Unappreciated by the world is the fact that in today’s elusive studio of motorcycle design America is a major player – for some, the major player. Dozens of designers, engineers and craftsmen are creating some of the most exciting and innovative motorcycles the world has ever seen – ever dreamed about. This doesn’t just mean “yet another chopper”. It means names like Confederate, Ecosse, Fischer, Roehr, Vectrix (producing an electric sportbike), and MotoCzysz in addition to, and no less worthy in this context, the establishment Harley-Davidson with Buell, Victory, and even Indian. Award-winning author Alan Cathcart visits twenty-five shops interviews the designers and engineers and rides the motorcycles. Each shop, interviewee and motorcycle has been photographed especially for this book.

Check out the following excerpt from the book featuring the rMoto Electrix Superbike. You can also download a PDF file here. To purchase a copy of American Dream Bikes by Alan Cathcart click here.

The Florida High Tech Corridor is highlighting entrepreneurs in the region that are developing innovative technologies with the potential to revolutionize the industry.  These “Faces of Technology” interviews appear on the Faces of Technology YouTube channel, where viewers can watch these dynamic individuals tell their own stories.  Each of these 16 professionals discusses how they are using technology to facilitate the growth and development of creativity in the region.

“These Faces of Technology profiles showcase the extraordinarily diverse high tech sectors in the region through the eyes of industry experts,” said Randy Berridge, president of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council.  “They stand as testaments to the Corridor’s potential to significantly impact entire industries, if not the world.  We are so proud that they call Florida’s High Tech Corridor home, and we salute their passion and commitment.”

The Florida High Tech Corridor Council (FHTCC) is an economic development initiative of the University of Central Florida (UCF), the University of South Florida (USF) and the University of Florida (UF) whose mission is to grow high tech industry and innovation through research, workforce and marketing partnerships. A partnership involving more than 20 local and regional economic development organizations (EDOs) and 14 community colleges, the Council is co-chaired by the presidents of UCF, USF and UF. The Council includes the presidents of two of the community colleges, the president of Florida Institute of Technology and representatives of high tech industry.

ROBRADY design is a multi-disciplined product design and development studio that offers its multinational client base—including General Electric, Mercedes-Benz, Dell Computers, Parker Hannifin, AT&T, Merial and Volvo Penta—progressive industrial design, mechanical design and engineering, graphics /packaging / GUI / web and eCommerce design, market research, brand and retail development, complete rapid prototyping and production program management. ROBRADY design stresses comprehensive speed-to-market product solutions by collaborating to identify the greatest areas of opportunity and producing innovative designs to deliver profitable product solutions. ROBRADY delivers design, production and capital solutions to their clients in support of their research to reality philosophy.

Is an Electric Super Bike important?

My team and I started to prepare the booth at the ’08 INDY Motorcycle Industry Expo very early in the morning. We had spent the last two days setting up. The show didn’t start until 10:00 am, but we were there at 8:00 am because we were anxious to get everything ready. The truth is we were very nervous. This was the very first motorcycle industry event that Vectrix Corporation had ever attended in North America, and we wanted to make a good showing. This was also the first time that any company had attempted to enter the conventional North American motorcycle market with an E2W machine of this quality, and at this price or performance level. Only recently, Vectrix had attended EICMA, the major European motorcycle industry event in Milan. The ROBRADY/Vectrix Super Bike (rMoto) was “unveiled” with terrific fanfare and attracted tremendous attention from the press and the industry. The momentum had begun.

We only had a little booth at INDY, barely big enough for three or four demo models of the Maxi Scooter sized Vx1 Electric Scooter. The booth was so small, that most of the sales team had to stand in the isles. Even so, I had decided to devote a lot of valuable space to something we wanted the US industry to see, even though it was not something we could sell to prospective dealers.

I had decided that the beautiful, life sized model of the Super Bike was so exciting as a concept, that it should take the front and center spot in the booth as a symbol of what our new brand represented. I was acutely aware of the interest that the showing at EICMA had generated in Europe, and wanted to continue the momentum here in the US.

This was, after all, to be an all-inclusive E2W brand, not just a “scooter” brand.

All of us were a bit worried. We had promised our company that the conventional motorcycle industry was where our machines belonged, not in electronics/appliance retailers, EV stores, stand-alone flag ship stores, or automobile dealerships, as many in the company still believed, although the success at the EICMA show was beginning to change minds. Their concept was that these electric machines were “revolutionary personal transport”, “rolling computers” – anything but motorcycles. That sales tactic had been tried for several years, at great expense, and with no success. One argument held that the lack of success was due to the machines being too advanced and ahead of their time for people to understand. I contended that they were motorcycles, motorcycles with electric drive systems, but motorcycles none-the-less. And that they belonged in stores that had clientele who were or had made the “life choice” necessary to embrace two wheeled vehicles. I believed we needed dealership partners that were trusted by long time clients, so that a new brand, and a new propulsion system, would be trusted by extension, and had all of the expertise, service and accessories necessary to satisfy that prospective end user, or fleet user.

As the morning wore on we took the dust cover off the Super Bike model and did other preparations to make the booth ready for the show to open. No fanfare as at EICMA, we just took off the cover. It was about 9:00 am. A funny thing started to happen. Suddenly, people from the other booths started to wander over to our booth. Before long we noted people taking pictures and making calls on their cell phones. Within half an hour we had a large crowd of industry insiders surrounding our booth, actually surrounding the Super Bike model. The cell phone calls and the transmitted cell pictures continued to bring more and more people to the booth. When 10:00 am arrived and the show opened, the crowd changed character from other OEMs to dealers and dealership staff. All weekend long we had national press, industry association and newsletter reporters, other OEMs and former visitors bringing others with them, back to the booth for another look. We soon became worried that we had not brought enough literature. Everyone wanted pictures and specs. Before the first day was over we had made about 40 appointments to take demo units to dealerships in aid of their adopting our brand, and hundreds of other inquiries. Staff had done dozens of press interviews and made appointments for press visits to the Vectrix corporate facilities.

It was absolutely clear to all of us that the Super Bike model was what caused the excitement. Once the dealers understood that it was the Vx1 that was currently available, and once they had experienced the scooter going in reverse, learned about the regen throttle (being electric we could run them indoors even if only for a few feet), and heard that it could go 62 mph… they were sold. Because we were able to show a convincing road map of planned future products and had the promise (dream?) of having a fantastic electric Super Bike in the foreseeable future, they were interested and anxious to become dealers. The US team went on to open over 100 US dealerships in the remaining 8 months of its current fiscal year and placed over 2200 Vx1s on dealership floors during that time period.

After that show, Company enthusiasm increased dramatically and an all out effort, anchored with the Super Bike model, was launched – continuing the introduction of Vectrix and the Super Bike to the motorcycle world and the world press.

Up until that time, only sporadic forays into E2Ws had been made by any large brand. A few low-speed, limited distance units had been tried here and there in the western world. Meanwhile, a very large number of similar but low performing low-tech machines had begun appearing in the Asian markets and met with wonderful success. Unfortunately, most of these were of relatively low quality and had inadequate performance levels for US or European use. Literally no one had even remotely considered such a thing as an electric super bike. So, when the ROBRADY/Vectrix Super Bike was presented to the world it had an amazing impact.

As recently as last year, Mission Motors produced a prototype electric motorcycle (super bike) that has now set a two way record at Bonneville of over 150 mph. It is said to have a nominal street range per charge of 100 miles to 150 miles. This is reported to be a production prototype.

Shortly after that, Lightning Electric Motorcycle Company set a one way measured mile record at Bonneville of over 166 mph. The same machine placed second at the first sanctioned all electric motorcycle race in the US. It is also reported to be a production prototype.

The Agni bike (a one off proof of concept for the Agni electric motor company) won the Isle of Man GPXTT zero emissions race and went on to win the first race of that type in the US.

Lightning, Moto Czysz, Mavizen, Roehr, Agni and a few others are offering to build race only electric bikes for teams interested in entering these races.

Last year, an electric motorcycle dragster, the KillaCycle, began to do quarter mile races in the sub 8 second times, rivaling all but the fastest Super charged and multi engine ICE drag bikes.

Only a few weeks ago, 13 electric super bikes competed in the first officially sanctioned all electric bike race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA, and in so doing achieved speeds that were very close to those of ICE super bikes, doing laps only 15 to 18 seconds slower than ICE super bikes.

Yamaha, Honda, Peugeot, KTM, BMW, Polaris, and other Legacy 2W OEMs have announced the introduction of E2W machines into their product lines in the next few years.

Recently, Quantya, Zero, Brammo, EVS, and as many as 10 other small specialty E2W and EATV OEMs have entered the market place.

Four years ago, within the motorcycle industry at large, there was no evidence of such a thing as an electric super bike; or for that matter, serious consideration of electric bikes at all. I now know of a few people and some industry insiders that had been privately working on electric motorcycles and scooters in their garages and workshops for many years – but in the industry at large, this was not a seriously considered concept.

So what was the vision for the rMoto? ROBRADY design by that time had extensive experience in the motorcycle industry and had recently begun working with Vectrix on electric scooters. They understood where electric vehicle technology could go. The design for the Vx1 was completed and the beginnings of a product road map – a smaller scooter called the Vx2, fleet specific bodywork for patrol and delivery service, and even a prototype three-wheeled version of the Vx1 were in the works. What they were looking for though was something that could aid in building Vectrix into an iconic brand. The answer to that was the Super Bike, even though the technology necessary to drive such a thing at ICE like speed for any distance was not available or even understood.

When one considers what would drive anyone to go out on this sort of limb, what impetus would drive such a conceptualization, one can only think it was passion. The idea of a commercial industrial design studio being an incubator for this sort of work seems attractive and appropriate, but it’s not at all common. The driver here seems to be genuine passion on the part of all concerned. The nature of a design studio is collegial and only a shared passion could drive such a leap forward in concept… and, why not? This concept combines a lot of elements that are extremely attractive to the creative mind. Once the team was exposed to the Vx1, they were aware of the awesome capabilities of electric drive systems, the positive effect on the environment such machines could provide, the amazing power delivery concept of 100% torque from 0 mph, and the utter silence of these machines in motion. Additionally, I think, there was the passionate impetus to convince this client company, Vectrix, that driving prospective dealerships and end users to their brand, and to continued interest in the brand for the long run, required a brand awareness-“a total brand design”- that encompassed a long term product road map and a unified design of the company now and the future.

How far, given all of that, is it from the Vx1 to the rMoto? I think the distance in concept between the two is actually light years. Am I trying to make the case that this Super Bike was the only reason for the growth in interest in electric E2Ws, or that it was the single impetus for the sudden appearance, so soon after it was shown, of actual electric super bikes; perhaps not. However, I do believe that it was a prime mover, and one of the primary eye opening and imagination generators in the development of everything that has come since. Nothing else in the rapid progress of these developments has had this much influence or this much power to influence the current outcome.

During the ’08 INDY show, and for a long time after, the sales team reported dealer after dealer saying that they had decided to adopt the brand in large part because of the promise of a product line that eventually would included the Super Bike. One dealer agreed to adopt the brand only if he were promised that his would be the first dealership in his state to have the Super Bike.

Clearly, giving credit where it is due, the Vx1 is a good bike and deserved success in it’s own right. It is still the best E2W that has ever been offered to the general motorcycle marketplace in terms of design and performance. It offers acceptable speed (62 mph/100 kph), product differentiation from ICE bikes with regen braking and reverse throttle, excellent handling and decent distance per charge.

But I don’t think it would have achieved such rapid dealer acquisition, and reached the public consciousness so quickly, without the electric Super Bike model.  The Super Bike offered prospective dealers and end users a clear vision of what to expect in the future (a future which is coming about rapidly as noted above), and excited the imagination and efforts of an entire industry.

Bravo ROBRADY design.

The Rescue Wizard is a gas-powered, man-portable winch capable of pulling loads as heavy as 12,000 lbs. (5,443.108kg). Designed for simple operation under the hardest circumstances, the winch can be used where destroyed roads and tight fits make heavy machinery and vehicles unfeasible and when electric power is unreliable, impractical (e.g. in or near water) or even nonexistent. As such, the winch is ideal for emergency rescue workers, forestry personnel, road crews and the military. With the Rescue Wizard, ROBRADY has surpassed the concept profile, leveraging mechanical and industrial design expertise to realize Morrison’s vision for a life-saving device with great commercial appeal. Aside from obvious rescue applications, the Rescue Wizard could be indispensable for road crews, the forestry service, the military and outdoorsmen as well.

The International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA®) competition is a celebration of the year’s most inventive and creative product and product concept designs. Of the entries submitted, the judges recognize Finalist, Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards. This year the competition received the most entries since it began 30 years ago. Out of 407 finalists, 38 were honored with the Gold award; while 64 received the Silver award and 88 won the Bronze award. IDSA has partnered with the Henry Ford in Dearborn and all finalists from this year will go into the permanent collection of the museum.

Andy Morrison of Naples, Florida founded Wizard Machines in 2008. Morrison has had the idea for the Rescue Wizard for the past 25 years. Over the years, with every disaster, Mr. Morrison thought about that ideal machine but the technology did not exist to achieve the needs he envisioned for a reliable machine that was light and durable in nature. Finally, in 2008 he became aware of a new rope that had all of the attributes of steel cable, but with 10% of the weight.  At about the same time there was a devastating earthquake in Sichuan, China that collapsed as many as 600,000 structures in a matter of seconds.  Those two events motivated him to begin a search for a firm that shared his vision.  That culminated in his collaboration with ROBRADY Design, of Sarasota, Florida, and the founding of Wizard Machines. Morrison has invested the last two years and substantial personal funds to bring the dream for the Rescue Wizard to reality.

We seem to be surrounded by people who tell us we are living in the age of a personal transport revolution. Their main reference point for this bold statement is that motorcycles powered by electric propulsion systems have become available.  But while the use of batteries as the energy source to drive motorcycles is considered by many to be a revolution, it is in fact part of an evolutionary process.

There have been electric vehicles (EV) including motorcycles (E2W – Electric Two Wheel) for well over one hundred years – in fact before internal combustion engines (ICE) came into common use. However, wide use of the electric powered motorcycle in the contemporary western world is relatively new.  In China alone, there are reported to be more than 25 million E2Ws – mainly scooters – currently in use.  There are significant market reasons for this fact, in particular, very low speed limits that make even the slowest E2W competitive with ICE.  Also, their economic situation constrains most individuals from owning an auto or truck.

To some among the current E2W startups, there seems to be confusion about this issue of evolution within the motorcycle industry, leading to characterization of these machines as rolling computers or revolutionary transport appliances and even attempts at selling them in electronics/appliance stores. An E2W is not an electronic appliance, not a “computer on wheels.” It is, at the end of the day, quite simply a motorcycle.

Mistaking and merchandising an E2W for anything else is an error, will cause confusion and will slow down market acceptance and growth. If we wish to drive acceptance of these machines, we must make sure they conform to the actual uses that are true of conventional motorcycles and be accepted and sold in motorcycle dealerships. Essentially, we are talking about a function of the up-front design concept, branding, marketing, sales, and after sales processes. Success in bringing E2Ws to market in the western world relies on recognition of certain realities that exist in the marketplace.

One informative result of surveys by Frost & Sullivan, Deloitte, and others is that among market drivers, “green” or environmental issues are generally about half way down the list. The top five are all related to mission specificity and value. The same criteria is attached to conventional ICE machines. Fortunately, it is now possible for E2Ws to fulfill many of those criteria.

Making sure that the first – the beachhead products – are mission appropriate, price competitive, and targeted to those market areas that fit the current limitations of this drive system in terms of speed, range and price, is the role of the design firm/team.

An understanding of how surface design, mission specificity, and the other aspects noted above effects perspective dealers, retail end users and fleet users is crucial to this effort.

The two most telling cases that come to mind are the retooling of the KTM brand by Kiska of Austria, which led directly to the KTM break away market-entry success, and the design work by ROBRADY design that led to the very successful launch of the Vectrix Maxi VX1 electric scooter (and eventually to the now iconic ROBRADY/Vectrix Electric Super Bike). Because of the fact that the ROBRADY effort was aimed directly at an E2W startup, it is most salient to this discussion.

Although very distinctive, the ROBRADY design for the premier Vectrix machine, the VX1, does not radically deviate from the conventional in terms of visual design. Styling elements that are unique and can be replicated in the continuing product road map are certainly present, but the design is recognizable as a Maxi Scooter. This was a very thoughtful conceptualization in the case of Vectrix for the following reason. It is hard enough to convince a prospective buyer to accept a new brand and on top of that to accept an electric power train with it’s inherent limitations. Why ask the retailer, and the end user, to also accept something with unrecognizably radical visuals as well? Sometimes subtlety and restraint is strength in this respect.

The same precept was applied to the ROBRADY/Vectrix Super Bike, which was indeed radical in concept and unique in design, but remained recognizable as a motorcycle. It was important for the ROBRADY /Vectrix Super Bike design to maintain that restraint for the same reasons, as it was the first time that a concept of an actual all-electric “Super Bike” that could potentially compete on an equal footing with ICE Super Bikes was introduced at industry events.

That concept is most important for a start-up to realize, unless they are content to step aside when the trusted legacy companies finally launch their E2Ws, which they will do shortly within carefully chosen price ranges – starting with the small useful ones designed for a larger market.

Branding, which is a process that must be done in order to state clearly what the company represents, is an integral part of the effort, as is infrastructure, legal requirements, dealers and an all important end user interface. These are also integral parts of first stage planning and a part of the “total brand design” that should be done as part of the above process. That effort is essentially a design process that includes the design firm, the OEM, the sales and marketing team (perhaps ideally the same entity), and all those involved in compliance and finance.

This is perhaps even more serious for an E2W start up due to their need to compete with Legacy OEMs.

Most important to this complex effort is the “total design concept” that encompasses the entire brand story, including its interface with dealerships and end users. The most successful illustration of this concept is Apple.  This brand is well known for its design prowess but equally known for its total design concept, which reaches into every aspect of product design, packaging, marketing, sales, dealer and end user interface. What makes them successful is a concept that goes well beyond the design quality of the products themselves.

Confusing an E2W for an electronic gadget sincerely misses the point regarding the normal evolutionary progress that will be shown in good time by all of the existing, successful motorcycle brands. However, this is one of those rare times when a start-up can actually compete and bring a new brand into the marketplace. This is because of economic issues relating to the ponderous nature of new development in older, large motorcycle OEMs, product and brand confusion (selling ICE and E2W at the same time) and the lack, on the part of the legacy companies, of “overall brand design” that has been such an integral part of Apple’s ability to produce such prodigious sales of new products within their brand, and to overcome competition from other companies with like products.

That is where a “total design concept” process is critical. There are many computer companies, but only one Apple.

There are many motorcycle companies, but only one…

The Legacy OEMs are exploring electricity as a possible alternate drive system, for use in certain – currently limited situations – notably a few big brand e-scooters and e-ATVs are already in test release. However, they are not offering a serious product road map for future products and certainly are not offering the proven excitement of a Super Bike; leaving the door open to a well considered start-up (up start?), particularly one able to relate to its customers successfully through a “total design concept.”

Another problem lies in the propensity of some current startups to provide only over-developed, very expensive, first generation E2Ws that cost many times more than comparable existing ICE bikes without providing comparable performance. This only serves to showcase the limitations rather than the advantages of E2Ws, creating an elitist perception of these machines – the very opposite of what is creating such success in Asia. Some even ignore the very useful and innovative features that clearly create critical product differentiation between E2W and ICE, such as regenerative braking and reversing from the throttle.

Many in the industry believe that the Holy Grail of the emerging E2W industry is the 150+ mph super bike, and it surely is. We learned that from the excitement generated the very first time the ROBRADY/Vectrix Super Bike was shown to the industry. It is, because it suggests to the skeptics that an E2W can some day perform respectably along side of contemporary ICE bikes. In retrospect, the now iconic ROBRADY/Vectrix Super Bike led many to that conclusion.

The history of the motorcycle industry is evolutionary, not revolutionary. As in all evolutionary progress, the best is kept and preserved alongside the inevitable advances that will surely come. My suggestion is that this evolutionary process includes not only electric drive systems, but also a “total design concept” as the real “new paradigm.”

Only by studying the past, emulating the evolutionary norms of our industry and embracing the newly evolved “total brand design” concept, will any new E2W company be able to tell the compelling story necessary to grow its new brand in today’s crowded and highly competitive marketplace.

ROBRADY is well known for their design prowess in the electric scooter and super bike world, but this is their first foray into the electric bicycle market. Fritz Maffry of the Dynamo Group, who is currently reviewing the db0 3.0 for North American distribution, sees the bike as a breakthrough, with the “same caliber of design DNA as products from Apple or Sony”. Maffry has been reviewing the bike and commented that “a crowd gathered when we were on our test drives” and feels that ROBRADY and DK City succeeded in elevating the design game in electric bicycle market. The Dynamo Group, which specializes in commercializing breakthrough light electric products, is keeping an eye out for future collaborations of ROBRADY and DK City – as Maffry states: “Can’t wait to see what they have coming next”.

ROBRADY has several interactive displays planned for their booth this year. In addition to the db0 folding bicycle, they will be featuring their XTools floating fishing equipment, Identity Stronghold Secure Sleeves, and the Vectrix VX-1 Maxi Scooter. They will be reaching out to technology companies to offer design, production and capital solutions. Dickie Herbst, Director of New Ventures for ROBRADY, will be available Friday morning at the booth and is looking forward to meeting with technology groups in the Tampa Bay area. Matt Leiter, Director of ROBRADY capital, will be available Friday afternoon as well.

CoolTECH, hosted by the Tampa Bay Technology Forum, is annual event featuring a display of interactive experiences designed to showcase the coolest technology coming out of the Tampa Bay region and beyond. Attendees check out cutting edge technology, gain insight from industry leaders and take part in interactive voting for the coolTECH Awards. The event attracts hundreds of attendees from the technology and business community and has something for everyone including industry leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers and students. CoolTECH 2010 will take place June 4 at MOSI in Tampa.

ROBRADY design is a multi-disciplined product design and development studio that offers its multinational client base—including General Electric, Mercedes-Benz, Dell Computers, Parker Hannifin, AT&T, Merial and Volvo Penta—progressive industrial design, mechanical design and engineering, graphics /packaging / GUI / web and eCommerce design, market research, brand and retail development, complete rapid prototyping and production program management. ROBRADY design stresses comprehensive speed-to-market product solutions by collaborating to identify the greatest areas of opportunity and producing innovative designs to deliver profitable product solutions. ROBRADY delivers design, production and capital solutions to their clients in support of their research to reality philosophy.

ROBRADY has teamed with Xhale on many projects since 2007, and worked closely with them on the design, ergonomics and engineering requirements of the HyGreen™ System. ROBRADY CEO / Design Director Robert Brady feels the complimentary partnership the two companies share will continue to yield many profitable products: “Xhale Innovations’ appreciation and understanding of the importance of design working in unison with technology drives their success in product development. ROBRADY will continue to strive in positioning Xhale as a source for highly desired market-leading medical products.”

“Choosing ROBRADY has been one of the best decisions we’ve made,” says Xhale CEO Richard Allen. “We wanted a highly innovative design that would be readily brand-identifiable, but also wanted a product the customer/user would find to be completely intuitive and easy to use. ROBRADY delivered in every way. They did an outstanding job of helping us with ideation, and integrated the design concepts with customer-driven ergonomics and our unique engineering requirements.”

The 2010 Medical Design Excellence Award winners will be honored during the Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) East Conference and Exposition, June 9 at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

Canon Communications LLC organizes the MDEA award competition, the only awards program that exclusively recognizes contributions and advances in medical product design. Entries are evaluated on design and engineering features, including innovative use of materials, user-related functions that improve healthcare delivery and change traditional medical attitudes or practices, features that provide enhanced patient benefit and the ability of the product development team to overcome design and engineering challenges to meet the product’s clinical objectives.

Xhale Innovations, Inc. is a subsidiary of Xhale, Inc. Xhale was formed in 2005 following six years of research and intellectual property development at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Xhale is funded by private equity investment, and has been awarded two NIH SBIR Phase I grants and one NIH SBIR Phase II grant. The company’s corporate operations are headquartered in Gainesville, Florida, near the University of Florida campus, and the company’s production and engineering facilities are located in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

ROBRADY design is a multi-disciplined product design and development studio that offers its multinational client base—including General Electric, Mercedes-Benz, Dell Computers, Parker Hannifin, AT&T, Merial and Volvo Penta—progressive industrial design, mechanical design and engineering, graphics/packaging/GUI/web and eCommerce design, market research, brand and retail development, complete rapid prototyping and production program management. ROBRADY design stresses comprehensive speed-to-market product solutions by collaborating to identify the greatest areas of opportunity and producing innovative designs to deliver profitable product solutions. ROBRADY delivers design, production and capital solutions to their clients in support of their research to reality philosophy.

UPDATE: The HyGreen™ system has been featured on Fox News. click here to check out the story.

By Kim Cartlidge

Hosting a design summit solely for designers and creative types is so last year. The forward-thinking Ringling College of Art and Design chose instead last week to spread the word about how design thinking might deliver businesses and the region from the grips of the recession. The Sarasota International Design Summit on the campus kicked off with an invitation-only CEO roundtable led by international creativity consultant Sir Ken Robinson.

Rob Brady, CEO / Design Director of ROBRADY design.

Sir Ken Robinson, above, spoke at the Sarasota International Design Summit, and later signed copies of two of his books. Photos by Lauren Redifer.

Sarasota-Bradenton business attendees included Sun Hydraulics Corporation CEO Allen Carlson, Beall’s Inc. CEO Steve Knopik and ROBRADY CEO Rob Brady.

“The business environment is as challenging as it has ever been,” says Robinson, who has advised governments in Europe and Singapore on creating economies and education systems for today’s global age. “The key message was that this is not the time to give up on being innovative.”

Rob Brady leads ROBRADY design, a local firm that epitomizes both design innovation (having recently released a trendsetting folding bicycle) and the type of business Sarasota’s leadership wants to attract and retain in this region. I asked Brady how he defines design thinking.

“It’s a methodology we were taught in design school,” say Brady, who was educated as an industrial designer. “We analyze problems in a very visual way –in both two and three dimensions. What’s so approachable is that it’s so easy to pick up.”

For Brady, design thinking entails using light boards, graphics and problem statements. It requires questioning the question itself, meaning turning a critical eye on how a company is framing a problem. It also involves brainstorming without negativity or judgment, which can take the wind out of the imaginative process. “We don’t disqualify ideas immediately. Often that gem is two or three ideas away from you. If you throw away the crazy ideas, you throw away the bridges.”

ROBRADY lost 85 percent of its business in the downturn, but is on track for phenomenal growth this year with several new products. “Last year, we got clobbered by the recession, and if we did not reinvent ourselves, it would be an obituary. We survived by looking inside and applying design methodology to ourselves and going after new markets,” Brady says.

Brady adds, “Innovation without a process is reckless. Innovation with a proper methodology is a phenomenal competitive weapon in business.”

The word Ringling College President Larry Thompson wanted to share with the CEOs is that design thinking is not just for the creative fields: it’s a survival tool that can lead us out of this dismal economy.

Thompson plans to expand the CEO roundtable and opportunities for local entrepreneurs to apply design thinking to business problems. For more information, call his office at 359-7601.

Syndicated From: Sarasota Magazine

Source

Recently I traveled to Miami to represent ROBRADY at the 2010 Social Networking Conference. Overall it generated some great enthusiasm and I walked away with fresh ideas for our social media agenda. The dominating theme of the conference was how to build relationships through the various social media channels and use Web 2.0 tools to strengthen brand, communicate with customers, and build sales.

The pre-conference discussions were hosted by Chris Rollyson, Director of CSRA, Inc and Clara Shih, CEO of Hearsay Labs and author of The Facebook Era. Rollyson gave a great discussion on what drives companies to engage in social media strategies. His point about the necessity of discovering how your clients use these tools before randomly creating sites was very insightful and something we discuss often at ROBRADY. The key to success with these tools is to engage your target audience where they are already congregating and provide them with useful and desirable information. Clara Shih’s discussion focused primarily on Facebook and highlighted some very creative uses of that platform to build brand and engage consumers. She also spent some time discussing the concepts of social media capital and transitive trust and how social media sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook lend themselves to these relationships.

During the main conference, trust, content, and collaboration were recurrent themes with many of the presenters. Ann Aikin of the CDC discussed how they collaborated with other health organizations to spread information on the Swine Flu epidemic. To complement the widgets, videos, and podcasts that the CDC created in-house, they also released XML files to allow users to build their own informational tools. By allowing the audience to participate in the process and create tools that worked for them, the CDC maximized their impact. This type of collaboration and crowdsourcing was met with enthusiasm among the attendees in the sessions. ROBRADY had experimented with crowdsourcing several years ago on our rMOTO electric superbike project and we are looking forward to finding new ways to use this tool and potentially collaborate with design students and fans of the studio.

Virtual meeting sites such as Second Life were also a hot topic. Sandy Carter from IBM discussed their use of Second Life and Virtual Forum sites for events. IBM experienced a 15% increase in consumer traffic at the virtual events and generated the lowest cost per lead in the industry. Amazingly, they have the same conversion rates at their virtual events as they do for their traditional live events. She attributed some of this success to the high quality content that was presented in a “sales-pressure free” environment. Content is definitely a main driver in the success of a company’s social media agenda. Steve Faktor of American Express defined good content as being a culmination of creativity, capabilities, and culture. To build and keep a dedicated audience, companies must regularly provide answers and solutions to their customer’s needs without pushing a sales agenda. This connects back into the concept of trust. The audience should see content as a genuine effort to assist and educate.

Proponents of social media say the power of disruption media has waned with the increase of technology. Consumers can block commercials from television, get their news from RSS feeds rather than papers or magazines, and look to their more trusted peers for product referrals. Businesses must add value to their marketing message and must listen to the conversations in the marketplace. As many companies have discovered, their products and service are being discussed with or without their participation. The statistics from social media sites are impressive and prove that the audience is out there. Companies must develop cohesive plans for tapping this resource. Many of the presenters discussed how some businesses are jumping into social networking without a plan only to abandon their sites because they didn’t see immediate ROI results. As Rollyson instructed in both of his talks, high short term expectations can be a set-up for failure. Companies must have realistic plans and set relationship goals, not just sales goals. Strategically, ROBRADY has worked hard to set a long term vision on how we want to utilize social media to build our brands, engage our communities, and grow our businesses.

In closing, I would suggest a few changes to better engage the technical profile that a conference of this nature attracts, such as a more robust Wi-Fi and better access to power for laptop use. This would have really benefited the audience. I am looking forward to the Social Networking Conference growing to the point where it can stand alone and not be combined with other conferences so that it can be a truly engaging environment. Miami Beach is obviously a fun destination and it is great to have access to these shows in Florida. I hope this conference continues to grow and improve.