Opal Brainstorms Debuts at DEMO Fall 2012

PORTLAND, OR--(Marketwire - Oct 2, 2012) - Opal Labs, creator of social enterprise technology to unlock the innovation potential of any organization, unveiled its Opal Brainstorms application for enterprise at the DEMO Fall 2012 Conference in Santa Clara, Calif. today.

The DEMO conference is world-renowned for launching the most innovative companies in enterprise, mobile, cloud computing, consumer, social media and disruptive technologies.

Opal Brainstorms is a social enterprise web application that helps organizations surface new ideas, solve problems and enable collaboration across geographies, business units and specialties. It unlocks the innovation potential of teams within entire organizations by creating a dedicated space for creative problem solving and to refine, merge and synthesize ideas into actionable outcomes. Opal built the app on a cloud platform so anyone can participate in a Brainstorm from any computing device at any time an idea occurs.

"The world needs new ideas more than ever and the people who produce them are a company's greatest asset," said George Huff, founder and CEO of Opal Labs. "Opal Brainstorms allows any organization to inspire their people to bring forward the ideas that matter, that will help solve the biggest problems facing businesses, and the world, today. And our synthesis technology helps them put those ideas into action."

Opal believes today's business leaders are currently missing the majority of opportunities to innovate because the right people aren't collaborating effectively. And the tools they have in place to facilitate innovation are failing.

According to a recent McKinsey Global Institute study¹ of businesses worldwide, 70% of enterprises surveyed have adopted social technologies, yet only 3% say they have achieved substantial benefits across all parts of the organization. The team at Opal believes this is because current social technologies fail to create "a ball" (or social object) for their teams to focus on. Opal Brainstorms is a "social object" designed to break down the barriers that prevent teams from collaborating across silos, geographies and business units -- and allows them to invite customers and the general public to participate.

Opal Brainstorms was developed based on insight from 20 years of combined experience helping today's leading innovators, such as Nike, BP and Arup, solve their biggest problems with group computing tools. Opal collaborated closely with Arup, a global leader in architectural design and engineering with a team of more than 11,000 worldwide, to address the ubiquitous challenge of getting Arup's teams to harness the collective brainpower of their entire organization.

"We spend all of our time in front of our computers so it's not realistic to try and facilitate enhanced collaboration in the real-world," said Tristram Carfrae RDI, Arup fellow and fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. "Opal's technology was designed specifically to help project teams collaborate online within the early stages of a new project. The app will allow us to tap the collective brainpower of Arup and synthesize the ideas project teams can apply to their work immediately."

"What if you could tap into the minds and ideas of 11,000 people?" challenges Huff. "That's what we built Opal Brainstorms to do."

Opal Labs will provide a live, six-minute demonstration of Opal Brainstorms on the DEMO Fall 2012 stage at 11:23 a.m. on Tuesday, October 2 and will host live demonstrations beginning today at booth D61 in the DEMO Fall 2012 pavilion.

"The DEMO Conferences have a rich history as the launch pad for some of the most ground-breaking technologies to hit the market," said Matt Marshall, executive producer of DEMO. "Now in its 22nd year, the conference continues to bring an elite class of entrepreneurs and forward-thinkers to the DEMO stage, and we are thrilled to present to you the finest in cutting-edge technologies from across the globe."

Visitors to www.DEMO.com may view all DEMO stage presentations within 24 hours of each product launch.

ABOUT OPAL LABS

Opal Labs is leading the movement to fundamentally change the way the world does business. Opal's social enterprise technology unlocks the innovation potential of people and allows organizations to cultivate radically collaborative and innovative cultures. Opal Labs is working with global innovators like Arup, Method and BP to deploy a powerful ecosystem of apps like Opal Brainstorms -- designed to revolutionize the way teams work with each other to solve the biggest problems facing businesses, and the world, today. For more information, visit www.workwithopal.com. 

ABOUT DEMO

Produced by the IDG Enterprise events group, the worldwide DEMO conferences focus on emerging technologies and new products innovations, which are hand selected from across the spectrum of the technology marketplace. The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying cutting-edge technologies and helping entrepreneurs secure venture funding and establish critical business. For more information on the DEMO conferences, visit http://www.demo.com/.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.

¹ "The Social Economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies." McKinsey Global Institute. July 2012.