В Фэрфилде пройдет форум TEDx Innovation Drive, соберущий 300 лидеров инноваций

FAIRFIELD — On the evening of Sept. 30, a converted machine-goods factory on Sanford Street known for hosting rock concerts will become one of the most concentrated rooms of innovation talent Connecticut has assembled in one place. TEDx Innovation Drive is bringing together up to 300 C-suite leaders, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, nonprofit leaders, university-level educators, legislators and public-sector innovators for a four-hour evening at Fairfield Theatre Company. There will be six nationally recognized speakers, live entertainment, and a room built around one shared question: how do organizations and the people inside them actually get better at innovating? The idea behind the TEDx talk The event is the brainchild of Michael Carter, founding partner of Southport-based M&A advisory firm Carter Morse & Goodrich, who is bringing TEDx to Fairfield through the official TED Talks licensing process. Carter’s firm, whose core value is “insatiable curiousity,” spent years teaching entrepreneurship to students in low-income communities, first with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship and now with NextMinds, built on a conviction he’s carried for decades: innovation isn’t an inherited gene, it’s a muscle, and it can be trained. Eleven years ago, he put that belief into motion by founding Push for Entrepreneurship, a two-hour push-up challenge that has since raised more than $650,000 to fund invention education for students from low-income neighborhoods. TEDx Innovation Drive isn’t a side project for Carter. It’s the same idea he’s been testing for 40 years, just on a bigger stage. Not a guest list — an application Carter’s committee has hand-picked a slate of leaders who are building and leading innovation inside their organizations. They gathered referrals from dozens of sources, and relied on both AI tools and credible partner organizations to help identify who belongs in the room. “But we also recognize we can’t find everyone,” Carter said. “Anyone who believes they meet the criteria can apply by filling out an application, so no innovator is left out. If you weren’t personally invited, this is your opportunity to tell us who you are, what you’re driving, and why you belong in the room.” Invited or self-nominated, every attendee is held to the same bar, Carter said. That is you have to be a proven innovation practitioner in Connecticut who actively drives and manages innovation. The result, he said, is one of the most informed and experienced innovation audiences ever assembled in the state. Prospective attendees can apply directly at https://tedxinnovationdrive.com/attend-form/. Six speakers, six different lenses Michael Winter — Chief Scientist at RTX, the aerospace and defense giant formed by the Raytheon–United Technologies merger, where he shapes cross-enterprise technology strategy and pushes innovation across an entire industry. Simon Hill — CEO and founder of Wazoku, an enterprise innovation-management software company, and author of “Expected Value: The System to Measure, Prove and Scale Value.” Warren Berger — Self-described “questionologist” and author of 12 books on innovation, including the bestseller “A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas.” Moshe Bar — Neuroscience professor at Bar-Ilan University and Massachusetts General Hospital, whose research and writing range from aesthetics and creativity to depression and longevity. Author of “Mindwandering.” Wizdom Powell, Ph.D., MPH — Founder and CEO of Unified Youth, which treats creativity, curiosity and wonder as essential infrastructure for youth readiness and wellbeing. Jessica Sophia Sager — Co-founder and CEO of All Our Kin, the Connecticut-based child-care nonprofit. A graduate of Barnard College and Yale Law School, Sager serves as vice-chair of the Low Income Investment Fund. Six speakers, six industries: aerospace, enterprise software, publishing, neuroscience, youth development and child-care policy. The lineup makes a quiet argument of its own: innovation isn’t the property of any one field. It belongs to whoever is willing to look at a familiar problem and ask a better question. Who’s backing it The lineup of sponsors is a study in Connecticut’s own innovation economy: photolithography manufacturer ASML of Wilton (gold sponsor), Connecticut Economic & Community Development (silver), tax and advisory firm Andersen (silver), digital marketing company Aspire Digital Solutions (website sponsor), NextMinds (fiscal sponsor and leading K-12 innovation-education company, producer of the Connecticut Invention Convention), and Westfair Business Journal, publisher of the Fairfield County Business Journal, as media sponsor. The details TEDx Innovation Drive runs 5 p.m.–9 p.m. on Sept. 30 at Fairfield Theatre Company. in Fairfield. For additional information: tedxinnovationdrive.com