Designing For Creativity

How Do You Design For Creativity?

"Over time, our belief systems can harden into rigid walls that prevent us from considering alternative viewpoints," Convene columnist Jeffrey Cufaude writes in "Think Differently" in our February issue. "And that's a problem."

To think differently, we need to be exposed to differences -- to diverse ideas as well as people -- and allow the collision to create insights, Cufaude argues.

In the presentation above, consultant, speaker, and blogger Bud Caddell, also operates at the intersection of ideas and innovation. Cadell's work is part of a collaborative effort to foster creativity in public education, but the questions raised about public education also can -- and should -- be asked about how we design and offer content at conferences and meetings.

Like "What technologies belong in a modern classroom?" "How should they be used to foster collaborative creativity?" 

And, "What brands and organizations stand for creativity and/or have an interest in a more creative workforce?" 

And a biggie: "What would an education system (or conference education program) be like if it put creativity at the core of its values?"

Big Ideas, Small Bucks

Think you need a huge budget to create an interactive, lively exhibit booth? This booth, promoting EventCamp East Coast at BizBash New York Expo this week, used brown kraft paper and permanent markers and asked the questions: "What was your worst event experience?" and "What does the event of the future look like?" to create a community conversation.

It's also a great example of brand alignment: EventCamp East Coast will follow the crowdsourced meeting model designed by conference consultant Adrian Segar, author of Conferences That Work.

Putting the Cart Before the Audience

In just five years, the Brooklyn Book Festival has become one of the biggest and most popular book festivals in the country. The 2010 festival, held last weekend, featured 200 authors of multiple genres -- from Salman Rushdie to Sarah Silverman -- and more than 175 exhibitors.

The booths, mostly tables under blue tents, were lined up on Cadman Plaza behind Brooklyn's Borough Hall. In such a densely packed setting, how can any one exhibitor set him or herself apart?

Children's book author Darren Farrell came up with a whimsical solution: His "Hot Doug" Cart, named after the wooly sheep who is the protagonist of Farrell's children's book, Doug-Dennis, and the Flyaway Fib. The Hot Doug Cart is the genuine article, a rolling hot dog cart, complete with umbrella. Farrell stashes books, crayons, and drawing paper in the food compartment. The sign on the front is simply a printed panel, which can be easily changed.

Sunday's book festival was the cart's inaugural appearance, and it attracted a lot of attention from children and their parents, beginning the moment Farrell popped open the umbrella. The cart fits inside Farrell's Mini Cooper, he said, and he plans to take it everywhere a car will go -- to libraries, bookstores, even setting up for impromptu reading on city streets and parks.

Farrell's book -- his first -- came out in March. Before its debut, the author sat at a table to display books. The cart is much more fun for everybody.

Old Spice? Really?

Am I reading this right?

The wildly popular Old Spice advertising video channel, the source of a series of videos now rocketing around cyberspace, has been uploaded more than 117 million times. The popularity of the campaign apparently is not just an online quirk, as sales of Old Spice have increased by 107 percent in the last month. (It's not clear, Ad Age writes, how much of that is due to a coupon campaign, but Old Spice sales improved as soon as the campaign began last February.)

What it tells me is that absolutely everything and anything can be reinvigorated. I would not have bet that there was life left in the 71-year-old men's fragrance. When I was a kid, which was not recently, Old Spice was considered to be hopelessly old-fashioned, like horehound drops (whatever those are), or hot-water bottles. (And given Old Spice's recent performance, I am not counting either of those out.)

I love this kind of story and what it says about the potential of all those projects that seem to be dragging a little or lacking in zing. Creativity, imagination, and the willingness to take risks, it seems, really can work magic.