Crowd Sourcing - creativity & innovation

Ok, so crowd sourcing is nothing new; but it's clearly a great way to engage with "fans" in such social times. On July 4 we have a jam packed schedule of speakers to explore crowd sourced creativity and innovation from 4 of Amsterdam's industry guru's. Make sure to RSVP!

Derek Ariëns (http://www.twitter.com/edge_amsterdam) - Derek started out as marketing manager for the Spanish football magazine Don Balon . After 3 years in Barcelona, he returned to the Netherlands to work for TRIPLE i, a financial publishing company. In 2009, he founded Edge Amsterdam (http://www.edge-amsterdam.com/) together with Charly Heusschen and Norbert Pollemans. Edge Amsterdam is an online creative network for international young talents from different disciplines. Edge is elite sourcing, crowdsourcing with the right crowd. They work for clients like Heineken, O'Neill, Eneco, Vrumona and GDR.

Derek's presentation will showcase some successful crowdsourcing works, but delve into what the theory behind 'elite sourcing' is, what is important in crowdsourcing, what is good about crowdsourcing, what can be improved and how can brands and agencies benefit from the crowd in the right way.

C2B Consultancy (http://www.twitter.com/C2Brevolutie)- In 2010 Robert van Meer and Tim Meuleman founded C2B Consultancy (http://www.c2b-consultancy.nl), an agency that helps companies with involving customers in their business activities. C2B stands for Consumer-to-Business: a new market that arose besides the ongoing B2C and B2B markets. With new principles like crowdsourcing, co-creation and open innovation, companies can now gain more value than traditionally possible, simply by involving customers in their business.

Due to hit the shelves in June, Robert and Tim's book ' the C2B revolution (http://www.c2b-consultancy.nl/C2B_Consultancy/C2B_revolution.html)' explore seven simple steps which should help any company optimally execute a crowdsourcing initiative. The seven steps are based on a large amount of academic literature, and provide new theories and insights in an approachable form.

Kwela Sabine Hermanns (http://www.twitter.com/KwelaHermanns) - Organiser Social Innovation Safari with Kennisland - Kwela's projects span innovation, new media, education and events design. She holds a Master from the Hypermedia Research Centre and is on the editorial board for Second Sight trend magazine. Recent articles include a study of the Quantified Self Movement. She is also part of a Dutch research platform that explores the future of human-machine relationships in the context of The Singularity. Kwela will present on the pioneering Social Innovation Safari concept which she co-designed with Kennisland. The Safari recalibrated Social Innovation at the DNA level by integrating rapid prototyping and crowd-sourcing techniques in the "sparketing" and design strategies used.