What do you get when you bring together renowned academics, design/usability gurus and captains of industry? Something quite wonderful actually. It’s called “The Overlap,� and I had the pleasure of attending this recent gathering on the shores of beautiful Lake Couchiching a few months ago.

Overlap conference organizers, Michael Anton Dila and Robin Uchida, also invited me to present an overview of the MaRS story. A video of this presentation and others from speakers including strategy guru Michael Raynor, Roger Martin (Dean of the Rotman Business School), Dave Gray (Founder of the visual thinking agency Xplane) and Alex Manu (Founder of the Beal Institute) have just been posted this week to the official conference site at www.theoverlap.org

By design, this collective of very smart, socially aware people has generated an energy that far exceeds the sum of its parts. In fact, you could argue that this organization is fast becoming a movement, bringing people together from fields as diverse as finance, product design, business strategy, customer research, innovation, general management and marketing.

So what exactly do these people talk about when they get together? The stated goals of this movement is to creatively bring together bright minds and explore areas of innovation such as:

• How to better use design to accelerate the creation of breakthrough ideas
• Helping organizations think more creatively, and to develop an innovation
  methodology that moves away from just pure instinct
• Helping businesses manage innovation through new product development processes
• Helping companies understand how to establish deeper connections with customers to stimulate innovation
• Providing insights into great commercial design that solves business problems

What Anton Dalla and Uchida have created is what they describe as an experience that is multidisciplinary, collaborative, pragmatic and ultimately human. In fact, Overlap is an “unconferenceâ€?, running counter to the standard “talking head” formula used by most industry conferences.

Starting with its invitation-only format, the event is very experiential and succeeds at maintaining that elusive balance of brainpower blended with a mix of theoretical and applied perspectives. The format brings a sense of intimacy and shared-awareness that you just don’t get at most gatherings. Many attendees I spoke with said they came away with a broader understanding of the problems and solutions related to the innovation process.

Interestingly, a quick search on the word “Overlapâ€? reveals a rich variety of definitions. Perhaps the most fitting, as it relates to the goals of this movement, is as a synonym in musical theory for “reinterpretationâ€?– it nicely describes how the Overlap movement is driving what MaRS refers to as “convergence innovation” – those purposeful collisions between science, business and capital that accelerate the commercialization of new ideas and drive prosperity while maintaining a sense of social consciousness.

Personally, I got more than I bargained for. Some of the discussions on organizational behaviour along with approaches to environmental sustainability were what made this well worth the drive to the Muskokas.

If you didn’t get to Overlap 2007 (or even if you did) check out some of the presentations on the site. And if you have an interest in how innovation is evolving, be sure to join in the virtual discussions at overlap07.ning.com and overlap.ning.com.

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