Category: 99U

99U MAKE YOUR MARK: THE CREATIVE’S GUIDE NOW AVAILABLE

Are you ready to “make a dent in the universe”? As a creative, you no longer have to take a backseat. In fact, stepping up and embracing entrepreneurship is the fastest route to impact. But where do you start? And what sets the businesses that succeed apart?

To find out, we asked the bright minds behind companies like Google X, Warby Parker, Facebook, O’Reilly Media, and more to share their startup wisdom. Featuring hard-won wisdom from twenty leading entrepreneurs and designers, 99U’s Make Your Mark will arm you with practical insights for launching a purpose-driven business, refining your product, delighting your customers, inspiring your team—and ultimately—making something that matters.

99U Book!

Vote us to the top of the class!

Behance & 99u have been nominated for Webby Awards in the Community, Blog & Design categories. We are so honored by our nominations and appreciate your support. Voting details below!

Nominee – Vote For Us!
Web Category – Best Navigation Structure
http://pv.webbyawards.com/2014/web/website-features-and-design/best-navigationstructure

Web Category – Community
http://pv.webbyawards.com/2014/web/general-website/community

Web Category –  Business Blog (99U)
http://pv.webbyawards.com/2014/web/general-website/blog-business

Honoree – Thanks!
Mobile & Apps Category – Best Visual Design (Aesthetic Honoree)
http://pv.webbyawards.com/2014/mobile-apps/all-devices/best-visual-design-aesthetic/honorees

Mobile & Apps Category – Social Honoree
http://pv.webbyawards.com/2014/mobile-apps/all-devices/social/honorees

99u Pop-Up School Day 2 & 3

We’ve just about wrapped up our our first ever 99U Pop-Up School- and its been such an incredible learning experience. Day 2 & 3 have been filled with strong speakers, amazing master classes, and impactful activities in our “playground” time.

Day 2 was all about learning how to launch, grow, and lead a successful start-up business. The lineup included Neil Blumenthal (co-founder & co-CEO of Warby Parker), Kathryn Minshew (founder & CEO, The Muse), Patrick Buckley & Craig Dalton (co-founders of DODOcase) and Alexis Ohanian (Co-Founder, Reddit).

Day 3 was brand & digital strategy intensive, and was focused on how to create a loyal following for your brand in a digital world. We heard from Gary Vaynerchuk (CEO, VaynerMedia), Jonathan Perelman (VP of Agency Strategy, BuzzFeed), Allison Johnson (Founder of West & Former VP Marketing at Apple), and Aaron Dignan (CEO, Undercurrent).

Here are some highlights from the past three days. Take a look back here:
Follow the conference hashtag: #99school
Follow us on Instagram: 99U 

 

Live from the 99u conference

The 2013 99u conference is well under way, and the first day has been nothing short of incredible. We started off the day with interactive studio sessions, heard some insightful speakers, and ended with intimate master classes.

Here are some memorable pictures & tweets from an epic Day 1.

Read more →

Behance’s Annual 99U Conference is next week!

We’re only days away from our annual 99U Conference and the Behance office is buzzing with preparations for the big event. Each year, the 99U team brings together a handful of the world’s most productive creative visionaries and researchers to share pragmatic insights on how to push great ideas forward, create incredible art, build businesses, and change the world. Check out this year’s lineup of speakers:

Can’t make it to this year’s conference? Not to worry - we’ll be live tweeting from @99U and recapping the talks on 99U.com, stay tuned!

The Alva Fellowships 2013, Empowering the Next Generation of Inventors

Are you incubating a remarkable invention? Applications are now open for our second annual Alva Fellowship program, which will provide seed grants to empower the next generation of inventors to take action on their ideas.

Presented with our friends at GE, the Alva Fellowships will select three winners under 30 years of age who have demonstrated remarkable potential to create useful and innovative new products or services that will help the world work better.The Alva Fellows will be identified through an application process in which young creators share their qualifications as idea executors and outline a specific proposal for a new product or service that they want to bring to market.

All Alva Fellowship winners will receive a $13,500 cash grant to be used in the creation of the proposed product, as well as 1 complimentary ticket to the 2013 99U Conference, a $1,500 travel stipend, and access to GE’s  many experts and educational resources around the world.

More info on official rules & applying here. 

 

Behance’s 99U Conference: It’s Not About Ideas. It’s About Making Ideas Happen

When inspiration strikes, ideas flow freely. But seeing those ideas through to completion is another thing entirely. That’s why 99U focuses on the hard part — idea execution. This May, we’ll bring together a handful of the world’s most productive creative visionaries and researchers to share pragmatic insights on how to push great ideas forward, create incredible art, build businesses, and change the world.

Learn more about the 2013 99U Conference here.

From 99U // Picasso, Kepler, and the Benefits of Being an Expert Generalist

99U is Behance’s education arm, where we share tips & insights on making ideas happen. Through a web magazine, bestselling book and annual conference, we share best practices from the world’s most productive creative people. 


Illustration: Oscar Ramos Orozco

One thing that separates the great innovators from everyone else is that they seem to know a lot about a wide variety of topics. They are expert generalists. Their wide knowledge base supports their creativity.

As it turns out, there are two personality traits that are key for expert generalists: Openness to Experience and Need for Cognition.

Openness to Experience is one of the Big Five personality characteristics identified by psychologists. The Big Five are the characteristics that reflect the biggest differences between people in the way they act. Openness to Experience is the degree to which a person is willing to consider new ideas and opportunities. Some people enjoy the prospect of doing something new and thinking about new things. Other people prefer to stick with familiar ideas and activities.

Keep reading the Benefits of Being an Expert Generalist here. 

From 99U // The Bias Against Creatives as Leaders

99U is Behance’s education arm, where we share tips & insights on making ideas happen. Through a web magazine, bestselling book and annual conference, we share best practices from the world’s most productive creative people. 

Two candidates are being interviewed for a leadership position in your company. Both have strong resumes, but while one seems to be bursting with new and daring ideas, the other comes across as decidedly less creative (though clearly still a smart cookie). Who gets the job? 

The answer, unfortunately, is usually the less creative candidate. This fact may or may not surprise you – you yourself may have been the creative candidate who got the shaft. But what you’re probably wondering is, why?

After all, it’s quite clear who should be getting the job. Studies show that leaders who are more creative are in fact better able to effect positive change in their organizations, and are better at inspiring others to follow their lead.

And yet, according to recent research there is good reason to believe that the people with the most creativity aren’t given the opportunity to lead, because of a process that occurs (on a completely unconscious level) in the mind of everyone who has ever evaluated an applicant for a leadership position.

Keep reading The Bias Against Creatives as Leaders here. 

From 99U // Jonathan Adler: Keep Other People’s Opinions Out Of Your Creative Process

99U is Behance’s education arm, where we share tips & insights on making ideas happen. Through a web magazine, bestselling book and annual conference, we share best practices from the world’s most productive creative people. 

Jonathan Adler is now synonymous with the irreverent designs — pottery, housewares, furniture and beyond — that he sells around the world, but it all started with a college professor who didn’t believe in him. After receiving discouraging feedback about his ambitions to be a potter, Adler wandered around New York City doing odd jobs that usually ended with him getting fired.

After some soul-searching, Adler returned to his true love, pottery, and learned the value of ignoring the expectations of others and following your dream. Here, he injects his trademark wit while sharing how he found his underlying message of “irreverent luxury” as his business evolved from pottery to pillows to rooms.

Adler preaches that we should keep other people’s opinions out of our creative process and attributes his success to his disdain of focus groups and feedback.
Keep reading and watch the video here.