I attended my first How Design Conference this week in Chicago, IL. It was quite a bit different than my expectations. I went into it thinking we'd be learning about design techniques, but more of the time was spent talking about creativity, brain-storming and inspiribility. So the real question... was it valuable... The short answer YES. While you don't walk out of a session thinking you tangibily learned much you do walk out slightly changed in your thinking.
My favorite session was put on by Brian Collins (you may have read about him in this months 'Fast Company'). He did a presentation on inspiribility that was awesome. The presentation started out with quite organ music and images of stained glass windows. He talked about the creativity he experienced in the Catholic church growing up (the buildings, the rituals, the costumes...). Then he showed us real inspiribility when a local gospel choir took the stage. The crowd (probably around 1,500) went nuts as they sang about how God had changed their lives. Pretty amazing. He went on to discuss, with the help of his team, the 5 key attributes of creativity and inspiribility: Collaborate, Clarify, Challenge, Commit, Delight. For more information on each see these notes.
Overall, it was a great trip. After the conference a few of us went out to Willow Creek to meet with our counter-parts. I had a great time talking with Mike Gold and learned a lot (thanks Mike!)
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