Survive and Thrive

New Zealander of the Year 2011 Sir Paul Callaghan's video address to creative entrepreneurs at Survive & Thrive: Fuelling the Business of Creativity, held in Auckland on July 14 2011.


Held at The University of Auckland Business School, and now in its third year, Survive & Thrive 2011 is a programme of inspiring speakers, intensive workshops and networking, and is all about helping creative, entrepreneurial people succeed.


http://www.thebigidea.co.nz/news/tbi-tv/89205-sir-paul-callaghan-address-to-survive-thrive

The Business of Creativity

Shared by Alan Black . . . . . .
Fredrik Härén, renowned writer and speaker of creativity shares his quest to inspire innovative thinking.
http://www.capitalandinside.com/index.php/advocate/changemakers/798-business-of-creativity

Conan O'Brien's Guide to Creativity

This link from Fast Company.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1754473/conan-obriens-guide-to-creativity

The most creative people in business

This 2011 list from Fast Company
http://www.fastcompany.com/most-creative-people/2011?partner=homepage_newsletter

Protecting your creativity

When creativity isn’t appreciated in your organization culture, what can you do if changing jobs isn’t an option?
http://brainzooming.com/how-do-youto-survive-in-a-culture-that-doesnt-value-creativity/7335/

The Creativity Killer

Traditional meetings are often more about socializing than making decisions. A case from David Sherwin for rethinking how we generate ideas.
http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/04/the-creativity-killer-group-discussions/237531/

We can all be creative

John Eger suggests that we can all be creative. This is something that lots of us have know for a long time. Still I guess its nice to have it reinforced. Go here to read his article in the Huffington Post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-m-eger/we-can-all-be-creative_b_830100.html?ref=fb&src=sp

Why creativity matters

Question and answer with Josh Linkner.
Linkner is a jazz musician, venture capitalist and the founder and chairman of ePrize, an interactive marketing company.

More here: http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/the-world/article/why-creativity-matters-most-qa-with-josh-linkner-maya-payne-smart?cid=em-smartbrief

The 16th Annual Creativity Conference in Africa

Take 300 participants, 40 odd presenters [no pun intended], a stunning African resort and expose them to new skills and knowledge , good food and great company and you have the mix for a very successful creativity conference. I was privileged to be invited back to South Africa to deliver workshops based on my new book The Creative Edge Workshop. You can get a copy at http://www.publishme.co.nz/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=587

Every year Kobus Neethling and his team put together this wonderful conference. This year the theme was The Great Awakening.

In a message to participants Kobus quotes from an article titled 'From Participation to Creation' published by KnowledgeWorks Foundation.

"This 2020 Forecast illuminates how we are shifting toward a culture of creation in which each of us has the opportunity - and the responsibility - to make our collective future. People are creating new selves, organisations, systems, societies, economies and knowledge. Networked artisans and ad hoc factories are democratising manufacturing and catalysing new local economies. These creators are highlighting the significance of cooperation and cross-cultural intelligence for citizenship and economic leadership.

Furthermore advances in neuroscience are creating new notions of performance and cognition and are reshaping discussions of social justice in learning. Communities are beginning to re-create them,selves as resilient systems that respond to challenges by replenishing their vital resources and creating flexible, open, and adaptive infrastructures.

Together these forces are pushing us to create the future of learning as an ecosystem, in which we will have yet to determine the role of educational institutions as we know them today."

In the words of Seneca "Its is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult."

Will there be a great awakening or will we attempt to maintain the status quo? I know my preference.

Vik Muniz on Creativity

Vik Muniz makes art from pretty much anything, be it shredded paper, wire, clouds or diamonds. Here he describes the thinking behind his work and takes us on a tour of his incredible images.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/vik_muniz_makes_art_with_wire_sugar.html

Charting Creativity

As the study of creativity has expanded to include brain neurology, however, some scientists question whether the standard definition and the tests for it still make sense.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/books/08creative.html?pagewanted=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Creativity: The most important leadership quality for CEO's?

For CEOs, creativity is now the most important leadership quality for success in business, outweighing even integrity and global thinking, according to a new study by IBM. The study is the largest known sample of one-on-one CEO interviews, with over 1,500 corporate heads and public sector leaders across 60 nations and 33 industries polled on what drives them in managing their companies in today's world.
More here:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1648943/creativity-the-most-important-leadership-quality-for-ceos-study

Riffs, Myths and Creativity

Peter Cook. author of 'Sex, Leadership and Rock'n'Roll mixes ideas about business creativity and innovation with music. In this brief clip he discusses musical scales and their relationship with creativity at work.
http://www.youtube.com/academyofrock#p/a/DB73A1A7A782ACCF/0/BnFkXX5dVYs

The Story of Tom's Shoes

Creativity, making a profit and doing good. Check it out.
http://bilconference.com/videos/toms-shoes-blake-mycoski/

Chase one rabbit

David Parrish writes the best of anyone I know about the business of creativity.

http://blog.davidparrish.com/tshirts_and_suits

From Davids most recent blog:

Here's some ancient wisdom from a Chinese proverb:
"If you chase two rabbits, both will escape."
A useful thought for all creative entrepreneurs.
It can be applied to:- deciding which creative speciality to choose, from all the creative things you can do.- deciding which particular market segment to focus on, rather than trying to appeal to many types of customer.

This is discussed in more detail in his article: Create your own Business Formula.

See also:

Ten Things Google Has Found To Be True

PS: Another animal to take inspiration from is the Hedgehog.

You can also download his book 'T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity'. It's a practical handbook for creative entrepreneurs to refer to and find information, examples from other businesses, and practical tips about using powerful business ideas in a creative context.

The book condenses over twenty years' of David's experience of working in creative enterprises, combined with learning from clients and from business school.

Download free eBook now
(PDF, 1.9MB)
[PC - Right click and 'Save Target As' to copy to hard drive.][Mac - Hold down Ctrl and 'Download Linked File'.]