What Happened to Co-Creation? Local Motors with Nemo & Chris

David 'Nemo' Neal and Chris Stadler worked inside the Local Motors co-creation world: online community, themed design challenges, open collaboration, and industrial projects with companies like BMW, Shell, Domino’s, Airbus, and GE/FirstBuild. In this conversation, we look at what Local Motors meant by co-creation, why outside designers and engineers were so crucial to the process, why structure and briefs made the model work, and why Local Motors-style co-creation did not become normal industry practice. This is part of the CoFormation channel’s wider work on Co-Creation as one of the modes of CoFormation. A separate analysis video will break down what this conversation reveals in more detail. Topics include Local Motors, open innovation, industrial co-creation, product development, crowdsourcing, automotive innovation, community innovation, design challenges, manufacturing, and the future of co-creation. 00:00 Opening Highlights 01:01 Meet Nemo and Chris: The Local Motors Story 04:41 What Co-Creation Actually Means 07:34 Why Structure and a Strong Brief Matter 10:03 Why the Smartest People May Be Outside Your Company 12:29 Turning Community Ideas Into Real Products 16:55 Openness, Secrecy and Proprietary Risk 19:17 Ignition Kits and Sharing Information Safely 22:15 Idea Theft vs First-Mover Advantage 25:32 Ideas Are Cheap—Execution Creates Value 27:49 The Downsides of Co-Creation 30:59 Governance, Templates and Community Culture 33:50 Learning From Mistakes 35:48 Co-Creating the Problem and the Brief 37:37 Berlin 2030 and the Global Mobility Challenge 40:32 What Happens to Ideas That Don’t Win? 45:02 Helping Community Members Succeed 47:08 Why Local Motors Lost Momentum 50:08 Community Management Is a Full-Time Job 52:07 Building Trust Between Brands and Communities 55:52 Economic Continuity and Resource Strain 59:09 Why GE FirstBuild Was More Stable 1:01:24 Why Co-Creation Never Became an Established Category 1:03:09 How Co-Creation Survived in Separate Pieces 1:06:15 Was Co-Creation Too Broad? 1:06:49 The Value of Focused Industry Communities 1:08:38 Tribes, Brand Fans and Organic Communities 1:12:01 The Common Good vs Individual Interests 1:14:40 Should Self-Interest Serve the Group? 1:15:56 Closing Thoughts: Co-Creation as a Force for Good #CoFormation #CoCreation #LocalMotors #openinnovation #automotive