We’ve talked a lot about big companies reaching outside the traditional corporate boundaries in order to get that talent they need to drive innovation, and it’s a theme that’s increasingly being covered throughout the mainstream press. However, the focus generally continues to be on finding that one, uniquely qualified mind to tackle a particular problem – think “rogue scientist” attracted to the GoldCorp Challenge, Innocentive, etc. Such Ideagoras are not bad things by any stretch of the imagination, but there are other ways to drive innovation as well.

As Kerry Capell reported in Business Week last week, the Raymond Conference decided to take a different angle on open innovation this year: focus on fostering cooperation between design teams at big global companies in radically different markets. Think: Heineken, Lego, Philips, Hewlett Packard, and others coming together… what might they come up with?

Started a few years ago by some Dutch brothers tired of conferences dominated by speeches, it’s now an invititation only event where non-competing companies can freely share ideas (side thought: could there be a future where companies openly compete to get in the better non-compete innovation web?). It’s all about “stretching the mind of design”, there’s all kinds of interesting tidbits throughout the article, but I particularly like the ending:

Getting 17 of the world’s top corporate design directors in one room around a program of collaboration rather than egoism is already an achievement. To get, within two days, six agreements for pairs of design directors to embark on common projects is an even bigger success.”

Bigger success indeed. Any guesses on what the design pairs and common projects might be (Lego beerholder doesn’t count)?