Course Description:

• This interactive innovation tournament, we will collectively generate hundreds of new ideas to present, evaluate, refine, and ultimately transform into system concepts that solve relevant and challenging problems
• Discuss techniques and tools for brainstorming and concept development, including the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Blue Team process, and provide mentoring, presentation skills training, and lectures in advanced technology across diverse fields
• A perfect opportunity to practice innovation and hone your skills for future research, development, and entrepreneurship

Create and Select Exceptional Ideas

Develop System Level Concepts

Improve Public Presentation Skills

Innovation Tournaments

Presentation Training

• Good ideas are statistically rare
• Organizations are more likely to produce good ideas by maximizing the number of opportunities
• An Innovation Tournament is a process to product innovative ideas

Establish the Channel

• Open by engaging the audience: stories, quotes, body polls, something new
• Close with call to action

The Process

Keep Audience Filters Down

• Words: Eliminate weak language
• Tone: vary volume, cadence, pitch
• Body Language: harmonize with message, read eyes
• Questions: Answer before they are asked
• Make it memorable: paint pictures, connect with emotions

• Hundreds of opportunities are identified and then pitted against each other until only the strongest survive
• Using the IDEARATOR, Ideas are iteratively rated, refined and down-selected to produce the strongest system concepts

The Presentations

• 2-Minute Presentations
• Real-time embedded feedback
• Play presentations, discuss