On November 1st and 2nd, Inovateus team members, T.J. Kanczuzewski, Danny Nussbaum, Nathan Vogel, Cidney Fulton, Ashley Brickley and I had the pleasure to attend the 2019 Innovation Summit: The Power of Nature, which was hosted by Geoversity at Harvard University. Our CEO, T.J. Kanczuzewski, also serves as the CEO for Geoversity and has coordinated a joint effort between the two organizations. T.J. worked closely with Geoversity alum Dr. David S. Ricketts, an Innovation Fellow for the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, to conduct the event at the Harvard Faculty Club and the Maxwell Dworkin Laboratory, designed to house computer science and electrical engineering.
Geoversity is an ecosystem of leaders and organizations collaborating in the pursuit of breakthroughs in human design, enterprise and creative expression, inspired by nature. Geoversity’s HQ and campus is based in Panama in a critical biodiversity hotspot called the Mamoní Valley Preserve. The Mamoní Valley Preserve is now over 12,000 acres of protected rainforest thanks to the efforts of the Mamoni 100, an eco-investment group which includes T.J. Kanczuzewski and myself.
So what was this summit all about? The purpose of the summit was to create a collaborative experience for various individuals and thought leaders from around the globe to help Geoversity in it’s initiatives during a critical decade, 2020-2030. Business scaling guru and Geoversity Chairman, Verne Harnish, set the tone with a powerful introduction, followed by marketing expert and best selling author David Meerman Scott who shared a presentation on a Transcontinental journey he took with other business leaders from the Pacific to the Atlantic with a stop at the Mamoni Valley Preserve. Other participants included world-leading geographers, tech entrepreneurs and video game experts like Tommy Francios from Ubisoft. All were focused on sharing perspectives on how we can harness the information, power and data that exists in nature to make positive transformations and take better care of our planet. The world is changing fast, however if we act quickly to make the right decisions, we know that Earth is resilient and that it can rebalance. Climate change was one of those tough talking points during the summit, but our group was willing to step outside traditional frameworks of thinking, and explore the boundaries of creativity. Leaving the conference, we were rejuvenated and excited to get back to work at Inovateus to navigate the new challenges and everyday obstacles of the solar + storage industry.
Going to the Power of Nature summit in some ways felt natural to us, almost like one of our very own Think Tank sessions. We host a think tank on Fridays at our headquarters in South Bend, Indiana, roughly once a month. The summit was simply a room full of people with different backgrounds and unique worldly perspectives, and when you mix it all-together it can create something magical, or something unexpected. A think tank has that ability to bring a group together to collaborate, and collectively transform ideas and solutions to become something bigger, brighter and hopefully more brilliant. No one knows officially how the Earth will evolve this next century, but if we all work together and be the best stewards we can be, we will have a great chance in achieving and seeing the sustainable future that most of us want. If not for us, for our kids and for the many generations ahead of us.
By Tyler Kanczuzuewski, VP of Marketing and Sustainability
