The Business Innovation Center is a 501(c)(3) organization that offers a variety of collaborative programs for developing your creative ideas and working collectively to grow both personally and professionally. Notice: As of October 31, 2023, all BIC programs will be virtual since our facility in Fall River, MA, has been closed.

If you wish to find out more about any of our programs, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

In 2023/2024, the Business Innovation Center will be rebranding and transitioning to "BIC Media Labs," and all programming will be online or in virtual meeting spaces.

Current Community Initiatives:

The Composers Exchange: (Virtual by Zoom) Now in its second year, this growing community of over 180 music composers, producers, and songwriters has weekly meetings and collaboration sessions driven by the interests of the community and small collaboration groups that form through topical interests and various inspirations. This community evolved from a small group of cinematic composers studying harmony and the craft of scoring for pictures.

If you are interested in participating, send an email with a brief overview of your musical profile and interests to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

"Your Compass List" is a new book and life skills development program created by Christopher Nielsen: This personal and professional development offers a well-organized and thought-provoking book, "Your Compass List." It has a companion workbook and is supported with online videos, one-on-one coaching, and mentoring programs. The program is also designed to be offered as a 24-week cohort.

Visit https://yourcompasslist.com for more information.

AI Transformation Town Hall: This is a monthly forum and Town Hall gathering of people interested in learning more about the rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence. This is a forum of shared experience, research, and expertise open to participants for discussion. Participants range from regular folks new to these technologies to experienced experts in AI and related fields. The direction of this gathering will focus on bringing consensus on topical ideas, ethics, and understanding of potential impact. We will review books and thought leaders and share our perspectives on a variety of topics related to all things Artificial Intelligence and advanced robotic systems. The Town Halls will be shared as part of the free curriculum on the "Your Compass List" Life Skills Learning Center. The goal of this offering and collaboration is to offer content and perspectives that can be useful for persons on a pathway for Learning as a lifestyle.

Meetings are typically held on the last Friday of the Month at 6:30 pm EST. Notices and events will be found here: http://yourcompasslist.com/index.php/life-skills-learning-center/event-schedule, and session archives will be available here: http://yourcompasslist.com/index.php/life-skills-learning-center/learning-center-pathways or on the associated YouTube Playlist.

Notice: The Fall River Innovators have moved to the One Southcoast Chamber conference room. Visit https://fallriverinnovators.org for more information.

If you would like more information about any of the current program initiatives or have an idea of your own you would like to initiate with "BIC Media Labs" (formerly Business Innovation Center), please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Special thanks to the folks at SLACK.com and PIBOX.com for sponsoring our communities and allowing us to use their tools for collaboration and information sharing.

Details

Written by Christopher Nielsen

2019 has been a transitional year for the Business Innovation Center. We finally completed the core renovations of our Cafe expansion and started building our education programming model. We have assembled a fantastic STEAM Team to help us deliver a wide range of expertise and fun into our programs.

We launched our VISOR Program which stands for Visual Insights and Strategic Occupational Readiness. This is a unique curriculum model designed to prepare young adults with life skills and insights that can help them navigate the many uncertainties in the future of work. We explore priority skills and insights that will be most important as technological and climate changes accelerate. The VISOR program is intended as a jobs and lifelong learning alignment program. VISOR teaches the foundations of entrepreneurialism, productivity skills for virtual work environments and an in-depth understanding of the behavior sciences used in gamification. The VISOR Program is agile and can be modified to add value in a number of ways and complement other programs.

We were fortunate to have received funding through MASSHIRE New Bedford to deliver VISOR as a 720-hour certificate program, to youth between 16 and 24, through the career center in New Bedford. This also allowed us to open an extended location resource at the co-creative space in downtown New Bedford.

Our 2020 after school, family STEAM Team Workshops were made possible by a generous grant from the Episcopal City Mission. These workshops are scheduled over a six month season, 4 nights per week, January through June. This allowed us to create an ambassador program of 20 ten month scholarships for low income and underserved youth. Through this program, Ambassadors receive the full benefits and resources of the BIC for broadening their skills and insights into Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. Register today and find out more CLICK HERE

Coworking Space Membership and business networking has grown and is attracting a unique blend of businesses to the BIC. This momentum will lead to several member-driven workshop programs ranging from technology, health, and wellness to Immigration law. See our meetups for more info:

• Fall River New Technology and Business Innovation
• Fall River Entrepreneur/networking Meetup

Our TAG Networking group is celebrating its fourth year and helping several local businesses grow their businesses through referrals. Join us the first and third Wednesday of every month from 8:15 am till 9:30 am.

Professional development opportunities continue to thrive through our Fall River Innovators Toastmasters Club. This is our 4th year and for the past three years we have achieved the highest status of "Presidential Distinguished". This is a great group of folks working through a world-class curriculum designed to grow skills in leadership and public speaking. Join us any second or fourth Thursday of the Month from 6 pm till 8 pm.

Check out the promo video for VISOR we produced in house.

One of the many exciting things I am looking forward to in 2020 is how we will build interest and programming in our NEW Streaming Video "Podcast" Studio with our BIC Media Labs Programming. This year we made significant improvements to both our music and video production studios. We upgraded much of our software and hardware computer systems and installed new lighting in our video studio. The new production platform will make it much easier to teach students how to use the equipment and allow us to offer several new communities access to video streaming, podcasting and broadcasting services. This will help our members build new audiences and the ability to communicate event and activity information quickly and efficiently.

I am proud that our "communities of communities" here are growing momentum. We have attracted some interesting and fun people to share ideas and fellowship on our journey of personal and professional development.

We hope to see you and your friends again soon at the BIC.

Details

November Photography Art Show

This month’s Business Innovation Center Photography Art show features the work of Steve Carlson, for over forty years this “amateur photographer” has gathered a collection that surpasses 1,800 images which he careful catalogs and keeps in his files. His work covers a wide variety of subjects from architecture to wildlife. Carlson “believes everybody needs a creative outlet”, and photography is one of his favorite channels of creativity.

Even though Carlson appreciates and is firmly immersed in all the technological advances the digital age has to offer, he strongly believes that it is a photographer's responsibility to capture the essence of the image with the camera. Photoshop, in his opinion, should be used to enhance and possibly help bring out the vision conceived when the picture was originally taken. However, he feels that Photoshop, albeit useful should not be used to alter an inadequate image and turn it into a masterpiece.

Carlson likes to experiment with new methods and techniques such as shooting star trails or creating abstracts using food coloring and water in pursuit of a perfectly creative image. His natural creativity has landed this photographer in a few precarious situations while chasing the coveted image, from nearly being trampled on by a buffalo to a close encounter with a moving vehicle while taking pictures in streets of San Francisco. No stranger to local law enforcement, Carlson has on occasion left police officers curious enough to stop and see what he was up to on perplexing instances.

Although firmly committed to the digital age, he still enjoys taking out one of his vintage film cameras to shoot a roll of film. Carlson’s collection of 20 vintage cameras includes a Polaroid land camera and two Brownie box cameras. His vintage video camera collection includes a Bell and Howell Directors model, the same camera model that filmed the Kennedy assassination.

Steve Carlson, a Vietnam veteran. after leaving active service, received a commission from the Rhode Island National Guard and served in both the Rhode Island National Guard and the Army Reserve before leaving the service as a Captain. After 40 years with the U.S. Postal Service where he spent his last 20 years serving as a Safety Specialist, Carlson is now retired.

Carlson loves to cook particularly on his grill. He considers cooking one of his other creative outlets and he is known for chasing everyone out of his kitchen when he is cooking. The multi-talented photographer-chef has been married to his wife Ruth for over 40 years, they have 2 sons and 5 grandchildren including one granddaughter. His youngest son's son Nolan is a special needs child with muscular dystrophy and autism. Carlson has another passion, football, and despite living in the New England Area for many years although he roots for the Patriots, his heart is still a San Francisco 49er.