Last month, from October 5-7, Catalyst Companies held its biggest member event to-date: The Main Event 2015, in sunny (not foggy!) San Francisco. The Main Event, generously hosted in the spaces of Autodesk, Airbnb, Peerspace, and Highway1, had a turnout of more than 65 Catalyst Companies members from large corporations, see a list of our members.

We spent three days learning from our peers, thought leaders in the Collaborative Economy space, and Innovation Network startup members that offered solutions to help advance member initiatives in sharing, making, crowdsourcing, and more.

Members gleaned insights from nearly 20 industry leaders throughout the event, including three TED speakers: Mickey McManus (Autodesk), Jeremy Heimans (Purpose), and Lisa Gansky (Mesh Labs). We also heard about real program challenges and successes from two fellow council members, BMW and Fujitsu. The top five high-level findings that drove member conversation were:

• Three “mega trends” will lead to radical new business values based on co-creation: The Internet of Things (IoT); Digital Manufacturing; and Machine Learning.

• Trust is the new currency: How people are treated within your community and where they receive value is increasingly important.

• A prototype is worth a thousand meetings: Get to market as quickly as possible, play with models, and learn as fast as you can.

• A shift is happening from old power to new power: New power harnesses the crowd in a highly decentralized way with a distributed and “sideways” business model.

• Maturity leads to creating a “service ecosystem” around your brand: Rather than focusing on one core product or service, companies examine the entire range of customer needs in the Collaborative Economy.

At the day’s close on Oct. 6, we also invited members to a social at the hip Blueprint Taproom in SOMA, where we presented the inaugural Catalyst Companies Awards. Learn more about the Awards and recipients here.

A huge THANK YOU to all our members who attended, our hosts, and all speakers. We look forward to seeing Catalyst Companies members again soon at our upcoming events in 2016! The first event on Jan. 21 will be held in San Francisco and will focus on autonomous vehicles.
-Jeremiah Owyang, Founder, Catalyst Companies