OSB Partners with the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation in 2024 Leaders Program

OSB Partners with the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation in 2024 Leaders Program

The Partnership for Inclusive Innovation is partnering with Orange Sparkle Ball to implement project-centered Innovation Coaching as a core offering of their upcoming Partnership Leaders Program; a 6-month long engagement designed to provide participants with a soft onboarding to inclusive Tech-Based Economic Development and entrepreneurial ecosystem development.

OSB on the Idea Overflow Podcast: Autonomous Robot Pickup Pilot + Innovation as a Service

OSB on the Idea Overflow Podcast:  Autonomous Robot Pickup Pilot + Innovation as a Service

Join OSB’s Ashley Touchton and Hannah Ranieri with Idea Overflow Podcast hosts Dan Perotti and Patrick Payne to hear about OSB’s founding, the story behind the name, their individual career journeys, to forming a relationship with DroneUp, speaking at SXSW 24, and receiving permitting and funding to pilot an autonomous drone pick-up pilot in Detroit, Michigan.

Orange Sparkle Ball Launches Autonomous Robot Pickup Pilots in Detroit

Orange Sparkle Ball was awarded a Real World Deployment Grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation's Office of Future Mobility and Electrification. This grant is enabling us to put our Autonomous Robotic Pickup Platform into action through a series of pilots in the Transportation Innovation Zone of Detroit, established by the Office of Mobility Innovation at The City of Detroit.

Co-Designing for Inclusive Innovation Ecosystems at GAME Change Summit 2024

Co-Designing for Inclusive Innovation Ecosystems at GAME Change Summit 2024

Several members of the OSB team had the chance to lead an ecosystem mapping and inclusive roadmap building workshop at the 2024 GAME Change Summit, a yearly event bringing together innovators from across the Southeastern Commerce Corridor to identify unmet needs in the next-generation manufacturing and supply chain ecosystem, and co-create inclusive solutions together.

Innovator Spotlight: MTEC SmartZone

Innovator Spotlight: MTEC SmartZone

We’re excited to see our friends at MTEC SmartZone hosting their first accelerator! We recently sat down with members of the MTEC team to understand more about the U.P.’s (Upper Peninsula) innovation ecosystem, their unique position in the advanced materials and manufacturing innovation space, and their upcoming Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Program (AMMP) accelerator.

Innovator Spotlight: Macon Black Tech

Innovator Spotlight: Macon Black Tech

As one of our Ecosystem Partners in the 2023 TOP NLC Sprint, we worked with Macon Black Tech to map the local innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem of the Macon Metropolitan Area. In addition to mapping the ecosystem, we also wanted to leverage this project as an opportunity to understand the inclusivity of the overall ecosystem, and the barriers facing entrepreneurs and innovators in Middle Georgia.

Orange Sparkle Ball 2023 Retreat - Manistee, Michigan

Orange Sparkle Ball 2023 Retreat - Manistee, Michigan

Our retreats afford the team a few days to focus on new ideas and working on the business as a group. In 2023, we held our retreat in founder Meaghan Kennedy’s hometown, Manistee, Michigan. The team stayed and met in The Ramsdell Inn, in Manistee’s victorian downtown, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

OSB’s First Innovation Fellow: Meet Michael Cassidy

OSB’s First Innovation Fellow: Meet Michael Cassidy

As a coach in the 2021 Rollins Innovation Summit, Michael Cassidy is no stranger to OSB’s innovation process. Our Immersive Innovation Labs are a tool to guide teams of all backgrounds and disciplines through an innovative problem solving process. Especially in complex fields like public health, Immersive Innovation Labs can help participants break through siloes to identify actionable solutions to deeply entrenched challenges. 

OSB at the Census Open Innovation Summit

OSB at the Census Open Innovation Summit

Michaela Bonnett from the OSB team presented our Ecosystem Dashboard tool at the Census Open Innovation Summit! Over the course of a 12-week sprint facilitated by the National League of Cities and The Opportunity Project by the US Census Open Innovation Labs (COIL), the OSB team developed the Ecosystem Dashboard tool to support local innovators in building robust, interconnected innovation networks.

Public Health+ Preparedness

Public Health+ Preparedness

At the core of the greatest issues facing our society are issues of narratives - conflicting narratives, false narratives, and outdated narratives. Without effective communication and storytelling, even the best interventions and solutions will struggle. This inspired the spring offering of the PH+ series produced by OSB and Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University: Public Health+ Communication.

Design Influence Season III/Episode 5: Communities, Networks and Ecosystems - Platforms for Change

Design Influence Season III/Episode 5: Communities, Networks and Ecosystems - Platforms for Change

Host Isabelle Swiderski sits down with Meaghan Kennedy, founder of Orange Sparkle Ball, an innovation consultancy focused on public-private partnerships to explore the role communities / networks / ecosystems can serve as a supportive framework for change.