SXSW Interactive is one of the world's best conferences, and you should make plans to attend it at least once in your lifetime. I've been a couple of times and came home with new event ideas and connections—innovative seating and participation structures, captivating speakers, and technology advancements, just to name a few.  

Considering technology, conference organizers recently named the SXSW 2013 Accelerator finalists. SXSW Accelerator takes place in front of a live audience and a panel of expert judges. Forty-eight companies will present March 11 the latest advancements in social media, mobile, and Web technologies. The group will then whittle down to 18 companies on March 12, with winners announced at the end of the day.

Some of the finalists look interesting from a meeting profession point of view:

Plotter
Cleveland, OH
plotterapp.com
Plotter is the first social network for maps. Not only does it bring much needed features to mobile maps like viewing multiple plotted locations at once, it lets you crowd source and discover maps from friends and experts. Finally, a map app that does more than search and directions.

Present.me
London, UK
present.me
Think YouTube meets Slideshare. Whether it's a conference presentation, pitching for business, updating your team, setting assignments for students or applying for a job, Present.me allows you to record and share your ideas, knowledge or messages online, simply and cost effectively.

Charlie
Northbrook, IL
charliehq.com
Charlie preps you on people before you see them. With access to your calendar Charlie knows who you are going to meet and before a meeting Charlie filters through the web to present you with any commonalties between you and your connection, breaking news on their company and social updates.

Sprezzat
Brooklyn, NY
sprezzat.com
Sprezzat, helps users customize their incoming call screen by streaming dynamic content from their favorite applications. Our flagship application Thread, is an innovative caller-ID and contact management application. Users personalize their incoming call screen and address book with a consolidated view of the caller's recent communications and social network updates.

Check out the SXSW Interactive Accelerator page for finalists, and please let us know in the comments which ones you're excited about (or if you're attending SXSW Interactive).

Disney Research Pittsburgh has turned plants into multi-touch sensors. Talk about augmenting reality...wow.

The world will now be able to communicate digitally through plants. Maybe this will enable us to communicate with plants...I don't know, but I'm sure someone is working on that extension.

Can you imagine a Disney park where every plant could play music to you based on your touch, or could trigger light and sound displays? The implications are pretty freaking awesome.

I look forward to seeing how the mouse is going to push this incredible innovation out to the world.

“I’m really just a sideshow,” neuroscientist and science writer Jonah Lehrer said to the opening general audience at WEC.

Lehrer, though, provided much more than sideshow entertainment like the kind you’d find at a carnival. His insights about creativity, innovation, and the importance of face-to-face connections resonated with a crowd that is all too often questioned about the role meeting professionals play in business success. 

Starting with a story about Skunk Works and its development of the stealth bomber, Lehrer moved into the meat of his talk: how to foster creativity. According to him, there are two main strains of creative success--states of relaxation and grit.

“Answers arrive only after you stop looking for them,” Lehrer said. “However, levels of grit are the single best predictors of success.”

It can be reasoned that for attendees seeking the best way to experience WEC and to get the most out of it, they should work hard and take strategic breaks. Get up and walk around when you’ve hit a wall. Go take a warm shower. Have a beer. But don’t give up. Be determined in what you plan to accomplish.

That’s what Lehrer ultimately urges for the audience.

“The job of a keynote is to be provocative,” he said in an interview after the session. “Speakers are here to inspire conversations.”

And that’s exactly what he did. His talk caused hundreds of tweets and comments, during and after the event.

“I feel much smarter and a new way of thinking,” wrote Jennifer Bissett, U.S. corporate account director for Tourism Toronto, on Twitter.

“From on Jonah to another,” wrote Jonah Wolfraim, communications manager for EventMobi, on Twitter. “Thanks for a great opening keynote.”

We agree.

The always pleasant Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab, continues to break out in the U.S. as a major force of the future and open-mindedness. The subject of an award-winning 2009 One+ profile (back when he was CEO of Creative Commons; currently the chairman of that enlightened group), Ito has made some impressive appearances in the media this month.

In the latest issue of Fast Company, Ito is included as a top disrupter, a bold thinker, in the business world. He's named "The Über Consultant" with the tagline "Fight for flexibility."

This week, Ito penned an editorial for The New York Times, "In An Open-Source Society, Innovating by the Seat of Our Pants" (for the record, not his headline), explaining how the Internet is a philosophy rather than a technology and is altering not only creativity but the way we think about creativity.

I don't mean to continue harping on the virtues and philosophies of Ito, but I can't help it. Each time I see his name leading a story and each time I read a tweet from @Joi, I wonder how his thought bubbles could aid the meeting and event industry... We need more thinkers like him.

Simply put, you need to pay attention to Joi Ito.

Image (CC) Mizuka

Last week, we told you that MPI Chairman Sébastien Tondeur received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award for his work in the meeting industry. And maybe that sparked an interest in you about entrepreneurship. 

Well, guess what. There's a week dedicated to just that. Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch start-ups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare.

During one week, November 14-20 this year, GEW inspires people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. These activities, from large-scale competitions and events to intimate networking gatherings, connect participants to potential collaborators, mentors and even investors—introducing them to new possibilities and exciting opportunities.

To learn more, please watch the following video.

Is your organization prepared to educate customers/delegates differently? Do you have innovative professional growth paths?

Well, you need to, says Rich Lesser, chairman of North and South America for Boston Consulting Group, because the knowledge revolution is happening NOW.

Turn that trade show wall or boring conference table into an interactive surface.

Maybe you want the back of your shirt to have multitouch capabilities? (Though I don't know that the current form of this technology would help with this endeavor.)

Cambridge, U.K.-based Visualplanet is couching their "touchfoil" as a cutting-edge tool that turns almost any surface (currently up to 167 inches, diagonal) into an interactive touchscreen.

The possibilities...

Everything is a Remix is a well-made, short documentary series about the nature of creativity and innovation. It's, by far, one of the best things I've seen online this past year. Now, Part 3 has just been released, and it focuses on the creativity myth and how innovation isn't a single occurrence—it's the product of many forces at work, namely copying.

"The act of creation is surrounded by a fog of myths. Myths that creativity comes via inspiration. That original creations break the mold, that they’re the products of geniuses, and appear as quickly as electricity can heat a filament. But creativity isn’t magic: it happens by applying ordinary tools of thought to existing materials," said filmmaker Kirby Ferguson in the video. "And the soil from which we grow our creations is something we scorn and misunderstand, even though it gives us so much…and that’s copying. Put simply, copying is how we learn. We can’t introduce anything new until we’re fluent in the language of our domain, and we do that through emulation."

Please watch the video, and let us know your thoughts about creativity and innovation in the comments below. 

Everything is a Remix Part 3 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Innovation and creativity are the new cause célèbres of the business world. I'm not complaining; I'd rather talk about how to foster creativity than discuss data any day of the week. And I'm not the only one noticing that creativity is on the forefront of the new business world. 

"A 2010 study of 1,500 CEOs indicated that leaders rank creativity as No. 1 leadership attribute needed for prosperity," wrote Josh Linkner in Inc. "It's the one thing that can't be outsourced; the one thing that's the lifeblood of sustainable competitive advantage."

In his informative article, Linkner offers seven steps to help create a better culture of innovation. While I'm no fan of the numbered list article, I do admit he offers some great advice. Consider his first suggestion: Fuel Passion.

"Every great invention, every medical breakthrough, and every advance of humankind began with passion," wrote Linkner, who will also be a part of our Flash Point session at WEC in Orlando. "A passion for change—for making the world a better place. A passion to contribute—to make a difference. A passion to discover something new. With a team full of passion, you can accomplish just about anything. Without it, your employees become mere clock-punching automatons. One key is to realize that passion alone isn't quite enough: You must also focus that passion into a sense of purpose."

Please read the rest of his article for the other six steps, and in the comments, please let us know how you foster innovation and creativity in your workplace and life. 

Genius.

Terribly daft.

How would you describe a proposed plan to renovate and re-open 26 shuttered London subway stations as pubs and special event venues?

Ajit Chambers sees such closed chambers (pun intended) as pure opportunity; Transport for London points out that some of the stations are adjacent to currently operating rail lines, which could significantly impair secondary usage.

The Independent highlights five stations that may once again feel the breath of life. Take special note if you're to be planning unique events in London.

As long as they're safe and acoustically insulated sufficiently, I'd jump at the chance to participate at an event in these truly unique spots.