Ideas to Action #2 (Collaborative QS Brainstorming) Cambridge Innovation Center

The Quantified Self movement consists of users and tool makers who have a shared interest in self knowledge through self tracking. Currently, there are three “branches” of the group: the Quantified Self blog and community site (http://quantifiedself.com/), Quantified Self Show & Tell meetup (https://www.meetup.com/BostonQS/events/106884212/) events, and the Quantified Self conference (http://quantifiedself.com/conference/Amsterdam-2013/). After connecting at one of the QS informal networking events, a few of us thought, “how can we take this a step further”? Quantified Selfers are DOers, and here in Boston, there are countless resources for innovators to connect, share ideas, and take action...and so we decided to create the Quantified Self: Ideas to Action Event.

Our goal for this event is to inspire ideas, initiatives, experiments, and potentially even business concepts by way of self tracking. Whether you have a project you are currently working on, looking to discover something new, or simply investigating the world of Quantified Self, everyone is guaranteed to leave the event with something to be excited about and to become involved with.

Throughout the course of the night, we will propose 2 or 3 topic areas for group discussion. Our objective is to solve some of the toughest questions that QSers are facing, so make sure you come ready to flex those brain muscles. Some examples would be: “Why haven’t the FitBit, or Nike Fuelband devices become accepted by the average consumer? How do we turn an invasive procedure into a simple non-invasive test? What tools, other than food diaries and tracking apps, can be used to quantify caloric intake?” We can’t solve these tough questions on our own. So let’s band together to tackle these issues!

These events are geared towards collaboration and brainstorming. Our schedule will be flexible depending on what topics the group is interested in discussing. But in order to provide SOME structure, here is the general outline for the night:

6:00pm - 6:30pm: Sign-in and Networking

6:30pm - 7:00pm: QS presentations and general discussion
We’d like to get the creative juices flowing by having everyone talk about what QS topics interest them. If you have an ongoing experiment and would like to speak about it for 5 minutes, we encourage you to do so. This is relatively informal, so don’t worry about preparing any slides in advance.

7:00pm - 8:30pm: The roundtable discussion & brainstorm begins!
We will propose topics to the group to encourage an interactive and collaborative conversation. We have expert facilitators that will help us with the creative process. Generally, the first topic proposed will be from one of our QSers. The second topic will come from an established company, startup, or entrepreneur who is interested in solving a seriously tough QS problem. The third topic, will be up to the group to decide.

8:30pm - 9:00pm: Wrap-up and review
We will be looking for feedback from you to see where you would like to take this event in the future. But generally, we want this event to be about solving some of the toughest QS problems out there while helping you find new collaborators and new projects relating to the Quantified Self that you would be interested in.

QS SPONSORS: OUR THANKS TO Cambridge Innovation Center (http://cic.us/)

A wonderful space is generously being provided by Cambridge Innovation Center, the area's largest and most popular flexible office space facility designed to meet the needs of small and fast-growing technology-oriented companies.