Jim had some interesting things to say. His focus was on turning the traditional model of innovation on its head. This concept, known as an Innovation Partnership Zone, emphasized partnering people first, followed by structuring an effort and finally gathering data on it. He feels that people are accustomed to passively accepting the genius handed down to them by researchers. This IPZ system aims at changing that and having dialogue between people and researchers every step of the way.
I particularly liked another focus of his: economic clusters. I have always found it fascinating the way that professionals in a given industry tend to group themselves geographically to encourage either collaboration, or sometimes competition. It got me thinking about the Redmond/Bellevue cluster of technology and interactive entertainment. That cluster could be a fantastic "in" for Dropkick Games, and a way for us to live in the video game industry culture. This would likely help us be more efficient, have other resources to reach out to, and give us a convenient base of operations.
Jim talked about having clusters be relationship oriented, allowing people to come together with dissimilar ideas and technology and creating something. This leaves the traditional method of decisions being handed down by management behind. I like this concept, and our company is trying to implement a fairly open, creative environment by dissolving traditional management roles at least as far as our game development cycle is concerned. We feel that creativity truly stems from individuals being free to collaborate. I liked hearing this sort of ideology reinforced by Jim's talk, and hearing stories of where it has been successful in the past. It gives me hope for our own system and our own future!
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