Kelly Lee, president and CEO of Innovation Philadelphia, invited me to sit on a panel at the summit about new alternatives to the “workplace”. While the topic is something I’m qualified in both knowledge and passion to represent, I’ve decided to decline participation with the conference.

The purpose and value of this event doesn’t align with the types of events I like to organize or the way I’ve structure the organizations I’m a part of. We approach things from a ground-up perspective and work as active participants in the community.

Our community takes a DIY approach and tends to bootstrap the passionate projects they work on.

I don’t think that this conference aligns with our community, or our approach to innovation. There is a lot of overhead and structure, which we feel inhibit innovation. The community that we are part of prefers to create, run, and attend events like Barcamp Philly, IgnitePhilly, and the Junto that are idea-based with lots of active community participation.

Geoff, myself, and every other leader in our community that’s stepped up over the last few years leads this community by example. Geoff and I feel that participating in and supporting this event that doesn’t match our goals or behaviors is not the kind of example we want to set.

The topic that I was asked to speak about, the evolution of the workplace, is one that I’m very interested in talking about and have published on and spoken about extensively. I wish the Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit were the right forum for the discussion, but I don’t feel it is.