To succeed in business, we must change the meaning of the word ‘failure’ and that takes courage.

If there’s one message that day-1 of the Boston Innovation Festival made sure cut through with delegates, it’s that Disruptive Innovation is so much more than simply the act of being disruptive. 

There has been an emphasis on the human at the Boston Innovation Festival 2019. The trends are moving away from technology being the star. We are realizing that technology is here to better serve humanity. 

A self-confessed nerd, Steve Wozniak built the Apple 2. With his hands. Wozniak’s key note on Day 2 of the Boston Innovation Festival was full of human story. As a young computer nerd all he wanted was to play computer games. And to have fun. 

As part of the SingularityU Australia Global Impact Challenge, we held a two-day Bootcamp at the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship. Our cohort worked on pitch decks and presentation techniques. They worked hard and fast, with commitment and determination.

Just as Greece needs to aim high and find a united vision, so do we.

Unleash collaboration for a global cause and anything is possible. Bring like minds together to highlight issues and change follows. 

Our brains have come to expect constant change and the result of all the extra stimuli, is the incomplete formation of brain pathways in children.

In the past 20 years we have made incredible advances in technology that have seen the sick healed and the lost found. 

I’m writing this article from San Francisco. It’s appropriate that SingularityU is based here.

We aren’t as averse to change as ‘experts’ would have us believe.

Why develop a new product rather than spend the allocated funds on traditional advertising methods?

I often wonder what changes people make to their businesses, organisations and lives once they leave the confines of a shared space of like-minds.

In order to live an effective life, we should ask ourselves. “Did I make a difference today?” 

I am a Pixar tragic! I’ve cried watching some movies and cried at my children’s delight in others. 

Day one of the Front End of Innovation - there is so much information to absorb and share.

Growing up I wondered when the increasing value of ‘things’ would outstrip the dollars available. As an adult, I am still wondering. 

What difference can you make? How can you make life easier for others? 

Last week at Vivid Sydney we started a movement, #creativityequals.

If the dreary staircases in train stations and public places in Newcastle and the Hunter were brightly painted and even made music when you trod on them, would people use them more?

I have just returned from the Front End Innovation Conference in Boston. After three days mixing with ‘the tribe’, immersed in innovation, I have the courage to believe anything is possible.

Where do you start selecting the books to add to your bookshelf – or device?

A few years ago, there was talk about laying the Hunter Innovation Festival to rest.

Entries are open for the Smart Ideas competition, in its third edition and a part of the Hunter Innovation Festival in May. 

Last week I experienced the brilliant mind, charisma and inspiration of Simon Sinek.

I confess that I am a musical tragic and some time ago took my daughter to see Matilda The Musical. I found myself relating the story to my work in innovation and entrepreneurship.

What an amazingly fast and furious year. While everyone is in evaluation and planning mode, here are five essential points to consider and execute for success in 2017.

What an amazingly fast and furious year. While everyone is in evaluation and planning mode, here are five essential points to ponder then execute.

Christina Gerakiteys is in the business of opening hearts and minds to possibility. As Chief Enabler and CEO of Ideation At Work, she is an innovation and creativity consultant and trainer.

Creativity and innovation require imagination.

I have been working lately on limiting beliefs, others and my own.

Hunter Headline provides timely business news and information specific to the Hunter region. #HunterEntrepreneur interviews are designed to get a better understanding of how local entrepreneurs got where they are and any advice they would give to other entrepreneurs.

Human beings have been innovating since time immemorial.

There are lessons to be learnt everywhere we look if we have our eyes and our hearts wide open.

This year, the Hunter Innovation Festival (HIF) saw a record number of entries for the Smart Ideas competition.

This year, the Hunter Innovation Festival (HIF) saw a record number of entries for the Smart Ideas competition. 

This year, the Hunter Innovation Festival (HIF) saw a record number of entries for the Smart Ideas competition.

Zappos has a workplace culture worthy of bottling and delivering to every organisation on the planet! 

As we move further into the 21st century, life is all about the people. 

There’s a lot around theses days about finding your why, your raison d’etre, following your heart, doing what you love.

Speakers from some of the nation’s most innovative companies are set to descend on Newcastle.

I am always dismayed when I hear that a workplace has anything less than an empowering and effective culture, particularly when you consider the research that has been conducted.

If you have got a bright idea for a product or service that could benefit the Hunter, the Smart Ideas competition is open for business. 

If you’ve got a bright idea for a service or product to benefit the Hunter, the Smart Ideas competition is now open for business. 

Steve Jobs knew how to make connections.

ORDINARY people with extraordinary ideas take note...

Top of the list: Be brave enough to be exactly who you want to be, one hundred percent of the time.

Blending work and play, The Unlocking Creativity and Innovation retreat will be held on the Greek island of Kefalonia, the largest of the Ioanian islands.

As much as technology has connected us through video conferencing, Skype and countless equivalents, there is nothing as productive in the short term as face-to-face contact.

Successful teams are ‘backed’. They get a ‘hearing’. Our innovation team was guaranteed the opportunity to regularly present their ideas to the company directors.

Female entrepreneurs will own thirteen trillion dollars of business by next year. 

I once heard the term ‘Innovate Like an Israeli’. It wasn’t until I attended the Creative Innovation Conference in Melbourne earlier this year that I truly understood what that meant.

The concept of driverless cars has been around since the 1920s, so perhaps Hollywood isn’t making all the predictions but rather increasing their momentum.

Thursday November 19 was United Nations Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. According to figures from EY, female entrepreneurs will own thirteen trillion dollars of business by next year.

I confess that I am a musical tragic and took my daughter to see Matilda The Musical last Saturday.  I found myself relating the story to my work in innovation and entrepreneurship. 

The Hunter Manufacturing Awards held in October acknowledged world-class companies operating in the region.

In case you missed it, last week was the 25th Anniversary of Back to the Future, and focus was on ‘predictions’ that had woven their way into our reality.

Ever felt the electricity of the group in an idea building session? That’s what true collaboration feels like.

Entrepreneurs have come to be defined as those who start a new business.

In order to tend your innovation team, firstly ensure you have a diverse ‘brains trust’ in the group.

The Industrial Age was about mass production  and mass consumption. 

Ever felt the electricity of the group in an idea building session? That’s what true collaboration feels like.

Close your eyes and think about the last time you travelled to a different country, state, city or even suburb.

The possibilities opening up to businesses at this time of incredible change are exciting, though it will be challenging for some to release old beliefs.

They call NYC the City of Ideas. There are banners everywhere reminding you of that.

At first I was miffed that Orange had become the new Black! Why were all these converts moving into Orange territory?

At first I was miffed that orange had become the new black. Why were all these converts moving into orange territory? 

We are constantly hearing about ‘‘cuts’’ to business, mining, manufacturing, health and education. 

It’s a no brainer really – isn’t this what we all want – to get to the root of a problem? 

How we perceive things is really coloured by the sum of our life’s experiences.

How many times have you been in a meeting and someone has piped up and said, we are going to brainstorm, and you either think oh no not again or right, I have to turn on the brainstorming part of my brain and hope it works…

Innovation should be like those other “in” words – innate, intuitive, indefinite – it should be a “given” that everyone should be involved.

There is a plethora of articles being written at the moment about retail – chains are closing, David Jones and Myers have had profit slumps, the internet is killing the sector etc.etc.etc.

As the Hunter Innovation Festival enters its the sixth consecutive year, it is timely to investigate the origins of Innovation and why we bother to celebrate Innovation during the month of May.

Brazilian company Semco made its debut on the Internet in July 2005. 

So the term Mental Contrasting popped up again the other day in a newsletter from Inventium.

Human beings are adaptable creatures. Maybe we should ask more often how we can adopt and adapt ideas from one industry into another industry. 

A friend of mine keeps coming up with great book discoveries!

I have just returned from the USA in awe of the role that Creativity and Innovation play in businesses, companies and organisations.

There are a plethora of articles written about Innovation in the Workplace. 

I have a problem with measuring – sometimes we get so caught up in the measuring and the explaining and the reporting and the justifying – that we forget what it was we actually started out trying to achieve.

Academics often talk about little ‘c’ and big ‘C’ creativity. If that’s the case, Newcastle in May was blazing INNOVATION.

Western cultures have largely solved problems by establishing rules, rules that inflict limits on situations and confine behaviours to what is deemed to be acceptable.

There’s been much talk lately in quite a few different circles I’ve found myself in, about putting all our eggs in the mining basket.

And I don’t mean – increase the percentage off or give me more for less…I mean as consumers, we aren’t duped by the term SALE anymore.

I have noticed a huge shift in the customer service being rolled out at Coles. 

Bread has been a staple part of the human diet since the Neolithic era…so it’s been around for a long time. 

HUNTER women are joining a rapidly growing cohort of working mothers who are creating a new model for ‘‘having it all’’.

FOLLOWING in the footsteps of the design, innovation and green technologies festival, a new event aims to mark Newcastle as a hot spot for entrepreneurs and innovators.

If you read business books, participate in workshops or seek advice from a business adviser or coach,  there will always be a ‘‘case study’’, or a ‘‘mention’’ of businesses and organisations doing well, even ‘‘punching above their weight’’.

As any entrepreneur will tell you, you won’t get far without determination, commitment and collaboration. 

BRAZILIAN company Semco made its debut on the internet in July 2005. Prior, it was a manufacturing company in decline. The April 2013 issue of Forbes reported  Semco had grown 900percent in 10 years. 

 As the Hunter Innovation Festival enters its  sixth consecutive year, it is timely to investigate the origins of innovation and why we bother to celebrate it  during the month of May.