Marketing has partnered with the Canadian Media Directors’ Council (CMDC) and the Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA) on the ProCreate Think Camp, a one-day event dedicated to the art of creative thinking featuring some of North America’s leading creative thinkers.
Grant McCracken, a former senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School, author of the new book Culturematics and currently a research affiliate at MIT C3, will provide the day’s keynote address on “The genius of creating culture.”
McCracken has provided consultancy services to some of the world’s leading companies, including the Coca-Cola Company, Campbell Soup, Diageo, IBM and Kraft.
His keynote address will look at how agencies operating as “chief culture officers” can create new value by tracking culture with “culturematics.”
Other speakers will include Hanne Kristiansen, co-founder of Creative Creatures, which helps companies unleash their creative potential through culture change programs, experiential training sessions and hands-on innovation projects for clients including Sara Lee, Gap, Vodafone and Nestlé.
Kristiansen will speak on the “human fuel that powers creativity.”
Heather Fraser, co-founder and executive director of Rotman DesignWorks and adjunct professor of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, will speak on the topic “From great ideas to exceptional business value,” a session exploring the methodology of mashing the principles of design thinking and business strategy and offers new approaches that can help add agility to the way companies solve complex creative challenges and bring breakthrough ideas to market.
Other speakers include:
• Brainjuicer’s western region head Alex Hunt, whose expertise lies in early stage insight and idea generation
• Idit Biton, senior partner with Systematic Inventive Thinking, who will speak on “The art of systematic innovation”
• Strategicplay founder Jacqueline Lloyd Smith on “Transforming the work of creativity,” using a hands-on approach
• Leslie Ehm, president and chief fire starter at Combustion, on “The real key to igniting organizational creativity.”
“The ICA is committed to enhancing the industry’s skills in all forms of commercial creativity,” said Gillian Graham, the organization’s CEO. “We are delighted that ProCreate will contribute significantly to the industry’s evolution, to take creativity and ideation to the next level.
“The new and unique format will include hands-on sessions and keynote speakers, a new collaboration with industry partners and a fresh approach to inspiring and delivering creativity.”
Michele Pauchuk, CMDC board member and MEC Canada president, added that ProCreate is “an opportunity to grow the next generation as creative collaborators. It is imperative that we all bring our best creativity to the table as a team.
“Our clients look to us to manage their communications and this multi-discipline ‘thinkcamp’ gives us this foundation. ProCreate will teach us all how to take creativity and build value for our businesses.”
The event will take place Oct. 30 in Toronto.
