Afternoon collaborative sessions to provide real-life takeaways for IDEALAB attendees

Survey results from attendees at last year’s IDEALAB let us know that although the speakers were important and the tour stops highlighted three of the most innovative initiatives in the city, attendees wanted more opportunities for interaction.

That's why, for our second annual IDEALAB on Dec. 4, we’ve worked with our partners and reorganized the afternoon. Incorporating more collaboration and idea sharing opportunities, we're taking the “idea” of IDEALAB to the extreme and creating a platform for talent leaders and attendees to talk about their work.

IDEALAB’s first iteration focused on people-powered philanthropy, and featured four funding organizations and their respective project grantees. This year’s event will focus on making movements: In the morning, three keynotes (Sean Mann, Detroit City FC; Carl Atiya Swanson, Springboard for the Arts; and Evelyn Burnett and Mordecai Cargill from Cleveland Neighborhood Progress) will discuss how they each successfully organized and funded a movement in their city.

After lunch, attendees will have the chance to participate in one of three breakout sessions, facilitated by Cincinnati leaders paired with an out-of-town keynote speaker.

“I’m excited about the afternoon breakout sessions,” says Megan Trischler of People’s Liberty, an IDEALAB sponsor and partner. “They’re designed in a way that instills this ethos where we have to work together — we need more reminders of that.”

First-floor ballroomTamaya Dennard

Newly elected Cincinnati City Councilmember Tamaya Dennard will be paired with Burnett and Cargill to facilitate a conversation around design thinking. Dennard has some experience in this area, as she works for Design Impact, a local nonprofit social innovation firm, where she helps organizations come up with creative and inclusive approaches for complex social issues.

“I want to focus on putting yourself in the users shoes and imagining challenges from the user’s point of view so solutions are co-created vs. doled out,” Dennard says.

Lower-level studio

Tim Vogt will work with Sean Mann to discuss leading with a purpose. Mann helped start a grassroots movement to renovate Keyworth Stadium, an 81-year-old, abandoned soccer stadium, to better accommodate the 5,500 fans that show up to Detroit City FC games.Tim Vogt

Vogt works for Starfire Council Disability Services & Community Building as coordinator, where he is currently exploring the possibilities around scale and the sustainability of inclusion.

He believes that in order to enact change, one must be able to move past the old story and write a new story, all while working through the fear that sometimes accompanies risk-taking.

Anderson Theater stage

Dr. Tom Merrill from Xavier University's Center for Innovation will pair up with Swanson, and they will lead a conversation around how groups of people can work together to solve problems. Together, Merrill and Swanson will break their session into five teams and showcase how design thinking is a sprint, not a marathon.Dr. Tom Merrill

The idea behind these mini breakout sessions is that every attendee will leave with a tangible, real-life example or idea to take back to their organization, school or community.

“There’s something about this coming together and saying that it’s not us and them, it’s us,” Trischler says. “We have to figure out how to work together in more intentional ways and make things happen. This platform and day demonstrates that. The Lone Ranger is dead — it’s now about the collective us.”

Tickets are still available for IDEALAB, which will be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Dec. 4 at Memorial Hall. An all-day inclusive ticket is $50, and includes morning presentations, lunch, afternoon workshops, refreshments and post-workshop networking with a cash bar. Tickets can be purchased here.

IDEALAB: Movement Makers is presented by The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation, People’s Liberty, Issue Media Group and Soapbox Media with support from Procter & Gamble, Xavier Center for Innovation, Memorial Hall and media sponsor Movers & Makers.