Stay Informed!

By Sean Luechtefeld on 03/12/2010 @ 01:32 PM

Tags: Innovation, Innovators, Events

On Friday I shared with you the top takeaways from the 2009 Innovation Summit from one of innovation@cfed’s Innovative Idea Engineers, Mark Rukavina. Today we’re featuring another of our Idea Engineers, Peter Blanchard.

Peter’s innovative idea proposes a student loan vehicle that would be built into an Individual Development Account (IDA) for matched savings. For as long as a student saves in the IDA, the student will have their loan payments deferred and the savings matches generated by the IDA would help the student repay the loan. Peter shared with us his top takeaways from the Innovation Summit. They are:

1. I can’t emphasize enough that more time for all aspects of the event would have been very helpful. I LOVED the interactive format that kept us talking, but I consistently felt like I was being called to the next thing before I’d had a chance to finish my conversations or even visit all of the stations that I was supposed to visit. This event needs a full weekend, if not more.
2. One possible way to increase communication and collaboration would be to create an online innovation forum with separate threads for each innovation. People could sign up for email updates whenever anything new is posted to the threads for specific innovations that they choose by putting their email address on a list at the station for that innovation.
3. Whenever I go to conferences, I am on the lookout for little nuggets of practical wisdom that I can apply to my programs. In this case, there were a handful for me, due in part to the more conversational nature of the event, and the focus that some were putting on behavioral psychology approaches. Two examples that I am already integrating into my program are:

• the use of very small, almost insignificant incentives and deterrents for incremental and smaller accomplishments. In my case, I redesigned the post card that I send out to my youth each month and added a section where I simply stamp either a happy or sad face to indicate whether they have made a deposit in the current month, and whether they are on track to reach their individual goals.
• a slight change in approach to one of our activities. As a part of the Youth$ave program, we put on 2 small business days each year, which give the kids a chance to organize and put on a fundraiser of some kind. Due to some discussions at the summit, I’ve given the kids far more control over determining what one of the days will look like. The thought is that even if it’s less successful than something I might plan for them, it will be something the kids can really own and be excited about, and so will keep them engaged as they learn the (sometimes very hard) lessons about how to put on an event like that.

It sounds like Peter had a great experience at the Innovation Summit, and we’re so glad that the format created a space for Peter and other innovators to cultivate their innovative approaches. Thanks, Peter, for sharing your feedback!

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