Innovation Collective: Medicine for a sick and struggling world

As pandemic social distancing pulled communities around the world apart, Innovation Collective stood ready to bring them back together.

In Coeur d’Alene alone, the Innovation Collective and its partners produced over 100 interactive events last month featuring expert bread bakers, comedians, yogis, and mechanics, among others.

“In a time that people need to use their time wisely, we are doing our best to help communities fill that gap with technology and what we call local digital interactive experiences,” said Nick Smoot, Innovation Collective founder and CEO.

Smoot is deeply concerned that prolonged isolation and lack of outside support can lead to increased risk of depression, suicide, and abuse. In facilitating online events, he hopes to continue a sense of community for at-risk individuals and anyone needing direction or inspiration.

Innovation Collective is a nationwide leader in creating live, in-person events to gather community members across the country. Through these experiences the collective’s primary focus is to help entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

Headquartered in Coeur d’Alene, with facilities in six states and several countries, Innovation Collective has sought for years to bring the vibrant economies and work opportunities of metropolitan hubs to small towns across America. The virtual platforms they developed were in some ways made for a pandemic of this proportion.

Innovation Collective is here for their headquarters-community.

“The main thing I want people to understand that Innovation Collective is offering to this community is space through a screen to interact with other humans in your town that will keep you emotionally and mentally productive,” Smoot said.

Part of emotional “productivity” is slowing down to visit with community members. Innovation Collective recently hosted a pub night through their online platform. Hundreds of people throughout Coeur d’Alene signed on and visited through their screens.

“As an organization who has been focused on human flourishing through meaningful experiences, it is clear to us that community has the power to change lives,” Smoot wrote. “As an organization we can speak to hundreds of stories of people, down on their luck, finding strength through the people around them.”

On March 11, Smoot talked with local governments where the Innovation Collective does work. In response to shutdown events, Smoot decided to advocate bringing people together via the internet, especially when they could no longer connect in person.

“How Americans already use our down time is questionable, binge watching Netflix and YouTube, endless hours of video games, and pointless Facebook arguments,” Smoot said.

He decided to use the online network already in place through Innovation Collective to provide real-time connection for people isolated at home during the pandemic. The company prepared all 70 of its events per year, per city to be offered over the internet.

Smoot sought collaboration with the Kroc Center and Liberty Lake Entrepreneurship Academy, ramping up online, interactive, local experiences for all ages.

Innovation Collective COO Chris Cochran said the company will continue to provide the following experiences each month: Coffee and Concepts to share ideas and build dreams as a community; Fireside Chats where locals share stories; Unwind, a relaxing time to share just about anything; Great 8, small facilitated group conversations for a particular subject; Snap sessions, where entrepreneurs and dreamers share resources and ideas.

Anyone can join the virtual community. Simply go to www.innovationcollective.co or email: Kristin@InnovationCollective.co

In the first week of launching comprehensive virtual communities, more than 850 people participated in programs like “Podcasting Primer” with Ed Bejarana of The Business Buffet Podcast, and “Emotional Wellness, a guide to Psychoeducation” with Christin Frederick.

Miranda Blake, certified instructor at The Path Hot Yoga in Coeur d’Alene, offered a morning yoga class while Jason Leonard of Wisk Baking Co. in Unitca, New York taught online listeners how to bake like a pro.

Charlie Jehnichen of CMan Technologies taught Remote Technology 101 for Seniors: How to stay connected to your work, friends and family from home.

These interactive experiences get at the nature of Innovation Collective’s mission: to help people who feel stuck catapult into the world of ideas and the world of action.

“The nature of this moment has a specific need,” Smoot said. “We’ve spent seven years focused on that problem of people who feel stuck and displaced.”

Smoot has noticed an increased global awareness in the last few weeks.

“Even though we may have different borders, languages, or currency, a pandemic has a way of saying we are all in this together,” Smoot said. “There is a sense of that now...there has been really beautiful responses from the Coeur d’Alene community. People are thinking about ways to show they care.”