As part of their Outside the Box sponsorship, Capital One hosted a live video event last week called “Reimagining Perspectives: Identifying Gaps that Revolutionize Industries”. This was the first live panel innovation discussion at OTB in Boston, which is primarily an event focused on the arts. This year however, OTB has included innovation as a creative art which I believe is a great way to consider the practice of innovation and new value creation. The #CapXTalk panel discussion hosted by Mario Armstrong, brought together some innovators from a variety of companies who see things from a new and different point of view.
Participants included:
- Wombi Rose, Founder of Lovepop Cards;
- Pat Petitti, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of HourlyNerd;
- Feng Chang, Director of Digital Marketing Strategy at Rue La La;
- Dave McLaughlin, General Manager at WeWork; and
- Jim Kresge, Head of Digital Commerce Engineering at Capital One.
CapXTalk Panel at Outside The Box
The talk explored the different ways that these industry pioneers are identifying gaps, challenges and opportunities within their industries. In this post I’ll highlight some of the more interesting responses and insights that come from the talk.
Meeting Customers Where They Are
Feng Chang of Rue La La said that her company is focused on considering where their customers are when they access their site and/or app. Increasingly customers shopping their ecommerce site are doing so in their free moments throughout the day on mobile. Enhancing the customer experience on mobile is therefore their current priority. Wombie Rose (Lovepop Cards) agreed that having the right product for the right customer at the right time is critical for success in today’s marketplace.
The Way People Work Is Changing
Dave McLaughlin of WeWork and Pat Petitti of HourlyNerd both gave great examples of how the way people work today is undergoing disruption. Companies today have access to more talent by utilizing technology to reach workers in areas they have no physical office. Startups today can also be more flexible by utilizing short term workspaces (like WeWork) and not having to commit to long term capital leases as companies just a few years ago would have to do. This could become a game-changer for the way small business views real estate in the future.
Feng Chang, Rue La La – CapXTalk
The Next Opportunities For Disruption: Real Estate And Education
As I just mentioned, Dave McLaughlin of WeWork had some really interesting views of how a more flexible and shorter duration real estate market could really disrupt the real estate industry and the way companies rely upon physical locations in the next 10 years. He and Feng Chang also identified Education as an area ready for disruption, particularly in the sciences and possible computer programming skills. Dave suggested a brand could enter the education space teaching people to become “technology literate.” A firm for example could javascript or other types of programming as a skill, just like math or English.
Although the moderator (Mario Armstrong) could have kept the discussion on track a little better, overall it was a pretty interesting discussion. If you’d like to watch the replay of the live broadcast you can see it here: http://capxtalk.fora.tv
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the post. Please feel free to ask any questions or share you thoughts in the comments below!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Capital One. The opinions and text are all mine.
