Why was the Concorde a “technological wonder” but an “economic blunder?”_2.jpg "NSM Field Seminar 3 at Udvar Hazy-Air and Space Museum (1)")
What did Fred Smith do to persuade people that Federal Express was a company they could trust in the early days?
How did the designers of the Enola Gay work within constraints to make a plane that was strong enough to carry an atomic bomb?
In the most recent Never Stop Marketing Field Seminar at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Air & Space Museum, over 25 members of the Never Stop Marketing movement came together to find out the answers to these questions.
But, not for the sake of trivia.
For the sake of stimulating their “innovation brains.”
Why an “Innovation Field Seminar?”
You know you need to innovate, right?
But HOW do you do it?_2.jpg "NSM Field Seminar 3 at Udvar Hazy-Air and Space Museum (4)")
Inspiration doesn’t usually come in a bland conference room surrounded by bad lighting.
One of the best ways to find innovation in your own business (or life, for that matter) is to deliberately experience things that are out of your day-to-day experiences.
That’s why we travel to foreign countries. But, we can’t do that every day.
Even better and easier, we are surrounded by opportunities to find inspiration in fields outside of our own.
Making the time to do this, to step away from our daily activities…this is something which we MUST build into the DNA (or the Operating System, if you prefer) of our business lifes.
The Never Stop Marketing Field Seminar Series invites people (periodically) to locales where we will exercise our whole brains, identify opportunities for knowledge arbitrage, and meet some other great people.
At the very least, you walk away having met some great people. Hey, we played “Never Stop Marketing Bingo” which helped ensure that. More on that in this post.
For WHY you want to do this, check out my new FREE PDF eBook: 10 Ways to Grow Your Fans…it’s all about Community Cultivation, which was one of the secondary objectives of the day!
At the most, you have a new perspective on how others think about innovation, marketing, and creativity and perhaps you have a new lens on some of the challenges you face.
Wayne, Natalya, and Ross all shared their experiences in this video (and below)
And a big shout out to the attendees (here are most of them)
- Carl Hicks Jr. - The Hicks Fix
- Terry Pittman –From Concept 2 Market
- Christine Zmuda - Microsoft
- Ross Vann- Long and Foster
- Jack Quarles - 3Q Strategies
- Venkatesh Rao - RibbonFarm
- Derek Coburn – Cadre DC
- Betsy Silver - RDA Corp
- Natalya Bah - Natrik
- Asher Epstein - UMD
- Mike Matalone - Excelsior P3
- Michelle James - Creative Emergence
- Wayne Beekman - Info Concepts
- Maisha Hoye - Microlink LLC
- Charlie Venus - JS Insurance
- Sylvia Montgomery - Hinge Marketing
- Michael Crider - Crider Company
- JIm Ishikawa Ishikawa Consulting
The Answers?
- Among many other reasons, due to the amount of fuel required, the Concorde could only devote 7% of its take-off weight to baggage/passengers, compared to 20% in a normal 747. Made things REALLY expensive.
- Playing off of “Social Proof,” (again, see the FREE PDF eBook), Smith gave his first plane the number 8, instead of 1. People then assumed that there was a fleet of planes which meant that OTHERS were buying, so it was safe for them as well.
- They removed all the gun turrets.
On previous Field Seminars:
