Ideation: Creating anything from nothing
Purpose:
Teach the dark art of concept development to people who aren’t naturally that way inclined or who have had any creative fire extinguished since childhood.
Format: Workshop, Conference or Course
Category: Dark Arts
Themes: Creativity, Conceptualising, Teamwork
Capability Gaps addressed:
a) Self-criticism (understanding good v bad idea).
b) Ability to see the bigger picture.
c) Freedom to play, explore, build on ideas.
d) Appreciation of non-obvious talents.
The Business case:
a) Increased engagement in business outcomes.
b) In-house innovation.
c) Unlock untapped potential.
d) All of the above helps productivity.
The (slow) elevator pitch:
Depending on your constitution, the word ‘brainstorming’ will either make you sweat, roll your eyes or spontaneously lose your breakfast. It can be one of the most cringeworthy, frustrating and self-defeating process ever imagined - but only if you do wrong.
Ideas are the lifeblood of industry. They help keep things fresh. They stress-test stuffy thinking. But best of all, great ideas make a real impact. They can appear out of the blue as if by magic and often disappear just as quickly.
In this course we will dive into concept development and swim through the waters of ideation up to the point of execution. You’ll learn how to self-evaluate and build on thoughts then turn them into shareable concepts that others can get behind. Taught by experienced, award-winning commercial creative practitioners who have helped advertising’s sharpest minds hone their concept development skills.
Potentially Asked Questions:
What exactly is “ideation”?
It’s one of those awful modernisms that acts as a shortcut for a four or five word explanation. Like how ‘learnings’ means ‘things we have just recently been made aware of’. In this case, ideation is short for ‘using our brains to come up with ideas’. It’s not as scary as it sounds if you’re in the right hands.
I don’t know… it sounds a bit… dark artsy?
That’s more of a comment, but since it comes with a question mark we’ll accept it as a question. Yes, ideation, or whatever you want to call it, is one of the Dark Arts of Advertising. Think of this stream as your own special episode of Magicians’ Secrets Revealed.
But we’re logical ‘left-brained’ thinkers.
Great. Some of the best creative people are. It’s not about how your brain is wired, it’s about knowing the fundamentals behind putting two and two together to make a different kind of four. So if you don’t have a natural predisposition to creativity, then this stream is perfect for you.
What outcomes will we, as a team, get from this?
As a bare minimum you’ll gain an understanding of the underlying principles and how to use them. Hopefully, this will pave the way for some revelations and personal epiphanies on they way to a reset towards a more inspired workforce.
Who is this topic aimed at?
Any modern workplace containing people. If that sounds disconcertingly vague or unhelpfully broad, it’s an unfortunate reality of the current state of things. There’s a general collective fugue about the place at the moment, and We Have Ways to help shake it off. So, yes, this topic is aimed at everyone.
Will this make brainstorms less painful in future?
That’s the plan. We can’t guarantee it, obviously. But we will say that if someone who has attended this makes a brainstorming session painful in future they’re probably doing it on purpose.
Want to know more?
Ping us your details and we’ll be in touch ASAP.