The Business Innovation Factory's 10th annual summit  just wrapped up in Providence-- I was able to attend the second day and left inspired. I have no time to pen a full report (and you probably don't have time to read one), but here instead some flash notes:

BIF founder & chief catalyst Saul Kaplan has created one of the most effective networks for innovation in the country, all the more important because BIF itself is located in Providence, i.e., it builds on that city's long history of education, design thinking and community-building while demonstrating that systemic change and new ideas are not the monopoly of just a handful of global mega-cities and Silicon Valley.

BIF reminds me of the Bauhaus in its commitment to open-network experimentation and prototyping, to the marriage of protean concepts with practical implementation, to the matching of individual initiative with the needs of the community. Like the Bauhaus, BIF combines rigor with flexibility, entrepreneurship with a group style and societal outcomes.

Speaker after speaker ("storytellers," to use BIF parlance), each in her or his own way, noted that many of the challenges we face are "wicked problems," difficult to bound, let alone solve-- which should only spur us ever harder to collective ingenuity.

Many storytellers alluded to "both/and" mindsets, as opposed to "either/or," when speaking of change-- as in, there is not a New Economy pitted against an Old Economy so much as evolution from within (is disruption overrated?), change that roots itself in knowledge of the past.

Another overarching theme: invention is, of course, necessary but is fruitless without editing/curating, application, deployment. I love the concrete, get-it-done approach championed by BIF. Idea for a new [lamp/ prosthetic / app, and so on]: good. Bringing that idea to market and constantly improving it: better.

Above all, I value how BIF puts storytelling at the core of its work. We come together-- physically, virtually, or in some combination of both-- and we create new realities first through the stories we tell. "Once upon a time..." becomes the moon shot.

If you have not taken a look at BIF, I suggest that you do. I am already looking forward to BIF11 next year.

Daniel Rabuzzi is Executive Director at Mouse.