37signals CEO and founder Jason Fried, hacker and personal technology innovator Joshua Klein, tech writer and thinker Clay Shirky, and electronic drum pad and MIDI standard inventor Dave Kusek are among those ITDM storytellers participating the Business Innovation Factory’s BIF-4 Summit on October 15-16. Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh, Marc Ecko and Richard Saul Wurman will also be there, along with many others.

BIF is offering registered RI Nexus users 25% off regular priced registration at http://www.businessinnovationfactory.com/bif-4/nexusregistration.php You must use this special link to claim the RI-Nexus discount. The discounted rate will expire on August 15 when the regular registration rate of $1,200 goes into effect.

Co-hosted by BusinessWeek Assistant Managing Editor Bruce Nussbaum and “Mavericks at Work” author Bill Taylor, the BIF-4 Summit will feature more than two dozen innovators who have 15 minutes on stage to share a personal story about how they turned an idea into an innovation.

In 2007, the sold out BIF-3 Summit hosted participants from 174 organizations, 65 percent of whom were CEOs, presidents, founders or senior leaders within their organizations.

This year’s line-up of BIF-4 storytellers includes:

• John Abele, leader of the Grunion expedition and the founder of Boston Scientific Corporation
• Steve Bendt and Gary Koelling, founders of Best Buy’s Blue Shirt Nation
• Dave Berry, principal at Flagship Ventures and MIT Technology Review’s 2007 Innovator of the Year for his work developing renewable petroleum from microbes
• Ruby Bridges , educator and activist and first African American child to desegregate an elementary school
• Deborah Brooks, co-founder of the Michael J. Fox Foundation
• Joseph F. Coughlin, founder of the MIT AgeLab
• Marc Ecko , who heads a global lifestyle and entertainment empire
• Jason Fried, founder and CEO of 37signals
• Tony Hsieh, Zappos.com CEO
• Jeffrey Hollender, president and chief inspired protagonist of Seventh Generation
• Joshua Klein, technology principle at Frog Design
• Dave Kusek, MIDI standard inventor and electronic music master.
• Cat Laine, Deputy Director of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group helps developing countries get affordable access to energy, sanitation and clean water.
• Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of Acumen Fund, uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve problems of global poverty
• Lewis Gordon Pugh, explorer, environmentalist and first person to undertake a long distance swim at the North Pole
• Richard Satava, visionary surgeon who co-developed the first surgical robot
• Clay Shirky, writer on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies
• John Wolpert, former head of IBM’s Extreme Blue business innovation incubator
• Richard Saul Wurman, Author and information architect now is working on “19.20.21”--an attempt to standardize information about 19 cities that will reach 20 million inhabitants in the 21st century
• David R. Yaun, VP of Corporate Communications for IBM and director of IBM’s innovation and technology leadership programs

Held at Trinity Rep in Providence, R.I., BIF-4 is limited to 300 participants.
Get the full list of storytellers, more information on registration and details at www.businessinnovationfactory.com/bif-4. To receive the RI Nexus discount remember to register here: http://www.businessinnovationfactory.com/bif-4/nexusregistration.php.