The Innovators Studio
Where innovation gets built,
not just talked about.
This is a real, working studio. About a thousand square feet, on a ranch in Colorado. It’s where the podcast, the videos, and the writing come from. It’s also where Phil speaks, runs workshops, and takes on projects with organizations who want something built, not just discussed.
The person behind it
Built by someone who doesn’t need the credit
CableLabs holds more than a thousand patents. Phil McKinney’s name isn’t on a single one.
Same story at HP, where he ran the technology and innovation functions for years. Not one patent there either.
That’s not an accident, and it’s not modesty. Phil’s own inventions came earlier: he built ThumbScan, one of the first fingerprint-recognition devices, back in the 1980s, long before it showed up in everyone’s pocket. Since then, his real expertise has been something rarer: building organizations where other builders can do their best work.
At HP, that showed up as the Innovation Program Office, the unit Phil founded to rescue ideas the company would otherwise have killed too early. Under it, HP was named to Fast Company’s list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies three years running.
At CableLabs, it showed up as a patent portfolio that grew from fewer than 70 patents to more than 1,000 over 14 years, with the annual rate of patent generation increasing more than 20-fold. Every one of them filed by people he led. None of them his.
That’s the model of the Studio too. It isn’t about Phil’s ideas. It’s about what the people and organizations who come through it go on to build.
The work
What the Studio does
Content
The podcast and YouTube channel, running since 2005: over a thousand episodes teaching real innovation thinking to anyone who wants it, free.
Storytelling
Films that make a future feel real enough to want. “Roku’s Reward” drew over 200,000 views for a game that never existed, just a vision that landed. The Near Future series pulled over 225,000 more.
Custom installations
Physical spaces where people don’t watch the future, they walk into it. Built for the Newseum, for Edelman’s New York headquarters, and for Disney.
Speaking
Keynotes and talks built on four decades of real innovation decisions, not theory.
Workshops & boot camps
Hands-on sessions for teams who need to think differently about a real problem, not sit through a lecture about one.
If you recognize your own organization, or your own curiosity, in any of that, reach out.
Get in touchFrom the Studio
The Near Future: A Better Place
Jim lives alone but never feels alone. An AI companion, smart medications, and invisible sensors let him age on his own terms. A future made real enough to want.
See more of what’s come out of the Studio →Selected work
What’s come out of the Studio
Disney Innoventions Dream Home
An interactive future home at Disneyland. Guests didn’t watch it, they lived in it.
Roku’s Reward
A 2006 AR-gaming film that drew 200,000 views. For years, people asked when they could play it. There was no game.
The Near Future: Enjoy the Ride
A family walks with tigers, redirects ships through hurricanes, and lives alongside AI avatars.
The Near Future: Bring It On
An ordinary family day with extraordinary technology: autonomous cars, holographic lessons, VR across distance.
Smart Touch Wall
A 32-touchpoint interactive wall for the lobby of Edelman’s New York headquarters, later HP’s VantagePoint product.
Newseum: New Media Gallery
Five immersive experiences in Washington, D.C. exploring how technology reshaped news, media, and society.
Trusted by
Companies that have brought Phil in
Boston Scientific · Boy Scouts of America · BT · The Clorox Company · Disney · Edelman · Ericsson · Green Bay Packers · HP · Hyperion · Kroger · The Linux Foundation · Mayo Clinic · Microsoft · NASA · NASCAR · NBA · Newseum · Orange · P&G · Pitney Bowes · Rambus · Roche · Stanford University · Televisa · TIME · T-Mobile · Vail Resorts
Advisory
A different kind of help, for a different kind of problem
The Studio builds things: content, talks, workshops, installations. For a founder, CEO, CTO, investor, or board member carrying an ongoing, high-stakes innovation decision, that’s a different relationship: a retained advisory, built on four decades of making the hard calls.
That work happens through Techtrend →
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