Week of January 23, 2017

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IDEA Lab will launch on Friday, January 27th as part of the Executive MBA (EMBA) program at MIT Sloan School of Management.

Focused specifically in Boston, IDEA Lab includes 14 projects that are committed to improving the way major corporations throughout the city contribute to the “innovation ecosystem.”

IDEA has been a longstanding component of the EMBA at MIt Sloan through IDEA Week, a program that introduces first year EMBA candidates to “key concepts and MIT frameworks supporting the innovation process.”

IDEA Lab is rooted in IDEA Week, and will allow EMBA students to further engage with the innovation ecosystem and the process of undertaking a successful entrepreneurial endeavor.

The Launch

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While this Lab will likely have a significant impact on the future of entrepreneurship in the city, there was minimal news coverage of IDEA Lab’s launch. MIT promoted the new program through its internal channels, highlighting IDEA Lab and its origins on MIT Sloan’s Action Learning’s page.

BostInno published an article about IDEA Lab on Monday, January 23rd.

The Launch

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IDEA Lab projects are co-created by MIT faculty and their students and are focused specifically on Boston.

Beyond giving EMBA students hands-on experience with forming and running their own startups, another goal of IDEA Lab is to increase the number of startup and entrepreneurial ventures in Boston.

IDEA Lab projects range from government organization playbooks to exploring the city’s diversity programs.

Although IDEA Lab does not have any social channels (like Twitter or Facebook pages) yet, like many of the other Labs at MIT and MIT Sloan, IDEA Lab has the potential to grow in size and impact.

While Boston is the central focus of IDEA Lab, the issues that the EMBA students are engaging with all relate to globally-important challenges in their respective industries.

The Future of IDEA Lab