PROVIDENCE – Musician, drum-pad inventor and Drum-pad and MIDI-standard creator Dave Kusek, hacker and personal technology developer Joshua Klein and 37signals founder and CEO Jason Fried are among the more than two dozen “storytellers” lined up for the Business Innovation Factory’s BIF-4 Summit this fall, the R.I. Economic Development Corporation’s RI Nexus reported today.

Also slated to speak at the Oct. 15 to 16 event – hosted by Bruce Nussbaum, assistant managing editor of BusinessWeek, and Bill Taylor, author of “Mavericks at Work” – are:

• John Abele, leader of the Grunion expedition and founder of Boston Scientific Corp., from which he has retired.

• Ruby Bridges, an educator and activist who was the first African American child to desegregate an elementary school.

• Joseph F. Coughlin, founder of the MIT AgeLab.

• Marc Ecko, founder and head of a global lifestyle and entertainment empire.

• Jeffrey Hollender, president and chief inspired protagonist of Seventh Generation.

• Tony Hsieh, CEO of online retailer Zappos.com.

• Jacqueline Novogratz, who founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty.

• Lewis Gordon Pugh, an explorer, environmentalist and the first person to undertake a long-distance swim at the North Pole.

• Richard Satava, a visionary surgeon who helped develop the first surgical robot.

• John Wolpert, former head of IBM’s Extreme Blue business innovation incubator.

• David R. Yaun, vice president of corporate communications for IBM and director of IBM’s innovation and technology leadership programs.

The list is still growing. Each speaker will have 15 minutes to share a personal story about how he or she took a particular idea from concept to reality.

This year’s summit is limited to 300 participants. Last year’s sold-out event drew “participants from 174 organizations, 65 percent of whom were CEOs, presidents, founders or senior leaders within their organizations,” the EDC said today.

Registered users of RI Nexus – the EDC’s online center for the state’s information technology and digital media communities – can save 15 percent off the regular price ($1,000 until Aug. 15; the price rises to $1,200 after Aug. 16) if they register at a special link here, the organization said.

The Business Innovation Factory’s BIF-4 innovation summit will be held Oct. 15 to 16 at Trinity Repertory Company in downtown Providence. Registration is $1,000; it rises to $1,200 for those who register Aug. 16 or later. A limited number of full and partial scholarships are available. Space is limited to 300 participants. For more information or to register, visit www.businessinnovationfactory.com/bif-4>.