Have you heard of CreativeMornings? It’s a free monthly morning gathering for creative types. Each event includes mingling, a 20 minute talk where the topic for presenters is open, followed by a 20 minute group discussion.
I’m lucky to be on the organizing team (hat tip to Mark Busse for calling together such a rockin’ group) and as our first event approaches on September 2nd Mark invited us to consider this question:
What is your motivation for participating in CreativeMornings events?
Here’s my answer….
When Mark asked me about joining the CreativeMornings/Vancouver team what hooked me is not just the inspiring speakers we’d hear from (like Stewart Butterfield – hello!), not the addition of another designer-sort-gathering in Vancouver, not the chance to work with Mark (although all of these rank high in the nifty factor for me). It was the mention of “followed by a 20 minute group discussion” that caused my heart to soar.
CreativeMornings/Vancouver will do something that Pecha Kucha, TEDx etc aren’t doing (yet): hosting conversation. We can play with the mold of a one-to-many event and bring in some turn-towards-each-other conversation beyond the typical mingling time, in a space whose mandate in part is encouraging cross-cultural dialogue (the W2 Media Café).
I’m motivated to participate because I’m passionate about creating and holding space for conversations with diverse folks gathered around a topic they care about. I believe in Margaret Wheatley’s statement that “whatever the problem, community is the answer”. We can build a creative community that meets in a way that models the future we want to create (paraphrasing Peter Block).
This is also a chance for me to walk the walk where I can:
- Contribute to encouraging more non-design creative perspective through the diversity you’ll see in the CreativeMornings presenters.
- Urge people with unique capabilities inside and outside the design world to attend.
- Create space to set free other people’s courage, creativity, intelligence and wisdom; not just listening to our amazing speakers then leaving.
We can model this. We can experiment with our 20 minutes of discussion and see what collective intelligence we can tap into that changes our world. We’ll start small but the opportunity is huge. Come join us: Registration opens August 29th at 11:00.
What does creativity mean to you? Explore creativity and more by joining us at CreativeMornings.
PS For an example CreativeMornings experience, check this out.