2007 Florida Creativity Weekend Schedule
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 2007 Presenters    

 
Time Title and Presenter

Description
Friday, 3/2/07

9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Optional Pre-Weekend Workshop

 

 

Adventures in Reflection: Beyond the Looking Glass
                   

 

For most of us a brief pause to look in the mirror constitutes our time for reflection. The busy pace of our lives often keeps us from slowing down, considering our experiences and making the often unexpected connections. Change that pattern during this day-long, small group experience.

  • Use tools and activities for Reflection

  • Participate in dialogues, journaling, and movement activities

  • Reflect on Kaleidoscopic Photos

  • Take your own photos and make your own Kaleidoscopic Photo to take home

  • Learn from Kitty and a National Geographic photographer how to expand your creativity in every walk of life

Requirements: A willingness to slow down for a day; an openness to yourself and others; Curiosity of the world around you; A sense of wonder or wondering OR at least wondering what it's all about. Please bring your digital camera if you have one.
 

5:00 - 9:00 p.m.

 Florida Creativity Weekend Begins

Registration, Round Table Exchanges, Munchies & Mingle
6:00 p.m. Dinner
7:00 p.m. Welcome: What is a Portal Anyway?
    
8:00 p.m. Keynote - Think Better! Unlock Your Creativity Portals
     Tim Hurson (founding partner of thinkx intellectual capital)
In this keynote address, Tim graphically demonstrates the barriers we all face in accessing and using our CQ, our creative intelligence and how to overcome them. With an energetic blend of insight and humor, Tim teaches audiences what many already know in their hearts: that creative intelligence is not only a gift given to few, but a set of skills everyone can cultivate. Whether you're a manager or an artist, whether you work alone or in a group, you'll think better and do better by learning to unlock your CQ Portal and unblock your thinking.
 

Saturday, 3/3/07

8:00 a.m.
8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Breakfast and Registration for Newcomers
 
8:15 a.m. Yoga: A Gentle Stretch for the New Day
   (Becca Tracey)

 

or Labyrinth Meditation (Joe Miguez)

 Begin the day with some simple Yoga to help focus and stretch your body and mind. No previous Yoga experience necessary. Come with an open heart and mind!
8:45 a.m. Welcome to a New Day: Brief Introductions & Overview
 		  
9:00 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. YouthWise
 

9:00 a.m. -10:30 a.m.

 Choose one workshop per session from the following offerings.

Session I - Concurrent Offerings
 
  • Exercise Balls
    Dr. Tamara Logan

     
 Unlock blockages and release creative energy through movement. Experience the ease and exhilaration of exercise balls. These are not only good for you - they are great fun!
 
 

  • Power Convergence
           Paul Groncki
     

 Do you find the brainstorming and divergent thinking parts of the creative solving problem process the most fun and rewarding? But do you often feel frustrated and let down when trying to converge all of the ideas to identify potential solutions? In this highly interactive session, you will learn how to make converging fun, make converging easy, and identify the most promising ideas. You'll be amazed at the creative power of Paul's converging techniques. And you'll be amazed at how much you enjoy using them.
 
 
  • Discovering in Another World
        Win Wenger
     
 Explore directly in another world, surprise yourself with your own observations, make useful new discoveries.  Be amazed at how rich and real this en scenario experience becomes for you. Intensely beautiful.
 
 
  • Keeping a Reflective Journal
            Alison Strickland
     
 Through the ages creative people have kept journals where they captured experiences, searched for insights and developed ideas. You too can use journal keeping to unravel confusions, make new connections and enhance your growth and creativity. Join us whether you want to begin keeping a journal or expand your journaling practice. Either way you will learn practical writing strategies that will help you think and write more creatively.
 
 
  • E-Creativity
         Marcia Berkey
 Technology is impossible to keep up with but exciting to try. This hands-on-workshop in the computer lab will explore digital mindmapping, creative expression using computers, podcasting and more. Come and explore easy techniques that you can use.
 
 
  • Active Teaching
         Carla Gull
 Come ready to get out of your seat and participate in more interactive approaches to use in your varied teaching opportunities. We'll interact with the theories behind this learning movement, benefits of active learning, some basic approaches, quick try-it-on-Monday ideas, and pitfalls to avoid.
 
10:30 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. Session II - Concurrent Offerings - choose one
 
 
  • Story Telling
            Alan Black
     

Once Upon a Time on a Dark Night and Stormy Night

Each life is filled with stories whether at work or with our family and friends.  From our life stories come our skills, our creativity, our successes.  This session has been designed to help the participants discover how to design, create, write and re-write stories in their lives to use them as tools in problem solving and learning.    
Learning Objectives:

  • participants will learn 6 to 12 ways of creating stories for writing and telling

  • participants will learn 7 to 13 ways to use storywriting and storytelling in problem solving
  • participants will experience the use of story creating and telling to expand their creativity and creative thinking skills
     
 
  • Do You Sudoku, Can Yu Kakuro?
        Susan Wenger
     
 Learn how to solve the newest craze puzzles sweeping the world; sudoku, kakuro, samurai and killer sudokus.  The puzzles, the pencils and most importantly, the erasers and ways to solve them will be provided.  This activity uses a different part of your brain from day-to-day activities, and pole-bridges between numeracy and creativity.  Restimulate that part of the brain that was active when you learned to count.
 
 
  • Imaginarium
            Jane Goldwasser and Missy Goldwasser Carvin

This is a workshop for adults who work with kids. Whether as a teacher, Scout leader, or a mentor in a religious or social setting, Imaginarium will help you find ways to allow the natural creativity inherent in all of us bring joy and energy to the kids you work with (and you, too!). Learn the rules of creativity and how to apply them through various types of creative exercises.
 
 
  • Applying Creativity to Relationships
           Christina Gonzalez
  So, I can figure out 100 ways to use a paperclip, but what am I supposed to do with my husband? (Kids, Friend, Mother, other meaningful relationships). At the end of the day, sometimes it doesn't matter HOW much we might have used creative thinking and creative problem solving techniques if we return home to the same old arguments, problems and feelings of being "stuck" at home and in our personal lives. Participants will explore CPS Techniques to learn to recognize and reduce blocks to interpersonal relationships, apply core concepts of creative thinking to interpersonal relationships, and identify ways to apply divergent and convergent thinking tools and CPS processes to creative exciting new ways of relating in interpersonal relationships. These techniques can apply to couples, children, parents, families in general and even in the "created" families and social networks that we grow around us.
 
 
  • How Not to Listen
       Tim Hurson
How do you not listen? Are you a competitor, a caretaker, a zoneout? Learn to recognize your own nonlistening style. Discover the deadly enemy of nonlistening. Explore how even the briefest flirtation with it can undermine your nonlistening skills. By the end of this session you'll develop a new perspective on how not to listen. And you can extend this perspective beyond the auditory into other nonsenses: nonseeing, nonsmelling, nontasting, nontouching and, of course, thinking... the ultimate nonsense!
 
   
12:15 p.m. Lunch
1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Creativity Tools - A SWAP Meet (Everyone may attend 2)
 
  • Approaching Learning Through Art: Postcards from The Edge - Nancy Myers
  • Cartooning - Alan Black
  • Debriefing/Follow Up- Kitty Heusner
  • Centering/Relaxation - Becca Tracey
  • Music as a Learning Tool - Anthony Hyatt
  • Labyrinth - Joe Miguez
  • Graphics Facilitation - Brandy Agerbeck
2:45 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. Session III - Concurrent Offerings
 
  • The Epistomological Romp Way to Solve Problems
           Win Wenger
     
 YOUR answer to what is real and what is not and how we can tell, sets the limits on what you can think and perceive as to possible answers to problems.  Turn your mental kaleidoscope with us and discover whole new fresh worlds of experience and effective answers and solutions.  The process itself appears to satisfy some remarkably deep hungers within us all.
 
 
  • Speaking Without Words
            Alan Black
     

Do you think in actions, movements, body language? Can you communicate without using spoken words?  Do you want to explore immediate creativity?  Then this session focused on non-verbal creativity is for you. Participants will gain:

  • Awareness that they can creatively communicate without spoken words
  • A few basic improv acting skills
  • Techniques for telling silent stories
  • Ways to make their future creative thoughts visual without words or drawings
     
 
  • The LAb-yrinth: a tool for accelerating the creative/innovative process
        Joe Miguez
     

The Lab-yrinth is a contextually, wholistic/ gestalt field that engages the visual, auditory and kinesthetic senses in the creative/ innovative process. The pattern and iterating movement of the LAb-yrinth accelerates and encourages a deference of judgment and "Letting Go," of assumptions to sense anew from multi perspectives. This creates the possibility of possibilities, enabling deep fundamentals, new thinking, new ideas and perspectives to emerge.
     The LAb-yrinth brings to the forefront that the creative/innovative process are one in the same; a dynamically unfolding process into the future. Come and immerse your IdEA and yourself in the journey.
 
 
  • Creative Expression and Healthy Aging
            Anthony Hyatt
     

There is good news:  Qualitative research now shows that involvement in artistic activities can positively affect our health no matter how old we are.  Along with that there is a positive and important shift happening in society's perception and valuation of the creative resource found in our elders.  This session will explore methodologies for seniors and the people who love them to unlock the treasure chest of creativity and insight gained by elder adults through their years of living.  Our discussion will be informed by the screening of a short and inspiring video about the Quicksilver senior citizen improv dance company.  There also will be an opportunity to participate in a gentle creative movement activity which is fun for people of all ages.  Come join us to: 

  • Enhance your appreciation of the value of each individual's creativity regardless of their age, background, or experience level.
  • Learn about some important and rarely discussed survival skills which you can practice at home.
  • Increase awareness of opportunities to enhance health, self-worth and joy through lifelong nurture of the muse.
  Diversity Game
    Ted Coulson
 

      To be more creative and innovative, we must think differently—individually and collectively.  Understanding the richness of mental diversity can help us do that.  First we must understand our own mental preferences and the strengths and blind spots that they bring us.  Then we can purposefully use our gifts and compensate for our blind spots.  Next we must understand and appreciate the strengths and blind spots of those we work with so that mental diversity becomes a source of strength and creative synergy instead of misunderstanding and conflict.

      Ted Coulson will lead you through an interactive, involving session that explores mental diversity and how you can use it to enhance creativity in yourself and your organizations.  You’ll leave understanding how your thinking style preferences can enhance your creativity and you'll also discover ways to work effectively with those who think differently.

 
4:30 p.m.
  • RED ZEBRA
       

Integrated Insights Through Rhythm and Creativity
Translate the creative energy of the weekend into expressive sound!  Join RedZebra for an interactive, rhythmic experience and be invigorated by the pulse of collective harmony!  Musical tools will be provided, no previous experience necessary, just a willingness to have fun!  Chick-a-boom!
 
6:00 p.m. Optional Activities or Explore Sarasota on Your Own
 
Sunday, 3/4/07 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 Noon
8:00 a.m. Breakfast
8:15 a.m. Yoga: A Gentle Stretch for the New Day
or Labyrinth Meditation
  		Begin the day with some simple Yoga to help focus and stretch your body and mind. No previous Yoga experience necessary. Come with an open heart and mind!
 
9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Hands On/Minds On Session Choices
 
  • Copper Wire Expression: A Sculpting Experience
            Marcia Schulte
Copper Wire Expression will be a fun experience for either experienced artists or novices. Using wire as a medium, we will create three-dimensional "sketches" that can be representational, abstract, or a flight of fantasy.  The main idea will be to express a feeling or mood. Many find that their work is quite playful. We'll have beads and some found objects to add. The goal is to have each participant go home with a finished wire sculpture that is 6-12 inches tall that they can enjoy and be proud of.
 
 
  • You are the Colours You Choose
        Diane Kirchin
 In this session on Aura Soma, participants will explore the meaning of colours, our reactions to them, and the power of colour in our lives, how colour influences our buying responses, and why our favorite colour isn't always our favorite colour. Colours will be chosen by each person from over a hundred different combinations presented. These choices reflect our being's needs and these will be discussed as they affect the different levels of our being: spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical. These interactions will explore the many enchanting meanings of colour and will be fun for all who attend.
 
 
  • Restoring the Environment: A Combination of Art and Science (an outside experience)
            Russ Hoffman
     

This outdoor session will explore the GS Program Center site with its swamp and wetlands and observe firsthand the progress being made to restore this site to environmental good health.  According to Russ, the session leader, Such efforts are a combination of art and science. As you explore this specific site, you can also gain ideas about ways you might restore other environments in your own neighborhoods.
 
 
  • Wind Chimes
            Connie Howard
     

Create your own wind chime masterpieces that reflect your personality. We will be catching the wind and light for reflections.
 
 
  • RedZebra

Re-Sounding the Voice of Communication
     What can the universal language of music teach us about communication? Creating meaningful music is not so much about skill as about active listening and a commitment to expressive personal contribution, just as successful conversation is not so much about the amount of words as about the commitment of participants to hear and understand. 
      This workshop will guide you towards discovering your unique note and its invaluable contribution to the harmony of the larger group, while emphasizing the importance of acknowledging and celebrating every individual.
      Discovering that expression through music is a metaphor for voice will bring to life new avenues of creativity, as well as insights into effective team cohesion, broadening your sense of the art of communication.  Join us in finding insights through rhythm.  No previous musical experience required. 

11:15 a.m. Closing Session:
 
12:00 Noon Lunch (Packed to Go!)