Recent Work

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Held in beautiful downtown Providence, BIF-2 features the personal stories of innovators from across the country who are redefining the rules of innovation and transforming how value is delivered in every arena: technology, business, design, science, and the arts.

Alphachimp founder, Peter Durand, served as scribe and speaker in this truly collaborative experience. At BIF-2, storytellers and participants alike connect with the best thinking about innovation, network with like-minded peers, and tap into new innovation resources.

WSJ columnist Walt Mossberg and TED founder Richard Saul Wurman co-hosted the event.

BIF-2 Summit participants include executives and organizational leaders (from both the public and private sectors) responsible for growth, strategy and innovation who want to explore the who, what, and how of business model innovation.

see details >>

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Over 350 teachers, artists, psychologists, college students, doctors, lawyers and community volunteers sat in sun-splashed classrooms at Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, Downtown, brainstorming how to make Pittsburgh a more livable city.

[Read all about it in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, A Tour de Burgh? Ideas abound for city:Projects touted to make region more livable.]

At this one-day event, The Sprout Fund engaged creative young thinkers and regional leaders in a conversation that promotes new thinking about the topics that matter most to our community.Participants engaged in panel discussions and worked in small design groups to generate as many brain-busting ideas as possible. All ideas were welcome-the wacky, the way out, the logical, the needed, the necessary, the fun, and the futuristic.

Rather than a typical civic meeting, The Idea Round Up was a highly visual and highly interactive day with 20 local artists on hand to illustrate all the ideas generated.

The Sprout Fund announced plans to release $100,000 in funding to support projects that grow directly out of the ideas developed during this exciting collaborative design event.

• Idea archive on MissingLink
  
• Event photos on Flickr
  
• Slideshow

MissingLink made its semi-public debut in housing the content produced during a massive civic enegagement forum in Pittsburgh. [see site]



Our team of three was able to photograph and archive ~350 flipcharts from 18 breakout groups and integrate the text documentation and photos using MissingLink. From start to finish, the post-production ran 12 hours. Normally, this would have taken 2-3 days!


MissingLink was designed by a team of artists and facilitators
who have worked with collaborative teams focused on global strategies.
For years, we have been frustrated by the amount of work that seems to
evaporate as soon as a meeting concludes.MissingLink brings together
the power of browser-based software, file management, keyword tagging,
podcasting and even video broadcasting.

The software was developed by the team of Gradient Labs LLC and Alphachimp Studio Inc.

For more information, take a tour, get pricing or sign-up for a free trial. see details >>

Sunday, March 05, 2006

An inforgraphic for Big Builder Magazine:

Is a sales slow down in new homes a bellwether indicator of dropping home values? Rising interest rates?

Unlikely.

Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies’ Eric Belsky looked at three decades of house decline events, and notes that in most cases, home value declines tie to both overbuilding and job loss. Estimates today are that the top 75 markets may be about 15% overbuilt. The other shoe dropping, then, would be job losses.

Builders hold the cards on overbuilding.

see details >>

Saturday, January 28, 2006

An illustration for Big Builder Magazine for the article:

Are your customers "disposable?"

Not long ago, Oakland, California-based Clorox teamed up with Stanford’s Graduate Program in Design (the “D-School”) to sponsor a class on “Needfinding.” The project was straightforward – spend time with different groups of people while they clean to find out what they need most. However, when it came time for final presentations, Clorox was in for a bit of a surprise. The executives came in expecting to hear about people who wanted to cut down cleaning time or kill germs. Instead, they walked away with a whole new way to understand the way their customers make purchase decisions. The students told them that when it comes to taking care of their possessions, people frame the world in two fundamentally different ways: those that see almost everything as short-lived, or disposable, and those that see the things around them as long-lasting, or durable.

People who frame their worlds as disposable have gotten used to the idea of the frequent replacement of the items they own. Why worry about repairing dents or scratches when something can be easily (and cheaply) bought new? Young people in particular don’t expect to preserve their possessions for the future, and their cleaning habits reflect that.

As the Clorox VPs in the audience soon realized, their company had been designing cleaning products exclusively for the people who view their possessions from a mindset of durability. Clorox was telling people, ‘Keep it looking like new. Keep it looking as fresh as it was on the first day.’ But for consumers who were on their third computer by age 17, that message was landing on deaf ears.

While the idea that people see their world as either “disposable” or “durable” was a key reframe for Clorox, we can see it at work in many industries. Clothing retailers like H&M base their whole business on catering to people who constantly crave new looks. With ‘cheap chic’ designs and collections that change every few weeks, H&M has teens and young professionals alike lining up for fashions that will be out of style in a few months. Meanwhile, Wrigley’s Altoids brand has promoted the many uses of the metal boxes their mints come in (thousands have been turned into perfectly sized iPod cases). They have successfully differentiated themselves by making the tin containers—something typically tossed in the trash without thought —worthy of keeping and even showcasing.

Builders should take note. Just like the team from Clorox, we may assume that all new home buyers are looking to preserve the beauty of homes for the future. But – as the slew of home makeover shows on TV and the trend of rapid flipping indicate, more and more people are ready to change their surroundings as casually as they change their hairstyle. Many of today’s customers will be families who see nearly everything they own as “disposable” – and their houses may be no exception.

see details >>

Information graphic for Big Builder Magazine on the trends driving the condo markets in major cities across America.

Among condo conversion’s top transactions in the past six months, Lennar’s and even Toll Brothers’ names appear among the usual suspect multi-family builders. Is there a strategy for production home builders in the condo craze, or just an occasional one-off opportunity? This infographic illustrates the trends that argue for and against...

see details >>

Monday, January 16, 2006

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND | The Thought Leader Summit was a unique one-day workshop, designed for high profile professionals in the Asset Management & Mutual Fund Industry held at Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue.

Reed Midem, a global leader in the organization of international professional markets, hosted industry leaders from the financial industry to debate current Asset Management trends and thinking with their peers. A major objective was to enter into strategic discussion about the critical issues facing the sector – now and in the future.


The executive producers and facilitators of the event was First Tuesday Zurich, an independent think-tank encouraging and supporting the creation of knowledge at the crossing of business, policy, technology and innovation.

• The TLS gives leaders access to a valuable knowledge network by bringing together the key industry players to debate industry topics.
• It is an impartial platform where new initiatives and original research can be promoted.
• In just one day of fast-paced debate, leaders are able to shape and benefit from industry insights and results that would normally take months of research.
• Attending the TLS also provides the platform to demonstrate the leaders' breadth of experience, capabilities and leadership to public and private clients.
• The TLS helps set the future industry agenda.

see details >>

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Major challenges confront the major pharmacueticals in every area: scientific development, government regulation, global competition, legal cases, etc.

For more on the topic, John Mack edits a popular blog, Pharma Marketing Blog, addressing the complexity of those issues and publishes an industry newsletter, Pharma Marketing News.

Mack sums of the challenges for 2006:

• Cuts in DTC Ad Spending
• Dwindling Pipeline of New Drugs
• Increase in Generic Competition
• Cuts in Sales and/or Marketing Personnel
• Increased Outsourcing of R&D and/or Manufacturing

see details >>

Friday, January 06, 2006

WASHINGTON DC | Senior managers from a DC-based government contractor priorities for 2006, namely how to translate strategic initiatives to tactical execution.

This consulting firm is a much sought after partner for clients with new technologies anxious to penetrate the security and defense markets for the first time as well as to those seeking to expand their current government business base. Their independent perspective and honest broker reputation have enabled consistent growth that led to 2004 revenues of approximately $30 million.

see details >>

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

PITTSBURGH | An intense graphic facilitation workshop for the 15 Coro Fellows. Skills included basic drawing, lettering, faces, gesture drawing, mindmapping and innovation techniques.


Topics investigated focused on three innovation areas: Tom Kelly's 10 Faces of Innovation, DeBono's 6 Thinking Hats, and Geoffrey & Renata Caine's Learning Principles.

You can see more photos and find more resources on the blog we built for the 2006 Pittsburgh Coro Fellows, at coropgh2006.blogspot.com.

The Coro Center for Civic Leadership in Pittsburgh began operating in August 1999 with the launch of Coro's flagship Fellows Program in Public Affairs. The Coro Center for Civic Leadership has two overarching goals: attracting and retaining younger leaders for the region and creating an immediate and powerful difference in our community's development. see details >>

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Alegent Health is an integrated, comprehensive system of health services. Our hospitals and clinics provide leadership in areas like primary care, cardiology, orthopaedics, oncology, rehabilitation, behavioral services, maternity, pediatrics, inpatient and outpatient surgery, home care, family counseling and other services, designed to meet the healthcare needs of the region. Alegent Health, a not-for-profit, community-based healthcare system, focuses on caring for the sick through all of life's phases, while emphasizing prevention, wellness and health education.

The name "Alegent" was derived from the word "allegiance." It reflects our long-standing tradition, dedication and pledge to serve the people of the region. It is also intended to indicate strength, stability and comfort. Alegent Health includes eight acute care hospitals, a primary care physician network of more than 40 sites supporting over 100 employed physician associates, and an 800-physician member Physician Hospital Organization. Forty-two hospitals and more than 200 physician clinics are associated with Alegent Health through its affiliate Alegent-Nebraska Purchasing Group, HealthLink. see details >>

Friday, November 11, 2005

This was the second speaking engagement with the Pittsburgh Regional Knowledge Management Consortium (PRKMC).

Participants included practitioners involved at all levels of knowledge management: from a VP from a national insurance company; to a data analyst from an international think tank; to start-ups focused on data mining, security, workforce development and human capital management..

The workshop focused on cerebral issues (literally!) around brain function, the definition on "mind", mental maps, collaboration and innovation.

We also covered manual skills such as mind mapping, graphic facilitation and the use of visual learning for strategic planning, problem solving and critical thinking (eg. how to be more effective facilitators and visual modelers of concepts and strategies).

For more detail about Alphachimp Workshops, contact us.

see details >>

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Alphachimp provided graphic facilitation for the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) annual symposium. This is the world’s most comprehensive annual conference on medical informatics, with recent and upcoming examples including medical informatics education, the role of informatics in quality improvement in health care, and informatics in public health. Held at the National Academy of Science, this special gathering focused on the future of Clinical Decision Support.

The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) is an organization of leaders shaping the future of health information technology in the United States and abroad. AMIA is dedicated to the development and application of medical informatics in support of patient care, teaching, research, and health care administration.

AMIA links developers and users of health information technology, creating an environment which fosters advances that revolutionize health care. Membership is open to individuals, institutions, and corporations.

Medical informatics has to do with all aspects of understanding and promoting the effective organization, analysis, management, and use of information in health care. While the field of medical informatics shares the general scope of these interests with some other health care specialties and disciplines, medical informatics has developed its own areas of emphasis and approaches that have set it apart from other disciplines and specialties. see details >>

Sunday, October 23, 2005

PopTech brings some of the world's most interesting minds and talents to the beautiful seaside village of Camden, Maine, at the height of the fall foliage season. Together, 500 PopTech participants--from India, the US, Canada, China, Europe and the African continent--meet in a beautifully restored 19th century opera house, where we learn, debate, discuss, and are surprised by the new ideas shaping our future. But it's not just the location that makes PopTech special. It's the passionate coming together of minds and voices, the sense of an intimate intellectual and creative community.

This year Peter Durand of Alphachimp documented the conference in a new way: through real-time paintings.



During breaks in the action, he ran down to the Opera House's boiler room to execute quick, colorful backgrounds. Then, during the presentations, created rich illustrative images combined with pastels, oil and acrylic paint.

• See speakers and artwork
• Order prints on cards and posters
• See photos and a slideshow from the event
  
• Visit the official Pop!Tech site
  

see details >>

Sunday, October 16, 2005

NORFOLK, NE | Several of the ESU's in Northern Nebraska (ESU#1, #2, #7, #8 and #17) along with the Nebraska Department of Education kicked off an initiative to engage educators in an event titled Re-thinking the High School Experience.

Just shy of 100 people representing 19 school districts convened the first conference of a two to three year process. The participants in this workshop represented teachers, administrators, counselors, several colleges, the ESU's and the state department of education.

ABOVE: Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman addresses educators.

During the first day of the conference participants explored many aspects of the high school experience - both the current experience and some possible options for what the high school experience might be in the future. In that exploration participants explored elements of a vision and manifesto for change, different models for what the experience could be, and a process for engaging other people in the dialog as well as managing change over time.


During the second day participants identified nine components for a vision for the high school experience of the future. Each school district then identified what they were already doing in these nine key areas - and developed plans for specific areas they wanted to focus on.

The nine components of the vision are:

• A sense of purpose
• Personalized learning
• A vision for what 'it' looks like when it's done
• Innovative assessment
• Relationships with students
• Broader responsibility
• Connected learning (integrated, interdisciplinary, relevant learning)
• Teacher as facilitator
• Learning Communities

We used Blogger for web-publishing and Flickr for photo uploading to the web; both are free services. Facilitation and documentation by Innovation Labs LLC.




see details >>

Sunday, July 31, 2005

BOSTON | Various practioners in marketing and investment services explore the implications of the coming Age Wave. As Baby Boomers reach the age of traditional retirement, fewer and fewer of them are able--or-willing--to trade in their Blackberries for rocking chairs.

Speakers included: Maddy Dychtswald of AgeWave; Joe Coghlin of MIT's AgeLab; and Faith Popcorn's BrainReserve.

"Alphachimp Studio did a better job at capturing my key points then my own slide deck!" ~Joseph Coughlin, Director of the MIT AgeLab

see details >>

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

UPSTATE NEW YORK | Alphachimp helps Russell Williams Group to lead a top media firm in a process to articulate its new strategic vision.


Major Take Away: The proliferation of media devices, portals, channels and content creators has caused the advertising industry to radically re-examine the media buying process.

Two major changes in the game have advertisers--and their media planners--scrambling:

1. The emergence of filtered content recieving devices (TiVO for television, XM radio and the Firefox browser)
   
2. The proliferation of consumer-generated media distrubted via peer-to-peer networks (podcasting, OBBTV and Undergroundfilm.org). For more pundritry on this topic, check out Brains on Fire.

see details >>

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

TORONTO | Alphachimp Studio was approached by Guy Miller, founder of the Human Energy Project, with a great design challenge: Create a presentation for a worthwhile cause at a high-energy conference that aims "to sustain a capacity for idealism."


As a presenter at this year's IdeaCity in Toronto, Guy needed a simple and effective visual message to drive home his important themes:

1. Human Energy Project is a global foundation that will give hope to thousands of children suffering from inherited energy impairment diseases, and...
   
   
2. Human Energy Project is dependent upon a growing group of volunteers to serve as a Human Energy Grid(tm); this involves people who serve as catalysts for action, amplifiers of the message, connectors to talent and capital, and transformers of abstract ideas into tangible actions.
   

The feedback on his presentation using our custom designed animations, icons and information graphics was stellar. One of the organizers told Dr. Miller: 'I think you will be the benchmark for the next 2 and one-half days.'

Not bad for a three-day conference with 500 attendees, 50 different speakers for whom scripted speeches read from podiums are verboten.

Dr. Miller is a physician, athlete, scientist, professor of public health, practicing critical care physician, founder and CEO of a second Silicon Valley start-up, member of multiple boards and an industry advisor. Learn more about Guy Miller and/or IdeaCity.

Even more incredible: the arctic trekker Ben Sauders is involved with The Human Energy Project and presented with Guy on stage. Ben represents the far end of the Energy Continuum (he even has energy to blog while crossing the arctic alone!).

A documentary film was also presented on the struggles of Chelsea, a girl suffering from an energy impairment disease so intense that it radically deformed her skeletal structure.

The end goal for Dr. Miller's foundation: to drive up public awareness of these diseases to spur funding and innovation in both the public and private sectors.



From SOUTH & Human Energy Project - Mission Possible:

Parallel Journeys

Over 115 days, 1,800 miles, burning 11,000 calories--the equivalent of a double marathon--each day, Ben Saunders and Tony Haile will push their bodies to the human limit, journeying by their own power across the frozen tundra of Antarctica. This will test their strength, determination, spirit and courage. No human has approached achieving this, except for a remarkable 12-year-old girl named Chelsea Lane.

Chelsea is not an arctic explorer- she suffers from an energy impairment disease called Friedreich's Ataxia. Chelsea wakes each day with the same challenge Ben and Tony will confront. Through an inherited genetic defect in energy metabolism, Chelsea's body fails to produce sufficient energy to power her muscles, heart, and nervous system. The result is a life-shortening, progressive disease that leaves children like Chelsea confined to a wheel chair. Today there is no treatment.

see details >>