By Grant Hall

In her article for Entrepreneur Asia Pacific titled Radical Inclusion: How Burning Man is Helping Create a New Breed of Entrepreneur, Cynthia Johnson explained how “entrepreneurs and others are taking what they learn at Burning Man and applying it to other situations”, before proposing that Burning Man is potentially creating a more “inclusive, community-building” kind of entrepreneur. As explained on the Burning Man website, “members of our community were early pioneers of the Internet and more and more technology entrepreneurs and industry leaders are joining our ranks as Burning Man culture spreads around the world”. Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Tony Hsieh, Mark Zuckerberg, Alexis Ohanian, Jeff Bezos, Drew Houston and Elon Musk (who is quoted as saying “Burning Man is Silicon Valley”) are among some of the more well-known entrepreneurs who have attended Burning Man. There are many articles written by entrepreneurs who discuss how their Burning Man experience has contributed to their professional aims, and conversations I’ve had with burners indicate that the Burning Man experience is characteristically a transformational and boundary expanding one, which can subsequently support the creative and innovative capacities of entrepreneurs.

I find it intriguing that a festival can act as a fertile ground for innovation and as such, I want to find out how and why this is so.

To do this, I’ve embarked on a research journey, and I’m inviting burners who work in innovation intensive roles or industries to contribute to the research. If this is you, and you are interested in being interviewed about your experience, please help me out by clicking here to complete a short survey (it will only take you two or three minutes). With your help, I hope to be able to trace the ripple effects of Burning Man within the default business world, and subsequently across the planet!

To learn more about the research project, click here.

Image credit is listed on the next page.