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SUMMARY:Featured Session: The Innovation Engine You’ve Never Heard of: Your Neighbor
LOCATION:JW Marriott / Salon 1-4
DESCRIPTION:Traditional corporate innovation keeps ideas locked away until launch\, but GE Appliances innovation arm\, FirstBuild\, has flipped the script—inviting passionate enthusiasts to co-create products from day one. The result is a 93% failure rate that just so happens to drive million-dollar successes like the Opal Nugget Ice Maker\, which raised $2.7 million in crowdfunding after the community helped shape its development. This session will explore how major corporations can harness the power of co-creation\, where rough transparency builds more trust than polished presentations\, and where your best product ideas might come from a Reddit user with a 3D printer. Learn how FirstBuild proves that building in public\, failing fast\, and letting communities vote with their wallets creates better products than closed-door development—and why the future of innovation looks less like a pipeline and more like a playground.
URL:https://sxsw.md/sessions/2026-03-18/pp1148485-featured-session-the-innovation-engine-you-ve-never-heard-of-your-neighbor
UID:pp1148485-featured-session-the-innovation-engine-you-ve-never-heard-of-your-neighbor@sxsw.md
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