Henry Ford on Innovation

The Henry Ford is an amazing place as all the jurors of the IDEA Awards will attest to. Every year the Jury meets at the Henry Ford to decide on the winners of the annual IDEA Awards and we hear from them how inspiring the place is. IDSA and the Henry Ford have a long term relationship wherein the winners of the IDEA Awards are taken into the permanent collection of the Henry Ford museum every year. It is our intention to create a gallery space for the Winners out on the museum floor as soon as we can get the funding for this because there are over 1.5m visitors to the Henry Ford every year and we would love to expose them to what design and innovation excellence looks like today.

Why the Henry Ford? It is the second largest museum in the US and the largest museum in the world dedicated only to innovation. Design is innovation and when the Henry Ford came to us 3 years ago to talk about adding the IDEA Winners to their collection, they said they felt that they could not tell the story of innovation today if they did not tell the story of industrial design as well as technology. We agree! Industrial design has found a home amongst all the other innovators of the world and a fabulous place to tell its story to the world.

It has been a wonderful relationship so far and it seems that we are constantly finding new things that we can collaborate on as our intentions and goals are so well aligned.

Take a look at their On Innovation site. It is a great resource to learn through interviews with some of Americas greatest innovators. People like Dean Kamen, Steve Wozniak, BIll Gates, Elon Musk, Don Chadwick and many more. Their video library is impressive and growing by the month. In addition to the videos, the On Innovation site also has learning modules on innovation for schools.