Get Creative – My experience

Before I sat down in my chair alongside my group there were many thoughts that were going on inside my head. How much will each speaker grab my attention? What various skills they could teach?

I gathered some thought on creativity before the conference and what kept coming to mind was the importance of creativity. Many, if not all the people I look up to are creative in their own way, creativity is not limited to art or music. How people solve problems, different ways to approach simple addition or starting up a new business, creativity is everywhere we go. As I thought about this more I found myself looking forward to this conference more and more as I realized creativity has no limits and there are so many thoughts on creativity that can be discussed.

Aisling Cowzer – Accenture

The first speaker was Aisling Cowzer. She is an Experience strategy manager from Accenture. She started off by talking about the term “digital”. She stated that digital wasn’t only limited to technology but can relate to many other aspects. Something she focused on was design being a mindset, a tool we use in everything we do. For example, the relationship between the business and the customer. She talked about the double diamond which is about insights, research, ideation, and prototypes. I believe that this related to DICE quite a bit as I learned a lot about dealing with customers needs and all the various actions that can influence people which is important to know without a doubt.

Tania Banotti – Creative Ireland

Up next was Tania Banotti, the Director of Creative Ireland. The speaker mainly discussed her role in creating a more Creative Ireland. All the work stemmed from the 1916 commemorations. She talked about the 5 pillars needed for a more Creative Ireland. Although I found it interesting to learn about the work she had done I found that it was not as useful to me as it was more of a talk about her role rather than sharing her thoughts on creativity.Here is a video of Tania speaking about Get Creative. 26:14Tania Banotti | Get Creative 2018 | DCU Business School

Joanne Looby – Head of Innovation, Baileys Global Brand Team

As the 3rd speaker, we had Joanne Looby, the global head of innovation for Diageo. First, she talked about the history of Baileys which I found quite interesting. The various struggles they faced and how they broke through these challenges, changing Baileys to not just a drink, but a treat. She talked about the various methods they used to increase sales as they had dropped during and after the recession. They had to bring Baileys back. With recruiting new products as well as introducing products limited to a certain season the popularity began to increase. I found learning about the various methods they used to break through the market was very interesting. I found that by the end of this I was craving a Baileys, but, that was one problem I noticed. During the talk, I felt like Baileys was being sold to me and the whole learning of creativity began to fade away which was the only problem I had, but overall, an interesting speaker.

Ailbhe Keane – Founder & Creative Director, Izzy Wheels

After Joanne, we had Ailbhe Keane the founder of Izzy Wheels. I found this talk very interesting as I thought it was such a creative idea and that’s what this conference was all about, creativity! When I heard there are around 67 million wheelchair users I was shocked that someone had not thought of something like this before as it is such a huge market. This gave me a thought. A lot of the time I think to myself that now it is so hard to create something new as there has been so much time for someone else to think of it but after hearing this my outlook has changed completely. There are still so many hidden possibilities waiting to be discovered, like how Ailbhe discovered the idea for Izzy Wheels. She talked about how they have expanded by recruiting new designers and spokespeople as everyone has different ideas, their own creativity. There is no doubt that this was a very interesting talk.

Patrick Hickey – CEO Rothco

As our last individual speaker, we had Patrick Hickey, the CEO of Rothco, a creative ideas agency. He started off by talking about the design thinking process which focuses on inspiration and ideation. I found the 3 methods he talked about interesting. Method 1, keep saying no. This will lead to better results as it will force you to make it perfect, to always strive to better something. Method 2, ‘What if?” To always look for different ways things can be done and to always question something, this is a very creative process without a doubt. The last method he said was “Stick like glue to the brief”. To follow something exactly and to not deviate from it at all. These methods are quite different but it is important to know them, as one, if not all will help, whether it be working in a group or even in writing this blog! Video attached. 25:11Patrick Hickey | Get Creative 2018 | DCU Business School

Panel – Akhil Voorakkara, Brian Dillon, Mark Bennett

The primary theme for the panel was creativity and their thoughts on it. Each speaker agreed that everyone was creative in their own ways and there are many forms of creativity. I found it interesting as their thoughts were the same thoughts I had before this conference. They proceeded to talk about the role of creativity as well as how important it is. I enjoyed listening to how they come up with their ideas, usually walking or listening to music. From this, I realised that the environment is very important when trying to be creative. Although the ideas they had are their own I noticed it is important to take in everything as they can amalgamate together to form a new idea, creativity can use a lot of things that you know already. I was shocked to hear that Akhil had met Elon Musk, a man who I believe is one of the most creative men in the world. The panel was my favourite part of the whole conference as I thought it was more engaging and a lot of the questions I had were answered during it.

Reflection

I was extremely happy that I attended this conference as I believe that it was really beneficial to me. All the different topics covered and their thoughts were intriguing.