3 SXSW Panels That Look Great (And Aren’t Ours!)

Posted by cbonner on August 25, 2011 @ 11:29 am

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vote smart button To break up the monotony of the “Vote For Me” syndrome that happens every year when the SXSW PanelPicker is unveiled, we thought we’d turn this on its head a bit and showcase 3 panels that have promise that are actually not ours!

TopCoder is a leader in Open Innovation, competetive community development and global collaboration so stories that share that focus or are tangential and add to that discussion are innately of interest to our team and our Community. Here are two that fit that bill nicely.

How Social Competitions Drive Change

Perusing which questions will be answered always seems to cut right to it with regards to the SXSW PanelPicker. For this proposed panel, questions 3 and 4 respectively Can innovation be crowdsourced? and Should we encourage collaboration instead of competition? are two questions that stood out. The two speakers, Suzi Sosa and Tom Hulme are heavily involved in innovation projects in their respective worlds such as the Dell Social Innovation Challenge. Need one more reason to consider this panel? Suzi is a local and having that kind of guidance in the belly of what is the SXSW beast can be a game-changer!

At TopCoder, we champion competitions that require collaboration and can positively alter trajectories of a human’s life. Enjoy a look at a nationwide zero-gravity robotics competition we are proud partners in.

Sneak Innovation Into Your Company in 5 Easy Steps

Ramsey Khoury, the organizer and presenter of this proposed panel promises to use a number of metaphors while sharing his thoughts on how to deliver breakthrough ideas even in corporate cultures that are highly risk averse.

Personally, I routinely join the Thursday (Noon Eastern) #innochat on Twitter, which is frequented by champions, consultants and big thinkers in the greater innovation (and Open Innovation) space. A common topic of discussion is overcoming internal barriers that cause corporate inertia with regards to innovative attempts. So I feel this panel could be a winner among a group like this.

Professionally, for a company to embrace the TopCoder Methodology, it requires a shift in thinking and understanding that the very way in which work gets done can be dramatically different, more productive and more innovative along the way. A panel that empowers individuals within companies to become champions that get new ideas pushed through deserves our support.

Chalk this next panel up to just sounding interesting.

Traversing the Space-Time Continuum

Now the title might be quite captive, and living in our social world of 140 character bites, you might stop there and mis-understand the purpose of this proposed panel put together by Alan Sawyer. Pressing a bit further you realize Alan wants to talk about the impact of being able to travel backward and forward through time and space in the digital realm and the amazing interactive experiences that can be created on top of this “platform”. He ponders which “mixed reality experiences” can bring people together in both the flesh and virtual form and throughout different periods of history and the not yet lived future. He wonders aloud the impact of experiences in gaming, film, TV and branded entertainment that this continuum will help achieve.

When you boil it down, it just sounds like a fun panel that will get big thinkers thinking big things.

Yes, TopCoder & InnoCentive are partnering up for what we think can be an immensly important panel on Open Innovation and we encourage you to click the badge below and lend us your vote. When you’re done, at least now you’ve got three other worthy panels to consider elevating as well.