This document discusses ways for individuals and organizations to act innovatively. It suggests being nomadic physically and with attention, interested in what others are doing, taking personal risks, scratching your own itch, building tools for others, thinking about both small and large projects, building new allies for every project, and leading your industry into action. The document is presented by Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, an industrial and interaction designer who runs an independent consultancy on the internet of things.

1. Looking & acting out.
Attitudes to innovation
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
alex@designswarm.com

2. Who am I?
Industrial design (Université de Montréal)
Interaction design (Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Italy)

3. Who am I?
1st in a list of 100 Internet of Things Influencers (Postscapes, 2016)
2nd in Top 100 Internet of Things Thought Leaders (Onalytica, 2014)
Top 100 Influencial Tech Women on Twitter (Business Insider, 2014)
Smith & Williamson Power 100 (2017)

4. Who am I?
Work in the permanent collection of:
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
London Design Museum
Work exhibited at:
Victoria & Albert Museum
Science Gallery, Dublin
Technisches Museum Wien

5. Who am I?
First UK distributor of the Arduino, an electronics educational
tool in 2007.
Millions sold globally since 2004.
NASA use it to prototype robots.

6. Who am I?
Which has led an educational electronics tool revolution & a product
development revolution.
Raspberry Pi: 12.5M sold in 5 years BBC microbit: 1M given free to UK schools in 2016

7. Who am I?
I run an independent consultancy helping my clients understand
and explore the impact of the internet of things in their business.

8. What am I going to share with you?
Ways in which I work as someone who is:
- Independent
- Highly visible in my community
- Highly networked and a reference point for my industry
- Diverse in my output
- Connected to many peers

9. What if you were more nomadic both physically
and with your attention?
What conversations, workshops or events
would you attend?

10. What if you were more nomadic both physically
and with your attention?
Nothing crucial to my industry is first reported on
periodicals.

12. What if you were more nomadic both physically
and with your attention?
Twitter search of #blockchain
using tweetdeck

14. What if you were more interested in what
others are doing?
London Internet of Things meetup: 11.3K members
meetup.com/iotlondon

15. What if you were more interested in others?
40-90 attendees
11 events a year
Speakers & showcase formats
Sponsors: Resin.io & onefinestay

17. What if you behaved like a different organisation?
Homesense, sponsored by EDF R&D was an
internal research project.
An exploration of smart homes with 6 home owners
across Europe in 2009.

18. What if you behaved like a different organisation?
Outcomes:
- A website
- A whitepaper
- Tools
- Open knowledge for the community
designswarm.com/homesense

22. What if you took ‘calculated’ risks?
Homesense was sent a cease and desist from a US furniture
company. They never acted on the threats.
It is now in the permanent collection of the NYC Museum
of Modern Art.

23. What if you took personal risks?
Good Night Lamp has been bootstrapped with a little
angel investment from two friends.
We have received threats from all sides. Copycats,
cease and desists from US companies.

24. What if you took personal risks?
Good Night Lamp is now in the permanent collection
of the London Design Museum.
goodnightlamp.com

26. What if you scratched your own itch?
The Good Home project is a cross-disciplinary
collaborative project to explore the future of
home living.
thegoodhome.org

29. What if you built tools for others to use?
Know Cards are a pack of cards with a simple and
accessible explanation of what components are available
for designers to develop new ideas.
know-cards.com

30. What if you built tools?

31. What if you thought about both small and large
projects?
Proctor & Gamble, RGAx, British Telecom, British Gas,
Nokia, EDF, EDF R&D, Nominet.

32. 1. American Express: next generation high street
A group of people within Amex were helicoptered out
of their work for 3 months and given a challenge to
create 3 functional service prototypes
for the future of retail.
They worked with us for 1 day to experiment on
how to give retail partners tools to build their business.

33. 2. Barclay’s: next generation high street branch
Eagle Labs is helping ‘makers’ have access to
resources.
We’re working with them to create a training program
to help anyone become a program entrepreneur.

35. What if you had to build new allies for every project?
Freelancers
Studios
Graphic designers
Event organisers
Ad Agencies
Manufacturers
Logistics companies
Catering companies

36. What if you lead your industry into action?
iotmark.wordpress.com
A certification mark for #iot

37. So.

38. Why should you care?

40. JP Morgan Senior Thomas Edison

41. Neil Postman

43. Jozeph Weisenbaum, the father of Artificial Intelligence.

44. You are already in the business of facilitating
innovation.
We are in the middle of cultural and technological
change.
Where will you stand?

45. What if you were more nomadic both physically
and with your attention?
What if you were more interested in what
others are doing?
What if you took personal risks?
What if you scratched your own itch?

46. What if you built tools for others to use?
What if you thought about both small and large
projects?
What if you had to build new allies for every project?
What if you lead your industry into action?

47. Merci.
Questions?
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
alex@designswarm.com