Today sees the official launch of the ideas platform created by Santander’s City Council: enter www.santandercitybrain.com and take a look! You can sign up and help improve the city of Santander with your ideas.

The platform kicks off with a competition in search of “ideas that use current technology (Internet, Smartphones, Geolocation) to find solutions, improvements and suggestions that are original, innovative or useful. These ideas can be meant for any of the services, products or spaces that Santander provides for its citizens.” An iPad will go to the winner, and the three runners-up will win an iPhone 5.

Tell your friends and take part with your ideas!

We are pleased to announce the official launch, the next week, of the Santander City Brain, a platform created in collaboration with ideas4all.

The Santander City Brain will look to become an open and transparent space where all of Santander’s citizens can share ideas and projects that will help improve the city.

Apart from Santander’s City Council, the initiative has also enjoyed the support of IBM and Banco Santander, through its technology services company, ISBAN.

Smart cities are key to innovation in urban spaces and we are very glad to be able to take part in a pioneering project such as Santander City Brain. We encourage all of you to come and visit this new amazing platform.

Image seen on Ingeniería para optimistas

The large cities we know and live in are constantly growing and overrunning rural areas, but this unstoppable growth may have found a point of equilibrium thanks to the technology that will make major urban areas intelligent. This will help reduce excessive population and will make living together easier, as well as processes like distribution and resource allocation. We’re talking about Smart Cities.

New technology has finally reached a stage of development in which it can significantly improve the lives of a city’s inhabitants. A Smart City is one in which technology is made completely available to citizens through intelligent administration, government, economy, mobility, buildings…

There are already examples of Smart Cities like Málaga, Amsterdam, Boston, and rankings like the Top 10 Smart Cities in North America, or the Top 10 Smart Cities in Europe.

There is no unique model for a Smart City, and each city approaches the concept in its own particular way, with different projects and objectives.

The example we want to share here is Santander, a city that is looking to pioneer the movement in Spain inviting its citizens and entrepreneurs to take part in “Santander City Brain”, an open community of ideas in which citizens will be able to participate and, above all, submit projects to improve their city, which may be developed and put into practice.

We are very happy to announce that ideas4all will be the chosen platform for “Santander City Brain”, taking part in this innovative and pioneering project along with Santander’s City Council, ISBAN and IBM. For example, competitions will be organized for entrepreneurs with business projects for the city, with prizes and support to get them started. Now it will be Santander’s own citizens who will continue making their city one of the most intelligent in Spain, thanks to their ideas in different categories such as: energy efficiency, environment, sustainable mobility, city planning and building, etc.

Funny animation created for this great speech about motivation of Daniel Pink. He demonstrates that the old-fashioned carrot-and-stick approach worked successfully in the 20th century, is not working to motivate people for today’s challenges. You can also read the full Drive The surprising truth about what motivates us.

Maria Mazariegos from ideas4all

They say, “A creative adult is a child who has survived”, and that just might be true. Often, the number of creative limitations that are, unfortunately, forced upon us by our environment or even by ourselves, make us forget−like Peter Pan−that wonderful creativity and imagination that overwhelmed us when we were little.

Javier Megias shares a great post with 20 things we can learn from children in order to be more creative. I believe these five are of the kind we should never forget:

“Leave your prejudices behind. If you forget your preconceived ideas, you may discover the world is much easier and more attractive, filled with opportunities.” Which is to say, “Learn to un-learn”.

“The world is filled with amazing things. The wonder of discovering them is one of the best kinds of motivation there is.”

“Don’t worry about making a fool of yourself. That is self-imposed censorship, which only results in keeping you from doing things”

“Your limits are in your mind. Don’t let anyone tell you what you can or cannot do, the first limitations you’ll encounter are in your own mind”

“Look for simplicity. Don’t waste time on complicated or useless things.”

Here is a fantastic example in this video:

No wonder Wired magazine included “Think like a child” in its list of 9 rules to foster creativity, after seeing how marvelously creative children can be.

Like Pablo Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to continue being an artist when we grow up.” Let’s try to rescue and unleash that artist, it will let you create without limits or prejudice.

Maria Mazariegos from ideas4all

This coming May 6, Madrid will become the meeting point for creative and innovative minds, brought together by an event organized by Actitud Creativa to celebrate Innovation Day.

The place to be will be the Círculo de Bellas Artes, where for 8 hours, 7 expert speakers will present Creativity and Innovation from different perspectives:

- Creative Thinking: we will see how to generate new ideas that are original and useful
- Innovative Leadership: we will learn how to obtain the support of others for our new ideas
- Co-Creation: will show us the new process of Creative Coaching that transforms creativity into a shared process that can solve difficult problems
- Innovation Culture: we will see how innovation can become a habit for individuals and organizations.

There will be practical activities and the opportunity for Networking throughout the day of the Conference, with companies and innovators sharing their knowledge.

We are happy to announce that Ana María Llopis, founder and CEO of ideas4all, will be one of the speakers, with a conference on “State of the Art Open Innovation”, sharing her experience and the practical example of Banc Sabadell.

You can follow the entire event through these Twitter accounts: @Diadeinnovacion and @ActitudCreativa
And using the hashtag: #diainnovacion

Here is all the information: www.eldiadelainnovacion.es

We are very happy to announce that Riversix, the networking agency that operates in the UK, United States and European Union, with over 50,000 professional contacts, has named ideas4all as one of the current outstanding networks for innovation in Chiefnation web.

As an example, they have published a video where employees of Spanish insurance company Mutua Madrileña share their experience participating in the private software platform ideas4all has developed for them.

Innovating is a difficult task, that requires all of our effort and, above all, perseverance. Sometimes, our work environment makes things all the more difficult, Agustín Cuenca who has collaborated with ideas4all since the beginning of the project, made it clear in his presentation at Innosfera in February:

“It’s impossible to innovate here, my boss won’t let me. Well, leave your boss and open your own business.”

Sometimes, you have to be brave and dare to innovate.
The article by Mitch Ditkoff: “Top 100 Lamest Excuses for Not innovating” includes a complete list of the 100 excuses we can think of instead of innovating.

Here is a brief summary of the most common reasons. Any of them ring a bell?

I don’t have the time
I can’t get financing
My boss will never go for it
We’re not in the kind of business likely to innovate
I’m just not the creative type
Our clients aren’t asking for it
We don’t have a culture of innovation
They don’t pay me enough to take on this kind of project
I won’t be able to get enough resources
Someone will steal my idea
The concept is too disruptive
I won’t be able to get enough support
I’ve never done anything like this before
I’m not sure how to begin
I’m getting too old for this
Maybe next year

After reading, admit one or two have crossed your mind, right?
But what is truly interesting about the article is how it suggests we get over these excuses:

1. Make a list of your most bothersome excuses.
2. Turn each excuse into a question beginning with the words “How can I?”
3. Brainstorm each question.
4. Then, do something about it within the next 48 hours.

I think it is a good way to, at least, start taking the first few steps.
Go on!

Maria Mazariegos from ideas4all

In this section, I will be looking to share examples of innovation that have caught my attention and that we will entitle pearls of innovation, and will be interchangeable with a similar section I will  begin in my blog quatremots-anamariallopis although it will be in  ideas4all blog, where it will stay archived, with space for comments.

The first example is an example of Hybrid Innovation, the Transition, a Flying, Ultra-Light Car. It is the result of bringing together two things that have no natural connection, cars and airplanes/light aircraft, and mixing the two to come up with one vehicle.

But, above all, it is the result of a passion, the passion to fly that the founder has felt every since he was 17 years old. We are speaking of Carl Dietrich, that’s right, just like Marlene, who, at a very young age, learnt to fly airplanes and did not give up on his idea until he graduated and earned a doctorate in aeronautical engineering from MIT in 2006, as well as many awards, such as the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for Innovation, and decided to make his own project reality by starting up his own company. Not all innovators are university drop-outs, there are also examples of this kind of innovator, although they may not be as popular or haven’t made it as far. For some dreams to come true, studying is necessary, even if one is self-taught.

The fact is that passion and believing in your ideas can move mountains when it comes to innovating. Doctor Carl has been successful in surrounding himself with a team of experts he can trust, family and friends with his same interests, but each with a different role within the Company. His company is called Terrafugia and they say it is already accepting orders because, for a start-up to succeed, it must generate income, contracts, orders. They are being accepted with a view to when production is ready, once tests -which are going very well- have been validated, as they make their way towards the final product, through successive approximations and trials.

The flying car is known as Transition because it goes from one state to another by making a transition form the running to the flying phase. The Transition is like a butterfly opening and closing its wings, depending on whether it is on the ground or in the air. The wings fold or unfold at will, in a way that is simple and smooth. It is a wonder we would not have imagined possible only a few years ago. Here are its detailed technical specifications.

At ideas4all.com, there are 11 ideas under coches voladores and 4 under flying cars, parallel creativity is always to be found among people who dream of flying cars and don’t yet know that the project is being made reality around them.  We already had the seaplane which sailed over water, but that was always considered easier to introduce, if we take into account lesser traffic and greater space for the transition.

The transition  can be stored in your garage, like any other  non-flying ca. And if you are interested enough in buying one , you can reserve it for $10.000 . the quoted price depending on the source ranges from $134.00 to $198.000.

IESE has set in motion The Africa Initiative at IESE, a new project to promote diverse activities at the school, related to Africa.

One of the main objectives is to coordinate and promote academic relations with Lagos Business School, Nile University and Strathmore Business School, helping in the training of African professors, supporting the creation and launch of other associated management schools, and contacting and cooperating with the different active organizations and entities that are interested in Africa, already present in there, or that are considering the possibility of including the African continent in their business strategy.

An initiative that shows knowledge and value can be generated, while bringing about education and training that favors awareness for social issues. Social awareness is no longer a utopia, it is a reality, and IESE, with its prestige and professionalism, gives this project an aura of elegance and assured success, as it seeks to involve that great continent that is AFRICA.

Because, if this type of initiative really does manage to boost the development of countries in need, through education (universities and business schools), it will truly become a memorable milestone.

For talent, as well as creativity, attract more talent and greater creativity; if we are capable of creating ties of cooperation and exchange, and of developing the economy of such countries through education, positive results will soon appear.

Many writers and specialists, such as Richard Florida (Who’s Your City?) and Joelkotki, among others, have analyzed the urban environment defining different behaviors, classifying cities by their creativity and other variables, and showing the individual as an accurate reflection of the city he or she represents.

Initiatives such as these go to show that it is the individuals who can create cities and countries in which education, innovation, and international cooperation are the vital signs its citizens promote in search for an environment that is comfortable enough to feel proud of the city we live in.

Rocío Bravo of Ideas4all