Cool Cleveland's CIO gets some answers, has more questions

I've known Jennifer Thomas for a while, since the days she did Cleveland Clicks, a monthly networking event for the area's tech community. That was where I first met Thomas Mulready. Cool Cleveland was included in the first class of champions of the Civic Innovation Lab and will be part of the second anniversary party the Civic Innovation Lab is throwing next week. I'm also part of Meet The Bloggers and we've applied to the Civic Innovation Lab. Those things aside, I'm interested in the Civic Innovation Lab's process, so I set up a meeting with the Lab's executive director Jennifer Thomas at Cafe AhRoma.

George Nememth: "Why Cafe AhRoma?"

Jennifer Thomas: "It gets me out of Starbucks."

The Civic Innovation Lab's office is in the Hanna Building. A week after our interview, I saw Jennifer meeting in Starbucks in the Hanna...

GN: "Who's submitting ideas to the Lab?"

JT: "We've got traditional and non-traditional audiences. The non-traditional group takes more risk and are sending their ideas to the Lab. It's important for the mentors to see all these ideas from the non-traditional sector."

GN: "Mentors?"

JT: "The panel that reviews the ideas submitted. The ones that have the community connections, that are able to open doors for the applicants. They've got to have a willingness to coach and lots of enthusasm. You should interview them. They give an incredible amount to this community."

GN: How many projects does the Lab fund?"

JT: "We fund 8-10 per year for up to 30K and work with them for one year."

The Civic Innovation Lab is 2 years old. It's received another round of funding from the Cleveland Foundation. Jennifer can empathize with writing grants. She has to do one to get the Civ Lab funded herself. She's learning how to do that from the champions.

JT: "The Lab is a project of the Cleveland Foundation. It's a flexible vehicle to address ideas percolating in the communtiy in a consistant way. The Cleveland Foundation only funds nonprofits."

GN: "Is the Civ Lab a pilot?"

JT: "Not a pilot but a piece of the larger effort of the Cleveland Foundation to effect economic development on the ground, at the grassroots. 'They' are not coming to the rescue. You're going to have to do it. We're empowering you by calling you a champion, giving you a little bit of money, providing a lot of mentorship for you and giving you our total support. Take a look at some of the grantees. Look at Cool Cleveland or Policy Bridge, an African American policy think tank. See their passion, dedication, and knowledge.

GN: What exactly is a champion?

JT: "A champion is someone taking huge amounts of risk. Reputation risk. Thomas Mulready of Cool Cleveland took a huge reputation risk. His idea was poo-pooed. He took personal financial risk and devoted hours of his own time to his project. Most champions have no idea if it'll work. But when they go before the mentor panel, you can see that in 10 minutes. It's amazing. Most champions don't realize the risk they're taking."

GN: "What's the idea behind the Lab?"

JT: "It's innovation theory. Both success and failure are inherent. We want the projects to fail early, cheaply, and often if they're going to fail. Of the 8-10 projects, if one or two make it, we celebrate. Failure is as valuable as success if it's a learning experience. That's why we offer ancillary services. We want applicants to get to next level even if not chosen. We're doing programs with COSE, Baldwin-Wallace, CPAC. We're proving innovation can be done in Northeast Ohio."

GN: "Tell me more about the selection process."

JT: "To receive funding, one mentor must make a commitment. After the applicants present to the panel, the mentors talk about the projects amongst themselves. Each mentor self-selects their champion. The panel spends about 2 hours talking about it. I always follow up with all the applicants. I find that true champions will continue their initiatives themselves even if they don't get funding from us."

GN: "Other than connecting mentors to projects, does the Civic Innovation Lab create social networks?"

JT: "There's some social networking, but not as much as Cleveland Clicks. That was bringing peer groups together, but it had less infrastructure than the Lab. We do a Meet the Champions event here at Trinity Commons, but it's not same opportunity."

GN: "Do you miss Cleveland Clicks? Are you going to revisit the idea?"

JT: "You tell me. Is there a networking event or group like that now? Is that a gap that we need filled? Cleveland Clicks had dialog and a purpose. It was very focused, very specific."

GN: It sounds like you'd rather be doing the Civic Innovation Lab then Cleveland Clicks...

JT: "I meet the most interesting people who no one has ever heard of. They're not the usual suspects. They haven't been able to express their great intentions for this region. I enjoy exposing great energy. It's a funky process with unpredictable outcomes. The community is accepting and the Cleveland Foundation has been fabulous."

The format that I expect from this column is that once we have answers, I'll ask some questions and expect more from you. Now that my formula isn't a secret anymore, the people that I'm interviewing have question for readers, which is fine with me...

JT: Do you feel satisified? Do you feel like the region has changed? Has the lab affected that? What else needs to be done?

I would add to that, if you have an idea what's preventing you from submitting it to the Civic Innovation Lab?

Interview and photos by Cool Cleveland's CIO George Nemeth georgeATcoolcleveland.com (:divend:)