GIS Experience

In this project I lead the effort to bring people, organizations, and resources together to reimagine the way we live, work, and play through actionable and accessible processes. I worked with a small team of designers and volunteers to ideate and implement more purposeful methodologies to understand what, how, and why we “innovate.” The 2nd annual Global Innovation Summit served as an opportunity to provide tangible proof of concept for these ideas. While doubling attendance, and quadrupling revenue from the previous year, this experience design project brought more than 90 attendees and 15+ speakers together to talk about new ideas, debate better ways to work and learn about processes that accelerate innovation.

Out of all the details considered, perhaps my favorite was partnering with nonprofits who are social innovators in their own right, like 321 Coffee, Trees for the Triangle, and the Dorothea Dix Park Conservancy. With this conference, we were able to donate over $1200 to these amazing organizations working to make the triangle community a better place to live, work, and play.

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The Mission

The Global Innovation Summit is a conference that brings together business owners, thought leaders, change makers and entrepreneurs to discuss, challenge, and learn about innovation in a cross-disciplinary environment.

Attendees engaged in interactive talks with audience-generated content, joined in hands-on workshops with resources as takeaways, and connected with industry experts in an accessible, open forum. Our goal was to go beyond the conversation and take the first steps to break barriers, build relationships, and forge a better future.

50% of the proceeds were donated to participating nonprofits, the other half will be reinvested so we can create an even bigger impact next year through new programming, grants, and resources.

With social innovation at the center, we strived to build an accessible platform to engage, connect, break down echo chambers, and welcome all vital participants of the community - not just those who are already the most present. This diversity and communication was the first step to implementing real innovation that starts on a local level and works towards a sustainable future on all levels.

2019's Theme: Sustainability

Everyone talks about innovation, but how do you make innovation sustainable? This year we explored sustainability as a multi-faceted word; a word that stands for business, for the environment, and for growth and improvement in an ever-changing world. Specially curated and hand selected, this year's speakers and workshops were focused on defining what sustainability means for business, ventures, or personal growth.

Speakers & Schedule

One of my roles was to have a one-on-one session with each speaker and sponsor in the month leading up to the summit to discuss and design the experience of their topic, workshop, sprint, or presentation and outline the final summit schedule. In this, I sought to design an experience that was supportive to various learning and teaching styles.

Sponsors

Collateral Materials

Graphic materials were created in collaboration with Ben Markoch and Devan Brush. Photography is credited to Grayson Simon and Oak City Productions.

The Experience

To get a better perspective of the day you can view more photos from the event here and watch the live recorded speakers from the main speaker track here.