What’s Raleigh’s next big idea?

More than 40 entrepreneurs and engaged citizens brainstormed that thought during a breakout session at the Raleigh Innovation Summit. The goal of the session was to develop the top three or four goals that the Innovate Raleigh team will focus on in the coming months.

“We used conversation-mapping,” said Sarah Wechsberg, the co-organizer of Triangle Entrepreneurship Week and one of the leaders of the aptly named Big Idea session, “which is a systems tool to capture multiple perspectives and generate unlimited ideas.”

The leaders of the session told all of the participants to leave their titles at the door and collaborate with one another.

In small groups, participants were asked to generate ideas around one of six questions about Raleigh: How can we improve community? What kind of resources are needed for new people relocating to the area? How can we leverage Raleigh’s greenways and parks? How do we create a population of problem-solvers? What are features of other cities around the world that Raleigh should also have? What green spaces and fun spaces are needed in order for Raleigh to succeed?

These ideas were mapped onto large poster boards, and participants were then invited to work around the room, add to any poster board, and generate additional ideas as well as indicate great ideas.

“Great ideas always rise to the top,” said Wechsberg. The organizers asked participants to remove judgment from their ideas and the ideas of others, and just get them down on paper.

“We started with hundreds of ideas,” said Wechsberg, “and narrowed them down to four emergent themes.”

These themes are:

  • Increase Transit Systems & Build Light Rail – with the goal to better connect Triangle’s cities, Research Triangle Park, its Universities and Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
  • Build and Maintain Nonprofit Innovation and Support Systems – ideas in this category included a focus on youth development and the need for changes in educational policy to enable teachers to develop a better curriculum around innovation and problem solving, establish leadership in their classroom, and get actively involved in conversations to set local and state policy.
  • Build or Develop a Signature Attraction, and Make it Interactive – ideas in this theme ranged from mobile applications to synchronizing large events to developing new buildings, parks, venues or artwork to showcase Raleigh.
  • Connecting Green Space, Open Space, and Bike Accessibility – perhaps Raleigh will consider a bike-sharing program, or connect their green spaces and parks with trail connectors or free shuttles.

What happens next?

The Raleigh Innovation Summit team will take these ideas and work to implement them, but the community will need to rally around these themes to really gain traction, said Jason Hibbets, a project manager at Red Hat and a session leader at Innovate Raleigh.