In a few weeks I’m going to be taking part in an Ignite event (a presentation of 20 slides, 15 seconds each, and they automatically advance) and have been thinking about subjects… after a few ideas that would have probably thoroughly offended most of the audience (many from the digital agency world), I think I’m going to present on an idea that creativity and innovation comes down to nothing more that the combination (or subtraction of) existing ideas.
A couple of examples:
a horse-drawn carriage – the horse + an internal combustion engine = the automobile
cinematography + radio = television
I’ve a few up my sleeve to make the points I’m trying to make (creativity and innovation are often not so much about pulling ideas out of thin air), and a few more to get a few laughs (hopefully). But anyone care to suggest a few more of these innovation equations?
mmitII 
An obvious one, you may already have:
the mobile phone + PDA = smartphone
Remember the early Win CE / Palm / iPaq devices even in the early days of GSM SMS text messaging was relatively unknown too. Most “mobiles” are now “smart”
That’s nice. Got me thinking that you could take it back a few steps too:
Diary + Calendar + Address book + Notepad + Pocket calculator = 1st generation PDAs (Psions, Casios etc)
1st Generation PDAs + Pen = 2nd generation PDAs (Palms, Newtons, Windows Mobiles etc)
1st Generation PDAs + Email = 1st generation BlackBerrys
2nd Generation PDAs + Phone = 1st generation smartphones
1st generation smartphones – keypads – pen = iPhone (and Android, and WP7 etc)
Also gets me thinking Idea + Sloth + Social Networks = Crowd Sourcing, and gives me a little project for Friday!
Thanks!