So. We’ve been very negative about the ECCIX conference on this blog. We feel like the two grumpy, old men from the Muppet Show. We’re pretty sure we were not alone – but maybe the most outspoken. During the closing ceremony a gentleman stated that “Some have enjoyed this immensely – others have enjoyed it differently”.
And that sums it up. There were some very good presentations and a lot of very competent people present at the conference. We experienced both entry-level courses in how to search on Google and African tribal dancing, and some of the best speakers on innovation in the world.
But the fact is, even though there were some bright moments, the overall impression weren’t that amazing. There was a potential for an amazing conference here, but now it kind of feels like the conference of missed opportunities.
A positive attitude and openmindedness is needed when you’re working in a creative environments, but creativity is also about making decisions and having the courage to kill your darlings. We have both been playing music all our life, and as a musician you know, that if you want the crowd to listen and give into the music, then you cannot let the audience down for one single moment. If you want the audience to participate and co-create an amazing experience, then you have to pick the very best tunes and leave the rest at home. You need to make a hard selection and to … yes a cliché – kill your darlings. (and we’ve heard that killing your darlings is soooo hot right now 
In other words, the conference should have been more focused on quality instead of quantity.
The Last Keynote
Last keynote was given by Kirpal Singh from Singapore Management University. It was about management as a an important player in creating an innovational environment. What was interesting when listening to Mr. Singh was his opinion on how our notion of innovation and creativity were based western culture and on our fundamental positive values as progress capitalism, democracy and focus on the individual. From a non-western point of view, though, innovation and creativity could be seen as being disturbing elements in a stable society . An interesting observation and a very necessary cultural understanding if the goal is global innovation.
Our closing remarks
Will we attend the 11th ECCI??
Well, this answer must be a clear and confident: “It depends!”
Judging from our experience at the ECCIX, academics, artists and one-man-businesses may have a point attending ECCI to network in a very nice atmosphere. But for professionals working with branding, communication, new media and or web and who don’t necessarily need to expand their current networks, ECCI could be a waste of time. We would prefer a real creative conference with cutting edge designers and creatives instead.
But we would recommend hiring the LEGO RobotLabs team to take you through a great innovative exercise. And – did we mention – we really want one of those Mindstorm sets for christmas 
And besides that, if you got the chance to hear Rob Austin, Scott Isaksen, Joe Tidd, Jørgen Knudstorp, Ernest Gundling or Kirpal Singh then go for it. They are really worth it!
This is Statler and Waldorf from ECCIX, signing off.
Owned
I was thinking of attending this event, but after reading your review I am kind of glad that I did not spend my holidays on it.
Seems the overall problem is that innovation and creativity is currently the domain of non-process oriented people.
For instance the 25-point list in your previous post shows it clearly. If a person like that can be allowed to speak, there is a problem, and that problem is probably a) that the general area is not defined well enough and b) that people working in this area has a huge interest in keeping some “magic” in the game.
It’s not magic. It’s a combination of empathy towards other people’s needs, business sense and hard work.
Anyone can get ideas. Gather a room full of people and after an hour you have 100 ideas. I think this is the real secret. Getting ideas is fun because it does not require commitment! It is easy and low effort if you are just an average intelligent person (notice the absence of the word “creative”).
The initial spark (the idea itself) is normally not worth anything. This becomes clearer as you read about innovation. I would highly recommend Scott Berkun’s “the myths of innovation” (O’Reilly). He deals with many of these issues
BTW: never came across a so called Chaos Pilot that actually could do anything are you aware of any best cases success stories from that so called school? Did they ever do anything that actually worked?