Who We Are
Orange Sparkle Ball is an innovation and impact accelerator focused on moving public and private organizations’ initiatives forward. Sitting at the junction of research, technology, human-centered design principles and organizational goals, Orange Sparkle Ball creates organization and community-focused innovation programs, runs data-driven pilots to demonstrate proof of the future state, creates multi-faceted communication strategies to stakeholders, and develops environments that support progress toward key metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs). Experience with government, industry, technology startups, public/private partnerships, and academia allow Orange Sparkle Ball to provide a full ecosystem approach to customized solutions.
Upcoming Events
Orange Sparkle Ball is proud to be supporting the PIN Leaders Program through our project–centered Innovation Coaching.
The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Program (AMMP) Accelerator is a 3-month course focused on companies that are pre-revenue and have (ideally) early-stage operations. The Accelerator is a summer program based in Houghton, MI.
Innovation Library
FEATURES
As a forward-thinking company deeply committed to fostering innovation and developing talent, we at Orange Sparkle Ball take immense pride in our longstanding partnership with the Georgia Tech Industrial Design program.
While inclusivity and diverse representation are necessary in all fields, they are especially crucial when designing for change. We asked several of our OSB team members to share their thoughts on building inclusive innovation ecosystems and their potential benefits to stakeholders.
Earlier this month, the OSB team attended South by SouthWest, one of the largest festivals and conferences in the country. We supported OSB Partner and Innovation Strategist Ashley Touchton, as she spoke on the future of drone delivery at the SXSW panel, “Who Will Benefit the Most From Drone Delivery?”
Several members of the OSB team had the chance to lead an ecosystem mapping and inclusive roadmap building workshop at the 2024 GAME Change Summit, a yearly event bringing together innovators from across the Southeastern Commerce Corridor to identify unmet needs in the next-generation manufacturing and supply chain ecosystem, and co-create inclusive solutions together.
OSB Founder Meaghan Kennedy joins Omari Richins, MPH on the Public Health Careers podcast for an insightful discussion about the work we're doing at OSB today. From the roots of OSB to the strategic moves that led to its founding, Meaghan shares her journey and the passion driving our innovative initiatives.
We’re excited to see our friends at MTEC SmartZone hosting their first accelerator! We recently sat down with members of the MTEC team to understand more about the U.P.’s (Upper Peninsula) innovation ecosystem, their unique position in the advanced materials and manufacturing innovation space, and their upcoming Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Program (AMMP) accelerator.
As one of our Ecosystem Partners in the 2023 TOP NLC Sprint, we worked with Macon Black Tech to map the local innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem of the Macon Metropolitan Area. In addition to mapping the ecosystem, we also wanted to leverage this project as an opportunity to understand the inclusivity of the overall ecosystem, and the barriers facing entrepreneurs and innovators in Middle Georgia.
Our retreats afford the team a few days to focus on new ideas and working on the business as a group. In 2023, we held our retreat in founder Meaghan Kennedy’s hometown, Manistee, Michigan. The team stayed and met in The Ramsdell Inn, in Manistee’s victorian downtown, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
As a coach in the 2021 Rollins Innovation Summit, Michael Cassidy is no stranger to OSB’s innovation process. Our Immersive Innovation Labs are a tool to guide teams of all backgrounds and disciplines through an innovative problem solving process. Especially in complex fields like public health, Immersive Innovation Labs can help participants break through siloes to identify actionable solutions to deeply entrenched challenges.
Michaela Bonnett from the OSB team presented our Ecosystem Dashboard tool at the Census Open Innovation Summit! Over the course of a 12-week sprint facilitated by the National League of Cities and The Opportunity Project by the US Census Open Innovation Labs (COIL), the OSB team developed the Ecosystem Dashboard tool to support local innovators in building robust, interconnected innovation networks.