On Monday I spent the day at UTS attending the Future of Storytelling Symposium.

I went in with the hope of drawing some long bow connections between agile “stories”, writing, writing code, imagination and creativity.

Here’s what I learnt.

Stories lead innovation.

From the campfire, cave art, through to the written word, radio, television, computer gaming and beyond, stories have inspired us to build, create and do amazing things.

We build stories.

We went to the moon because someone wrote a story about going to the moon. We built the iWatch because Chester Gould imagined it in Dick Tracy, in 1931.

Stories are what make up our scrum boards. Stories are what helps us come to terms with our environment. Stories explain. Stories make complez things simple.

Science is a story.

What is the role of fiction in a corporate work place?

Stories about the future are fiction.

It’s what we imagine to be and then create.

Fiction is opinionated. It’s deeply biased. It’s a projection. Bias and projection are two skills we do our best to avoid when working in large teams, and yet here I can see they are fundamental to innovation.

What a paradox! How do you bridge the gap?

Virtual and augmented reality is a potential market worth exploring.

VR was a thing 20yrs ago.

Sega had that golf game remember?

Then, one day in the 90s, some kid started complaining about having motion sickness and the company withdrew its investments.

Now zuck buys oculus for 2 billion USD and “VR 2.0” takes flight.

Will it gain traction?

No. I personally feel that without “touch” VR will fail. AR will follow the same fate.

We need touch in order to garner feedback, believe, emerge and engage. Touch is the holy grail of VR.

When you put on those goggles, can you touch the blue butterfly?

I need to find a way to be less noisy when I write.

Time is both expensive and non refundable. Each words costs you time.

Story telling is all about asking each your audience to hand over their time for free.

I now realise that every line I write needs to land, deliver value and leave. The writer reader exchange moves much faster than I expected.

Every line counts.

The guys at UTS are doing amazing things!

I was lucky to meet the various lecturers, directors, keynote speakers, researchers, students and coordinates at UTS.

We spoke about the sort of research they are doing. It’s fascinating!

Future visioning, communication, abstraction and imagination. Diversity. Gender equality. Work space. Consciousness. Health. Temperament. Limitations. Markets. Audience. Public speaking. Sharing experience. Collaboration research. Agility and team work.

Looking forward to spending more time with the guys at UTS. I’d like to finding out how I can help.