Can you learn to be more creative? Or perhaps creativity is not learned but just buried and we need to practice it. In either case, I’ve recently been attempting to search for these answers and “exercise my creativity.” I want to seek inspiration from others by putting myself in creative environments and learning from passionate people.
I went to my first Pecha Kucha night in Columbus this week. Basically the speaker has 20 slides that rotate every 20 seconds for a 6 minute, 40 second presentation. I’m not sure how the selection process works but anyone is welcome to submit an idea online before the event. This Peacha Kucha was held at the OSU Urban Arts Space featuring 10 presenters.
The talks ranged from topics including drawing comic books and creating a font to questions asked at the Columbus library and Ohio wines. A new friend Rhoda Lazo gave a wonderful presentation on starting her non-profit, Little and LOUD. She focused on her personal journey and what it means to search for your life purpose. Check out the video here.
Another creative hub you may be familiar with is TED. I had watched many of the online videos before but I confess that it wasn’t until this past fall I was introduced to TEDx (independently organized TED talks). Columbus hosted a TEDx in October with some great speakers. I’m also going to TEDx Cleveland in a couple weeks. I love the combination of creativity and big picture thinking so many of the speakers express.
I was really blown away by the creativity and passion from the speakers and organizers at the Alleviating Poverty Through Entrepreneurship (APTE) Summit last Friday, hosted by the OSU Fisher College of Business. If you want to meet a group of driven individuals look no further. I felt like I had stumbled upon some best kept secret in Columbus. It made me question some of my own personal career goals, wondering if I have a calling to social entrepreneurship myself.
I was very interested in particular by an organization called Ashoka (something new to me at this conference). It’s a global organization that assists social entrepreneurs in their endeavors. According to their site, since 1981 Ashoka has elected more than 2,000 fellows. They provide these social entrepreneurs with living stipends, professional support and access to a global network of peers in over 60 countries.
All of these events were amazing but I don’t want to give you the impression that I think you can acquire creativity by standing next to someone. However, there is definitely something important about surrounding yourself with creative thinkers. Sharing ideas out loud and starting conversations can help develop your own thoughts.
How do you seek creativity?
Hannah DeMilta 
Hannah, I definitely know what you mean by wanting to surrounding yourself by creativity in hopes that it might rub off on you 🙂 I’ve only been to one Pecha Kucha event so far, but now I’m helping to organize the 2nd event here in Raleigh and attending the TEDxTriangle, Ignite Raleigh, and Fizzled Durham events all happening in March. I think these creativity/idea sharing events are becoming quite popular quite quickly.
I can’t wait to see what comes out of the all the events in March!
That’s awesome Carlee – I hope you have a chance to blog and share about your experiences with all those events. I haven’t been to an Ignite yet, but that’s on my list. The next one here is schedule for June!
Since graduating college I’ve really struggled to surround myself with creative people. There are several factors involved: Doing my best to manage transition between college and career (including city change, more responsibility, new job, adapting to workplace setting vs. classroom)
I think my point is that I’m still outside my comfort zone in many aspects of my life (which is a good thing). I AM noticing slowly that I’m adapting and am starting to feel more comfortable and am now looking to bust out of that little bit of comfort and look for new challenges.
I often use social networks to develop relationships with people that I feel are creative and leverage that start the development of an off-line relationship.
@ Tyler – Thank you for the thoughts. I must confess that I first learned about most of the events in my post via social networks. It’s a great way to exchange information and seek out those creative types!