What a great day! It was an experiment, a lab, a world premiere, and much fun! The 2010 Problem Conference in Quebec City.

More than 170 persons joined as active problem solvers in a packed room in the Quebec convention center on Dec 14. The idea of the event was simple: Turn a science conference upside down. Instead of sharing success stories, proponents of complex problems from various industrial sectors shared their problems and previously failed attempts to find a solution. During the day, attendees and problem solvers from very different backgrounds worked in three rounds to provide ideas for solutions (see here for a more detailed description of the idea).

While some companies count internet surfing as a sackable offence, it seems they may have got it all wrong.

Research found that a brief break to watch a genuinely funny internet clip creates a positive mood which in turn leads to greater creativity.

And scientists believe many people subconsciously tune in to classic clips like the couple recreating Dirty Dancing at their wedding just to get into a good mood so they can do their job better.

They may also need the lift from a spot of online humour to rejuventate their creative juices after a few dull hours tied to their desks.

Orange Alerts Public Works Last week, we concluded our survey of business tax incentives with this assessment:

In this Orange Alert, we look at a range of the best ideas we have found, or helped to develop, for providing incentives for business growth and job creation. We'll also share with you some of our recent research on how states can get more control over their current budget problems with smarter long-term capital investment strategies.

A few months back Peter Thiel—PayPal founder, hedge-fund manager, early Facebook investor, Silicon Valley big wig—announced an initiative to get kids to drop out of college for the good of the country. Arguing that America desperately needs new entrepreneurs, he unveiled the Thiel Fellowship, granting $100,000 to 20 entrepreneurs under 20 years old. "This fellowship will encourage the most brilliant and promising young people not to wait on their ideas," he said. Thiel's is hardly the first initiative aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship among the young. Just this year, for instance, Babson's school of business started a "Venture Accelerator" to help MBA students starting their own businesses at graduation. Something called the Young Entrepreneur Council—check out that Web site address—made waves by encouraging the young to ditch their résumés and head to their garages. Even the State Department launched an entrepreneurship program.

IT goes without saying: Holiday travel is brutal. Security lines are longer. Planes are more crowded. The battle for storage space heats up as travelers vie to stuff all those gift-laden bags in overhead bins. And if bad weather hits, your delayed or canceled flight may make you tardy for Christmas or New Year’s dinner — that is, if you even make it out of the airport.

This year, the experience may be even more intense. Over the holidays, 43.6 million passengers are expected to travel on United States carriers, up about 3 percent from last year, according to the Air Transport Association of America, the industry trade group.

There are many ways to distinguish people when it comes to their perspectives about life. One of the most basic and most obvious distinctions can be found in the way people respond to others' progress. In that regard, I have found two main types: entrepreneurs and sleepwalkers.

• Entrepreneurs use other people's progress as a driving force for their own and strive to become better at what they do.
• Sleepwalkers criticize others in every way possible because they get satisfaction from dragging them down.

Of course it's up to you what you want to be, but regardless of how you look at it, and no matter what you do for a living, thinking like an entrepreneur is no longer a luxury. It's a prerequisite for success, even if you don't run your own venture.

From smartphones to tablets to internet TV, check out our ultimate gift guide for the gadget lover on your Nice List.

A lot of things were invented this year, but only a handful will shape the future.

These 15 breakthroughs in medicine, transportation, and everyday products have the potential to drastically change their industries and your life.

Each year when the holidays rolled around, Rob Rohena used to give his employees Walmart gift certificates. But Rohena grew tired of giving a gift that helped line the pockets of the owners of a giant company. This year, Rohena is switching things up by giving his five employees gift certificates from his company's own clients.

"Our clients were giving us business, so I wanted to give business back to them," says Rohena, founder and chief executive of Goshen, Ind.-based interactive marketing agency Digital Integration Resources. The best part? Rohena barters for the gifts by deducting the amount of each certificate from his clients' bill. "It's a win for everybody," he says.

Google has launched a new search filter to its "advanced search page" that allows people to sort content based on reading level - basic, intermediate, or advanced. It also allows you to chart how 'smart' or 'dumb' any website is by using the search function.

On Wednesday we posted the ten dumbest US news sites, thanks to Adam Sherk, who analyzed 25 of the biggest newspapers, magazines, TV, wire services and Web-only news organizations to see how they stacked up.

Mayor Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Steel and New York City Economic Development Corporation President Seth Pinsky today announced that the City is seeking responses from a university, applied science organization or related institution to develop and operate an applied sciences research facility in New York City. In order to maintain a diverse and competitive economy, and capture the considerable growth occurring within the science, technology and research fields, the City is looking to strengthen its applied sciences capabilities, particularly in fields which lend themselves to commercialization. The City will make a capital contribution, in addition to possibly providing land and other considerations, commensurate with the respondents investment.

Through a Request for Expressions of Interest released today, the City will suggest four possible development sites – at the Navy Hospital Campus at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Goldwater Hospital Campus on Roosevelt Island in Manhattan, on Governor’s Island, and at the Farm Colony on Staten Island – though respondents are also encouraged to consider and propose privately-owned sites within the five boroughs in which an applied sciences facility might be developed.

by Jan Zibuschka, Uwe Laufs, Wolf Engelbach
Fraunhofer IAO

Download the PDF

Oh to be agile, and not just in the sense of physical agility, although that would be nice too. The sense of agility that I'm referring to is, the ability to change focus, change the direction of your life, quickly and with as little impact on your life as a whole.

Being able to quickly change direction, refocus, and get back on track are key qualities to establishing agility in your life. By being agile you're better able to act on ideas, opportunities, and you can quickly start taking these ideas forward. But this is easier said than done, right? How can we become more agile? What if what it takes to become agile isn't immediately obvious to us?

We all know those people: They walk into a room and capture everyone's attention within seconds. Those are the people that get the dates, the jobs, and the investment wins.

These successful types have a few qualities and skills that are psychologically proven to help them make positive first impressions -- and they're skills that anyone can learn.

A $2 million state-sponsored pilot seed fund was approved Thursday by the Empire State Development Corp. to provide investments in high-technology startup and emerging companies.

The project, called the Upstate Regional Seed Fund, was created by Linden Oaks-based Excell Partners Inc., which will invest the grant funds.

Excell Partners, a non-profit formed in 2005 through an agreement with the University of Rochester Medical Center, has invested $2.4 million in 21 new companies since its inception.

How do the nation’s top economics bloggers feel about the state of the economy? This year’s fourth Kauffman Economic Outlook: A Quarterly Survey of Leading Economics Bloggers was recently released, and the outlook is, to put it mildly, not good.

In fact, the bloggers were more pessimistic about the economic outlook than they’ve been all year. The most common words used to describe the economy in the survey were “weak” and “uncertain.” Asked to characterize current economic conditions, 99 percent said that conditions are mixed, facing recession or in recession. (To break this down further, 64 percent said conditions are mixed, 27 percent say the economy is “facing recession,” and 7 percent say it is “weak and recessing.”) Just one respondent said the economy was ““strong with uncertain growth”—the lowest positives in any survey this year.

“I CAN’T decide what I like poking more: you, or these bubbles,” says bubble-blowing Kim Kardashian, a reality-TV star, in a new application for Facebook (see right). Cameo Stars, the company responsible for this innovation, lets Facebookers send to their online friends clips of minor celebrities mouthing generic greetings. Besides enriching the world’s culture, the firm may also make a fortune. But gloomy types wonder if the profusion of highly valued internet start-ups with lighter-than-air business plans is evidence of a different kind of bubble.

For the first time since 2000, internet and technology entrepreneurs can raise seed capital with little more than a half-formed idea and a dozen PowerPoint slides. “There is probably a bubble in the number of start-ups,” says Alan Patricof, a venture capitalist, though he is not yet convinced that there is irrational exuberance in later-stage valuations.