I spent an amazing weekend in NYC immersed with 50 warm, passionate, talented, and crazy designers from around the world.  It was a think and do tank brought to a constant boil by the high heat of a Bunsen Burner applied literally by the 100 plus degree heat outside.  This was the fifth annual convening of Overlap, a self-organizing group of designers sprinkled with a few innovation junkies like me who like to hang around designers in the hope that some of their coolness will rub off.  Overlap is an intense peer-to-peer connection experience limited to 50 invitees per year. I had been asked to attend previous Overlap events but this was the first I was able to swing it.  I am very glad I did.  It stretched my thinking, strengthened some existing connections, and enabled many refreshing new ones.

Each year volunteers from the group agree to plan and host the next Overlap in a different city.  Kudos to this year’s organizers, Marcel Botha with Mutopo, a cool social production colaboratorie, and Debera Johnson from the Pratt Institute of Design. Urban retreats are a logistical nightmare, Marcel and Debera, pulled it off with grace and competence. Well done. Our working sessions were held at Pratt providing great space and a welcoming design vibe to enable the magic.  A wonderful mix of Overlap veterans and rookies took it from there.  The theme for Overlap 2010 was Scalable Actions.  How do we get our passionate ideas off of the white-board and in to the world where they can solve real problems and provide value to real people.  I think a lot about scale and have been riffing about innovation @ scale for many years.  The chance to immerse myself among so many brilliant design thinkers to ruminate about scale and how to advance our scalable ideas was most welcome.

Before arriving in NYC we were asked to post a 20 second video to share a proposed scalable action.  I challenge you to this healthy exercise.  Try to express your idea for a scalable action in 20 seconds. Believe me, it isn’t as easy as it sounds. The 20 second videos from Overlap 2010 attendees are posted here.  I of course remain fixated on creating a platform to enable R&D for scalable actions.  I don’t plan on stopping until I get it right and am fortunate to work with a passionate team at The Business Innovation Factory (BIF) who share my fixation.

Here are my top ten take-aways from Overlap 2010:

1)   Ideas are interesting, scalable actions are valuable.

2)   Recipe for success: Put 50 smart designers in a room, add compelling ideas and passion, reframe until exhausted, repeat until scalable actions emerge

3)   Next time pack shorts. Designers could care less about what you wear.  I was my usual dork self.

4)   Collaboration is an unnatural act.  Work hard to build collaboration muscle.

5)   Most valuable ideas are in the gray areas between us. Dive in.

6)   Best knowledge flows are at the edges.  Force yourself to collide with more unusual suspects.

7)   Our hands are connected to 80% of our synapses. Use them more to make things.

8)   Play more. Iconic design comes from playful minds.

9)   Had I known that an Overlap ping-pong ninja was to be crowned I would have given it the ole college try.  (Beware Sami Nerenberg!)

10)  Favorite take-away: Sometimes the system. Sometimes the organization. Always the people. (via my friend Robin Uchida)

I am energized with new connections and ready to move forward with passion to enable more scalable actions.  A big thanks to all my new fellow Overlappers for including and humoring this innovation junkie.