Silicon Valley digiterati to brainstorm at 30,000 ft

British Airways is flying 130 Silicon Valley business leaders, venture capitalists, and start-up specialists from San Francisco to London in an "Innovation Lab in the Sky" – an 11-hour flight that's going to try and sort out ways to expand STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills around the world. The …

[Anonymous Coward]

A brainstorming (5) mile high club.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Positronic brainstorming?

One good dark lightning zap from a gamma-ray flash (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/12/dark_lightning_threat_to_aircraft/ ) and we could sink California. Anyone know if Zuck will be on-board?

[Infernoz]

Highly dubious

Brainstorming is an extrovert, wishful thing, nonsense activity which generates less and lower quality results than separate study, then discussion of results; even for extroverts, and even worse for introverts!

This sounds more like a social junket and marketing media event to me.

[FrankAlphaXII]

Re: Highly dubious

[citation needed]

[Khaptain]

Why this crowd

SI don't really understand the correlation between the Internet Twatterati and the project of getting more women into STEM projects.

Shirley there are people on this planet far more qualifed than this marketing group.

[Anonymous Coward]

better idea (sorry for trolling)

Nothing spurs creative thinking like a free-fall session. You never know, some of them might even come up with ad hoc, mind-powered levitation techniques.

[Stu J]

130 people on a long-haul BA flight?

Either they're all in Economy Class, or there's going to be a bun-fight for the First/Club/Premium seats...

[Anonymous Coward]

"who was due to be on the flight but pulled out, as his wife is due to give birth"

With his track record he would've already taken off.

[Anonymous Coward]

Eggs in one basket much?

Almost sounds like a silicon valley takeover plot.

[Hungry Sean]

only one explanation

There is only one man brave and, dare I say it, revolutionary enough to conceive such a splendid idea cutting through old fashioned concepts like evidence based policy in a single stroke. Steve Bong! So glad that he has taken the time out of his busy schedule to help make the world a better place.

[ElNumbre]

Great...

I can't think of anything more conducive to good idea's than a pressurised cabin, engine noise, turbulence, expensive refreshments, vacuum flush toilets and upset biorhythms.

[Jim Wilkinson]

Isn't oxygen needed to brainstorm?

Noticably low levels of oxygen on a commercial flight in my experience. In all the flying I've done, I found creativity is poor at altitude. Unless they pump up the oxygen level for this boondoggle.....

[Christian Berger]

Companies?

I'm sorry, but I cannot see how investment to create companies can be a good thing. All the companies I've seen were just a waste of money. They had a huge overhead with just a small fraction of the company working productively.

If those 3rd world countries want to have success they need to find out ways to work without companies, the resulting reduction in overhead will quickly propel them in productivity.