Chicago Innovation Awards: Past Winners Showcase: Creating and Leading a Culture of Innovation

I had a front row seat last night to listen to the past winners of the Chicago Innovation Awards. The room was packed at Red Frog Events. A great panel and good energy.

Some highlights:

They talked up Chicago and 1871 and the importance of environment for innovation.

Harper Reed (Obama for America, former Threadless CTO) said about Threadless “we weren’t trying to be innovative.” And when experts were talking about them as a poster child for crowdsourcing, his response “We wanted to be with our friends.”

Mark O’Connell talked about how SAVO celebrates innovation, each small act.

Tom Kuczmarski talked about the important of building mentoring in Chicago in order to grow an innovation environment.

Everyone on the panel talked about the importance of having a passion for the customer. Whether that customer was themselves or someone else.

Haper Reed also talked about the importance of diversity. Making his point about not just hiring developers that look like him.

 

 

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