As usual for DwD sessions this one promises again to intersect the boundaries of multiple disciplines and provide a great exploration experience. Details cam be found here.

Thor Muller CTO & Co-founder of Get Satisfaction answers this question with: Yes! Serendipity is not blind luck. It’s a skill-set common to the world’s most admired businesses, and it produces quantifiable results.

Thor will unveil a new framework—the eight elements of planned serendipity—that organizations and individuals can use to make a habit of serendipity at the upcoming Unfinished Business Lecture on Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 5:45 PM at OCAD university’s AUDITORIUM, Main floor, 100 McCaul Street.

The event is free but you need to register here.

This year’s CIO Exchange will be held 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM on September 15, 2011 at the Toronto Board of Trade, 77 Adelaide St. West, 4th Floor, Toronto. The theme is focused on the transformation of the ICT function in the organization and the implications for the role of the CIO in the future.

More information and registration here.

Industry speakers will address the evolving role of colleges in Ontario’s innovation strategy. Students and their industry sponsors will share their experiences with the projects they have worked on and describe the economic benefits to the company and the economy.
In addition, federal and Ontario government leaders will speak to the importance of innovation. Speakers from other provinces will offer insights about the key components colleges have found to be successful in creating flourishing applied research partnerships with industry.

The event will be held at the Sutton Place Hotel in Toronto on February 15th.

The purpose of the initiative has been simplified to three words: Connect, Inspire, Transform:  The gold is to connect people, share inspiration and have that result in change.

An interesting line-up of plenary speakers is framing the various sessions and panels of the conference. It includes among others Ann Balsamo from the Annenberg School of Communications, whose work focuses on the relationship between culture and technology; Suzanne de Castell from the Faculty of Education at the Simon Fraser University, whose work spans literacy, technology, gender, educational game theory, research, design and development; Natalie Jeremijenko of New York University, whose award winning work explores the opportunity presented by new technologies for non-violent social change; and Steven Mann, a proliferate inventor from the Faculty of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, whose wok includes wearable computing, hydraulophone and the concept of “sousveillance” (“the effects a surveillance device has on others”).

The conference is sold out. However, you can still register for the public opening event titled “Supporting the DIY Citizen: social and legal challenges of online participatory politics and culture”, a dialogue with Henry Jenkins and Corynne McSherry taking place on Thursday, November 11, 5:30PM, Tanz Neuroscience Building, 6 Queen’s Park Crescent, West.

Manara will be presenting a paper on “Sustainability for Critical Thinking & Making Collectives” in the afternoon session of Saturday November 13.

In the early couple of sessions, we quickly established that Canada is slipping dangerously in a number of indicators even within OECD countries: productivity, creativity, and more recently competitiveness. The proper response seemed to require a broad movement for change with intensive exchange of knowledge and experience, dissemination of reproducible models, and visualization of achievements and success stories. The name “! Million Acts of Innovation” seemed therefore appropriate.

Discussions continued over the following sessions on what the cornerstones of this initiative should be. A number of areas emerged:

• A need for large scale mentoring
• Opportunities to collaborate with universities in a more dynamic and efficient way
• Issues related to intellectual property when developed in a collaborative environment
• Methods for counting and measuring innovation acts
• Creating diversity at all levels of the organization
• Recruiting and retaining millennials as employees and customers

The focus in all of these was doing rather than saying. The main method envisaged initially was that of facilitated small group conversations. As a result of these summer deliberations, the idea evolved to holding a series of events inviting CIOs to discuss specific issues. The first such event will be held downtown on September 22, 2010 and will be discussing the potential of collaboration between business and universities.

The ambition is to inspire a broad-based movement by many CIOS and IT Directors to initiate actions for change in support of improving their organization’s performance, competitiveness and sustainability. It is an interesting initiative worthy of consideration and support, particularly if more thought is given to designing the program details. A number of parties are considering sponsoring the initiative including the CIO Association of Canada (Ontario Chapter) subject to clarifications sought. There is a LinkedIn group that you can connect to and you can read about the initiative here.

The event is taking place on Tuesday September 14, 2010 starting 8:30 AM at the Trade Board (First Canadian Place) The event is free for qualified participants (CIOs, senior IT managers, and academics active in IT  management) courtesy of the CIO Association and supporting silent sponsors including IBM, Adobe and others. For full program details click here.

OCAD Main Building at 100 McCaul St.

As part of a newly developed course on “Business Model & Policy Innovation” graduate students self-organized in small groups and selected organizations with innovative business models to investigate over the summer semester. Organizations studied include Bullfrog Power, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Artscape, Pollution Probe, Zero Footprint, The Stop and Acumen Fund. The investigation looked at the current business model, alternative models, external factors impacting the organization, in particular policy and regulatory issues. Each group produces a strategic report documenting their work and findings.

The final reports will be presented and defended in two public critique sessions on Friday August 13 and 20 in the presence of OCAD faculty and some representatives from the organizations selected. If you are interested to attend, send an email to nharfoush [at] faculty.ocad.ca for details of the events.

Rahaf will be on a panel discussing the implications of these developments on the CIO’s role and hear the insights of some of the other panelists including:

• Elizabeth Hackenson, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, The AES Corporation
• Rob Webb, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Hilton Worldwide
• Richard Williams, Vice President and Group Chief Information Officer, AstraZeneca