designed, powered and supported several competitions for global brands, foundations and academic organizations. Idea Crossing's competitions have been featured in leading publications like CNN Money, Inc. Magazine, Business 2.0, Chicago Tribune and many others on the topic of open innovation, crowdsourcing, crowdcasting and philanthropic innovation prizes.