March 24th, 2014

Ashley Jablow, challenge and client lead for OpenIDEO, will present “Creativity, Design Thinking, and the Crowd: Harnessing the Power of Open Innovation to Create Social Impact” on Thursday, April 10 from 4:10-5:00 p.m. in the Procrastinator Theater, for the spring Montana State University (MSU) Jake Jabs College of Business & Entrepreneurship (JJCBE)’s David Orser Executive Speakers Forum.

It seems everyone these days is talking about concepts like creative confidence, crowdsourcing, and design. Are these just buzzwords, or is there real substance behind them? OpenIDEO, a startup incubated inside the international design firm IDEO, is an online, collaborative platform for social and environmental impact, where people create better, together. How was OpenIDEO created, and what makes its global community of 60,000 uniquely positioned to create change in the world? Hear the story of what OpenIDEO’s community has achieved so far, the lessons their team has learned, and how their open innovation approach is changing the way people collaborate for real-world impact.

Since 2010, OpenIDEO has run over 20 design challenges for social and environmental impact – with topics ranging from improving maternal health in the developing world using mobile technology to revitalizing cities in decline. Every challenge starts with a big question posed by OpenIDEO and the challenge sponsor. Then, OpenIDEO’s global community and other networks of experts, thought-leaders and practitioners join together online to research the challenge topic and collaboratively brainstorm, refine and evaluate the best ideas. After a challenge ends, all ideas are available for anyone – from the challenge sponsor to an individual community member – to test out, build upon and implement in the real world.

Ashley Jablow joined IDEO in 2011 as community manager for OpenIDEO. Now, as challenge lead, Ashley acts as a liaison between OpenIDEO’s online community and its international network of sponsors and partners. In this capacity, Ashley collaborates with clients to understand their open innovation goals and craft an OpenIDEO challenge strategy to achieve them. She also works closely with teams of community managers, designers and developers to support the global community to successfully design ideas with the potential for real-world impact. In addition, Ashley is also actively exploring the role that OpenIDEO’s platform and process plays in education, working closely with teachers and students interested in bringing OpenIDEO challenges to campus.

Prior to working for IDEO, Ashley was director of development at The BizWorld Foundation, an international organization teaching children entrepreneurship and financial literacy basics. She was also senior development associate at the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, where she fundraised on behalf of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.

Ashley holds a B.A. in sociology and Spanish from University of Michigan and an M.B.A. in marketing and corporate responsibility from Boston University.

The MSU JJCBE’s David Orser Executive Speakers Forum is named for David B. Orser, a 1966 MSU graduate who started funding the program in 1988 in order to inspire MSU business students to pursue careers as innovative, responsible, and ethical business leaders. For more information about the forum, contact Audrey Capp at 406-994-7026 or audrey.lee@montana.edu.