In case you missed it, Missouri State University held its first-ever Innovation Accelerator on Oct. 27. We hope it’s the first of many more to come.

This was a one-day event to expand on ideas on how to do things better at the university. Over 80 faculty, staff and students applied to participate and 50 were chosen.

The high energy day began with 50 ideas from each one of the participants. They had one minute to present an idea to the group. These ideas focused on improved processes, university operations, campus environment – a wide variety of opportunities.

Throughout the day, the innovators narrowed down the ideas to 10 that seemed to be the most meaningful to the university. Ultimately, they chose five expanded concepts and plans, and presented them to a panel of judges.

Participants decided which team to join. The teams each had a business coach work with them throughout the remainder of the day to create a soft business plan and presentation. The teams also had university resources available from all administrative units – facilities, marketing and communications, finance, HR, etc.

The winning ideas

It was a productive day filled with engagement and brainstorming. I think I can safely say, a good time was had by all! We also came away with a lot of great ideas that will positively impact our campus as we move forward.

The two winning ideas were:

• “Art on Campus” – creating opportunities for featuring student art more prominently around campus.
• “IT Project Management” – centralizing the purchase of software platforms to streamline and decrease duplication of software types and hopefully save some money.

Two Administrative Council members have been assigned to these two projects to help move them forward. As for the other 48 ideas presented, our leadership team members have been assigned to each one to determine viability and opportunities for implementation.

Thank you to the efactory for taking a leading role in this experience – specifically, Zora Mulligan and Rachel Anderson.

Keep thinking of new ideas. We hope to have our second annual Innovation Accelerator in October 2024. Look for opportunities to sign up in the August timeframe.

On another note, you may recall that the Springfield Daily Citizen (an independent nonprofit online news organization) is housed in the basement of Freddy (Freudenberger House.) Given the organization’s focus on reporting on public affairs issues in the Springfield metro area, it’s been a natural partnership.

I’m a subscriber and I’m excited to share they launched an app this week that you can download from the App Store on your phone. Search for “SGF Daily Citizen.” It’s a part of my morning news read and I hope it’s a part of yours, too. The new app is a gamechanger!

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State.

Clif