November 28, 2023 | Santa Barbara, CA – An ex-video game creative leader is launching a new business aimed at helping people present big new ideas, and he’s starting it right here in Santa Barbara. To kick off the new venture, Tim is inviting local business leaders and entrepreneurs to a 2-hr Workshop on January 4th called, “Big Idea Pitch School.” The first 25 people to reserve a spot can attend the event for just $5.
The workshop will be a series of hands-on exercises, inviting and guiding the attendees in building simpler, stronger communications around their own big ideas. The 2-hr workshop is a cut down version of a much more in-depth online masterclass developed by Tim this year – a sort of culmination of his most recent consulting and design work, training and partnership with brands like Royal Caribbean, Honda, Riot Games and the NFL – in addition to helping a number of startups get their funding and footing as new companies themselves over the past 5 years.
Tim and a few partners are working in stealth mode to create new software targeting high-stakes meetings and creative knowledge work. The new business focuses on helping others build big, unwieldy new ideas in cultures that often reject new thinking. Tim says, “We all have ideas that we’d like to see become reality. The trouble is, most of us go about the act of pitching in search of some sort of prize based on the current state of the idea – when we actually need to be evolving the idea as we build the support we need. The only way to get big ideas off the ground is to lay out the opportunity, and invite collaborators to help shape the vision together – the sooner we can share the idea with others, the sooner it’ll start to build strength.”
Creative Collaboration Book in Progress
Tim is writing a book on the subject of creative collaboration and is aiming to kick off a significant research effort about knowledge work in the coming year; the frameworks and process offered in the online and in-person courses offer a new approach to building presentations. He believes that our current toolset and corporate cultures hold us back from moving more effectively and efficiently through innovation cycles together. Recent studies show that knowledge workers spend over half their week viewing, preparing, participating and frantically trying to assemble real outcomes based on presentations and meetings – equating to a huge loss of productivity – even though we’re all more busy than we’ve ever been.
Software Built for Secrets of Conversations
On the back of the learnings assembled in the training material and the new research, Tim is assembling a team to build a new kind of tool set for knowledge work – starting with using AI to transform presentations into better conversations. Tim says, “I believe that better collaboration leads to better work, faster. The trouble is, most working cultures are resistant to resistance: critical information that might improve an idea might not be shared during meetings or other collaboration because it might be viewed as disruptive or moving against progress in a project. When we make presentations that are designed to only broadcast information, we miss out on what kinds of “secrets” are lying dormant in the minds of the meeting attendees – key information and perspectives that could improve the idea early in its life vs. waiting for market forces to deal with it more unkindly.”
Tim kicks all of this off in Santa Barbara with the 2-hr “Big Idea Pitch School” Workshop on Thursday, January 4th at 6pm. The venue is TBA at the moment – but, a limited number of tickets are for sale at the link on Eventbrite. Based on response from the community, Tim is thinking that these classes could transform into a sort of “Idea Lab Hours” – and maybe become a monthly event. For more information about the online course, access the Infoplay website. And for more information about Tim, including consulting inquiries, please visit his personal website, www.nanotim.me or connect with him on LinkedIn.
About Tim
Tim Richards is a former Head of Strategy, UX Design and Marketing professional who worked between advertising, digital product development and video games for over 20 years. Tim moved to Santa Barbara with his family just over 3 years ago – in an effort to help transition their children into college during the difficult time of college transition, made more awkward by the pandemic’s effects on school. Tim’s work of advising and working on startups allowed him to work from home – allowing their 3 sons to jump into college while staying at home, but now the former Head of Publishing for Riot Games in North America is launching a new venture just as his kids are now leaving the nest.