"Business not as usual."
It's a tagline InnoTown makes good on. Held on the edge of Norway's fjords in Alesund, a picturesque town with cobblestone streets and quaint buildings, InnoTown brings together businesspeople, artists, musicians, and designers from around the globe. Their animated conversation spills out onto the street and into the cafes.

"We facilitate a meeting place to move minds," said Cecilie With, who founded InnoTown with Dag Lausund. "We quit our good management jobs to pursue this little thought baby of ours," she said. They both worked for Stokke, a Norwegian furniture producer; Lausund as a marketing manager and With, a sales manager.

"While we were with Stokke, we spent a lot of time sitting in airports. We spent this downtime thinking about what we'd do if we could do what we wanted as free spirits. That's how the idea for InnoTown came about," With said.

"We also spent hours and hours in meetings that were all more or less the same. We were as bored as most people," added Lausund. "We decided we would add something, make InnoTown an experience, create involvement. Attendees would not just sit there and listen."

The two quit their jobs with Stokke to concentrate on giving birth to InnoTown. The first conference was held in 2000.

"To make something work, you must live and breathe what you are doing. We both took a plunge into the unknown creating InnoTown, a plunge with a big splash," said With.

Today, the two handle all the logistics of the conference themselves. They do the marketing, write the content, create the visuals, do the bookkeeping. When it comes to booking speakers, With takes over. "She is a master at getting them to say 'yes,'" said Lausund. "That's with the help of the materials Dag creates," she said, giving her co-founder credit as well. When the two interact, it becomes apparent why they make such a successful team.

An Experience, Not a Conference
A performance artist doing acrobatics while in a huge balloon ... a troupe of "cavemen" making music with tire rims and the slamming of car doors ... a dance troupe engaged in entrancing moves - all set to the beat of pulsating rock n' roll. Always different, these are the types of "acts" attendees experience between sessions.

"All these gigs are really unusual for the main reason we want people to say 'wow' and realize they are experiencing something they haven't experienced before. When people are surprised in a positive way they look to each other and ask, 'Did you see that?' These are actually networking and dialogue enhancers," said With. "We make sure InnoTown appeals to the rational part of the brain as well as the emotional part. By including surprises that are emotional enhancers, we make InnoTown a hugely stimulating place where they can boil their heads and warm their hearts."

The emotional element of the conference is most important, said Lausund. "People don't necessarily attend conferences to learn something specific. If you are looking to learn something, you are probably better off using a book or the Internet," he said. "We motivate people to move forward without relying on a safety net."

Mixing It Up
One of the keys to InnoTown's success has been the diversity of its attendees. They come from across borders, across trades, across professions - all with different perspectives on innovation and creativity.

"From year one, we were aiming to attract international attendees. We were not looking to be just a local or regional event," said Lausund. InnoTown 2007 attracted attendees from 26 different countries.

The setting - one of the most postcard-perfect towns in Norway - is key to InnoTown's success. Alesund's quaint buildings, towering mountains, and waterfront also happen to be where With and Lausund and their families call home. The intimate town enables people to stroll from one venue to another. "We don't want to waste time putting people onto buses," said With. "Plus, we think moving people from place to place will break up the good mood."

The conference spans over three days. It is kicked off with a casual party held in an out-of-the-ordinary spot. A factory, museum, and an aquarium have been used in the past. "We have eclectic foods and good wines. It's not a dress-up banquet. Just the opposite; it's about togetherness,"said With.

Around 40 local residents serve as InnoTown hosts and hostesses and are dressed in custom-made costumes that vary from year to year. Like the entire experience, even they have an eclectic twist. Last year, their ears were purple.

They interact with the attendees, and live and breathe InnoTown personality, said With. Two full days of presentations are interspersed with artistic performances.

Keeping It Intimate
When InnoTown started, it was attended by 200. The 2007 conference include 550 attendees - a full house, according to the two. "Our goal is not to have thousands of people in attendance. We want to keep it intimate," said Lausund. Approximately 35 percent are from the same companies year after year although they send different employees. "We've also found that we started out attracting medium-level decision makers but they have gone back and insisted that their CEOs and directors attend," said Lausund. "InnoTown has been a life-changing experience for many. It has changed the way they look at everything. We've heard from a few that have gone back and quit their jobs [to start something new]."

With and Lausund are exploring the possibility of creating InnoTown satellites in the future. Both have traveled to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, two of the most likely places to export an InnoTown conference.

Taking Chances on Speakers
Diverse is the best word to describe the 10 speakers who present at InnoTown each year. The 2007 roster of speakers included Ken Schmidt of Harley-Davidson; Dasho Karma Ura, director for Bhutan Studies (whose Himalayan kingdom's intriguing development philosophy is "Gross National Happiness"); Spencer Wells, population geneticist and director, The Genographic Project; and Lyn Heward, former president of creative content, Cirque du Soleil.

With and Lausund spend a minimum of four months researching potential speakers. "We look for people who are really fresh and new. Sometimes we have to take chances. We can't run them through a '100 percent quality control check' because we sometimes pick people who have hardly ever spoken to groups before. One thing we will never do is just call speakers bureaus and get the speakers they represent. That would be just too predictable," said Lausund.

They search for people who are at the very top of their respective profession. After they've identified these people, they have to create the optimal blend. The lineup is usually quirky. "We've had a CEO, ballet dancer, artist, and astronaut all speak at one conference," With said with a chuckle. Each speaker is given the stage for 40 minutes.

One of the best received presenters was Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra since its formation 25 years ago. When he was contacted about presenting at InnoTown, he had little experience speaking to groups outside his profession.

Lausund and With hired six classical musicians to be used in conjunction with his presentation. "He demonstrated how a team can make itself better by each member improving his or her own personal skills. He managed to bring out the best in each and every one of the six musicians by inspiring each one while on stage to change a little bit of attitude when they went about their musical contribution. The audience could hear a distinct difference in the music from when they got on stage to when the session was over," Lausund said. The audience had a tangible, sensory connection to Zander.

This is the kind of presentation that makes InnoTown unique. Speakers who share data, especially those who hide behind their PowerPoint presentation, will not cut it. Of InnoTown's top 10-rated speakers based on attendee feedback, not one used a PowerPoint ... but they all shared a passion.

It's all about telling stories. It's all about ideas. Another well-received speaker was Ricardo Semler, CEO of Brazilian-based Semco who has some very untraditional leadership methods. For 25 years, he has let his employees set their own hours, wages, and even choose their own bosses. The result: increased productivity, long-term loyalty, and phenomenal growth. It's just this type of "renegade" thinking that strikes a chord with InnoTown attendees.

Most speakers stay for the entire conference, taking part in the sessions as well as the social functions. "What we can't pay in fees, we give back in experience. Heck! Some don't want to leave. We almost had to kick Edward de Bono [a leading authority on creative thinking] out of town," chuckled With. "That is what differentiates us from other conferences. Our speakers and contributors linger on."

Polly LaBarre, a member of the original team of Fast Company and co-author of the book Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win, is another speaker who found it hard to leave InnoTown. "The level of intimacy, connection, and genuine passion sets InnoTown apart from the countless, bloodless corporate events I've been to over the years," she said.

Inspiring Your Attendees, InnoTown-style

Here are a few elements that Cecilie With and Dag Lausund have made part of the InnoTown culture.

• Leave the suits and ties at home. Dressed casually, people are more relaxed. That is just the state InnoTown is striving for.
• Keep event venues within walking distance of each other. With and Lausund find the intimate setting keeps the mood flowing.
• Engage all the senses. InnoTown attendees are treated to unique performance art between sessions, which serve as networking and dialogue enhancers.
• Include elements of surprise. This will keep the group guessing what is next.
• The emotional element of the meeting is most important. "People don't necessarily attend conferences to learn something specific," according to Lausund. "If you are looking to learn something, you are probably better off using a book or the Internet," he said. "We motivate people to move forward without relying on a safety net."
• Attract a diverse audience. Last year, attendees from 26 countries who cut a broad swath across professions, flocked to InnoTown to share their unique perspectives.
• Line up eclectic speakers. Lausund and With look for speakers who are compelling, fresh, and new; at the top of their "game." And they mix it up: One conference had a CEO, ballet dancer, artist, and astronaut present.
• Immerse the group in the destination. Without a doubt, the idyllic setting is a big part of the InnoTown experience. But there's no reason why any meeting couldn't incorporate the host city's local flavor into its program. At InnoTown, 40 local residents serve as hosts and hostesses, dressed in custom-made costumes that vary from year to year.

Andrea Doyle is Convene's senior writer. This article was sponsored by the Irving, Texas Convention and Visitors Bureau (www.irvingtexas.com) as an example of an innovative meeting. Look for Irving to sponsor more creative meeting articles in upcoming issues of Convene.