On September 24^th we had The Medici Experience in San Jose, CA. The event was a huge success, more so than I could have hoped for (see video below). This time the City of San Jose hosted the Medici Experience and some 140 people filled the room to the brink – there were people on a waiting list even.

Teams from companies, city departments, start-ups and non-profits joined us for an incredibly immersive innovation experience. The event is a mix of a live performance by me and exercises that scale beautifully…intense and tons of fun!  I start with a good 30 min or so of presenting the basic points of The Medici Effect. After that the teams had to create this effect for themselves.

First they mapped out their existing resources as a base for future innovation –it  is about using your assets in new combinations. After that they sought ideas from other industries, cultures, business models, products etc etc. Many teams developed more than 30 ideas and many of those ideas were very, very good.

But we forced them to choose one: greatest impact x easiest to execute. Then they had to connect with people in the room, over and over, making their team’s idea better. It was incredible to see the people connect with each other and in a matter of minutes completely add a whole new perspective on what they were working on. There! In one corner a librarian surprises a tech executive with how to develop their product – the executive would never have asked her, but here serendipity reigns. This happened hundreds of times as people sought out the Intersection.

The afternoon was spent on figuring out how to make the idea happen. The teams pursued this by defining their idea’s the smallest executable unit and thinking about how to reward mistakes – when few organizations would willingly allow that to happen. By the time people were designing an immediate execution plan they were getting on the phones.

I was exhausted; of course, it had been 12 non-stop hours since I woke up. Needed to eat…oh that adrenaline dissipating!

Both Trinidad and San Jose is actually a soft-launch for a world-wide tour of Medici Experiences so stay tuned as we will soon announce the next city! Check out the video below or here.