A Global Innovation Jam

“A huge part of InnovationJam’s intent and real success was to deepen and expand our understanding of what innovation requires: contributions from technology, for sure, but also new approaches to business models, a deep understanding of the marketplace and real client needs. In a sense, InnovationJam was as much about learning innovation by doing as it was a new way to innovate.”

“Jamming is a form of brainstorming. And the first thing you have to learn in brainstorming is: Take in all the ideas. Even if the ideas are crazy, take ‘em all in. That means you’re going to get a lot of garbage. But it forces you to think out of the box. You do it on this scale, you come out, and you’re just completely saturated with stuff and you have to come up with some way to winnow those things down.”

“Twenty-first century innovation is open, global, multidisciplinary, and collaborative.”

“What makes a city great? It’s the people. The IBM Jam has helped us to harness the wisdom, energy and restless ambition of the people of Coventry.”

“From where I sit, it would have taken 10 years travelling around the globe and asking questions and doing presentations to gather this wealth of intellectual capital. The power of the Jam is that not only do I have visibility over those ideas, but every GTS employee does also.”