4A's CreateTech: Innovation, Diversity, and Creativity
On the morning of the 4A’s CreateTech Conference,
I was buzzing with nervous energy. Cliché, I know, but how else would you describe a person who spent forty minutes going through a bunch of outfits that were too professional or too causal only to settle on an outfit that wasn’t too professional or too casual? But, as I was saying, I was buzzing with nervous energy, yet underneath all of my nerves was excitement—maybe a little too much excitement. When I showed up to the venue at 7:30, I expected to see a long line filled with equally excited industry professionals, instead what I found was a room filled with event coordinators who quickly told me that I was the first person to arrive.
So, I waited—luckily not too long.
Half an hour later, the excited industry professionals that I was expecting to see quickly began to fill up the room. Of course, the first thing I noticed was that I spent forty minutes obsessing over my outfit for nothing. The second thing I noticed was that I wouldn’t simply blend into the crowd; apparently, the Mix & Mentor event from my first semester at BIC was preparing me for the “real world” because the third thing I noticed was that networking really is a big deal in the advertising industry. I met a handful of people who were eager to tell me what they did for a living and were equally as interested in learning what I did for a living and how I ended up at the 4A’s CreateTech Conference. And even though I generally dread the thought of meeting new people and shy away from small talk, the easy-going atmosphere quickly calmed my nerves.
I was buzzing with nervous energy. Cliché, I know, but how else would you describe a person who spent forty minutes going through a bunch of outfits that were too professional or too causal only to settle on an outfit that wasn’t too professional or too casual? But, as I was saying, I was buzzing with nervous energy, yet underneath all of my nerves was excitement—maybe a little too much excitement. When I showed up to the venue at 7:30, I expected to see a long line filled with equally excited industry professionals, instead what I found was a room filled with event coordinators who quickly told me that I was the first person to arrive.
So, I waited—luckily not too long.
Half an hour later, the excited industry professionals that I was expecting to see quickly began to fill up the room. Of course, the first thing I noticed was that I spent forty minutes obsessing over my outfit for nothing. The second thing I noticed was that I wouldn’t simply blend into the crowd; apparently, the Mix & Mentor event from my first semester at BIC was preparing me for the “real world” because the third thing I noticed was that networking really is a big deal in the advertising industry. I met a handful of people who were eager to tell me what they did for a living and were equally as interested in learning what I did for a living and how I ended up at the 4A’s CreateTech Conference. And even though I generally dread the thought of meeting new people and shy away from small talk, the easy-going atmosphere quickly calmed my nerves.
By the time the conference started, I was curious to see what else was in store, and spoiler alert, I wasn’t disappointed. Not even when the emcees, Tim Leake and Charlie Oliver, asked everyone in the room to find new seats. Annoying, I know, but they had a great reason for it. You see, before they asked everyone give up their nice, warm, comfortable seat and pick up their laptops, cellphone, notepads, and pens that were neatly placed on the table, they were talking about change and much to my delight, dropping gems.
One of those gems was that, as marketers, one of our roles is to be a change agent within our organization, and we can’t be a change agent and ask people to do things that are uncomfortable if we hate change. And when they put it that way, I definitely couldn’t argue with them.
Once everyone was in their new, less warm, but equally comfortable seat, Tim and Charlie introduced the first speaker of the day, Dr. Kumar Mehta, founder of an innovation think tank and author of "The Innovation Biome."
Two words in my last sentence can easily summarize what Dr. Kumar’s session was about, you guessed it, innovation and how it’s contributed to the success of billion-dollar organizations like Amazon and Apple. And being that innovation seems to be one of the main ingredients in the secret sauce to Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs’ success, you would think that more companies or people, in general, would strive to be more innovative. But sadly, that’s not the case.
In fact, during his twenty-minute speech, Dr. Kumar said, “the number one barrier to innovation is another person squashing the idea.” So basically, the world would have a lot more Jeff Bezos’ and Steve Jobs if more people learned to say yes. This insight is one of the reasons why Dr. Kumar created the innovation biome—a sustained business environment where everyone can innovate. He believes that people thrive in the innovation biome because they “use things that are already there.” An example he gave that is similar to this process is Amazon; one of their philosophies is that everyone can create, regardless of their position in the organization. If they have an idea, it has to meet two requirements:
I love that Dr. Kumar put so much emphasis on the importance of saying yes because when most people hear the word innovation they immediately focus on big ideas, but big ideas are nothing if you don’t have someone who believes in it and helps drive that idea forward.
Two words in my last sentence can easily summarize what Dr. Kumar’s session was about, you guessed it, innovation and how it’s contributed to the success of billion-dollar organizations like Amazon and Apple. And being that innovation seems to be one of the main ingredients in the secret sauce to Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs’ success, you would think that more companies or people, in general, would strive to be more innovative. But sadly, that’s not the case.
In fact, during his twenty-minute speech, Dr. Kumar said, “the number one barrier to innovation is another person squashing the idea.” So basically, the world would have a lot more Jeff Bezos’ and Steve Jobs if more people learned to say yes. This insight is one of the reasons why Dr. Kumar created the innovation biome—a sustained business environment where everyone can innovate. He believes that people thrive in the innovation biome because they “use things that are already there.” An example he gave that is similar to this process is Amazon; one of their philosophies is that everyone can create, regardless of their position in the organization. If they have an idea, it has to meet two requirements:
- Potential: the ability to come up with something new
- Achievement: the ability to follow through
I love that Dr. Kumar put so much emphasis on the importance of saying yes because when most people hear the word innovation they immediately focus on big ideas, but big ideas are nothing if you don’t have someone who believes in it and helps drive that idea forward.
The sessions at CreateTech Conference touched on a lot of themes, and another one that stood out to me was diversity. It's an issue that's been touched on a lot in the advertising industry; everyday it seems like yet another brand is in trouble for putting out a culturally insensitive ad. So, when I come across companies that, one, use their platform to speake to to importance of diversity, and, two, accurately represent and shed light on issues affecting minorities, particularly women of color, I get excited.
And lucky for me, such a company was at the conference. That company is Hyphen-Labs and their director, Ashely Baccus-Clark, used her twenty minutes to talk about the NueroSpeculative AfroFeminism (NASF), which is a three-part project that was inspired by the deaths of Philandro Castile and Alton Sterling. The project has inventions like electrodes inspired by Octavia Butler, Ruby Cam door knocker earrings that discreetly launch a video recording at the touch of a button, the hyper-face anti-surveillance scarf that disables face recognition software, and much more.
Another fascinating thing about these products is that the electrodes send electric currents to stimulate regions in the brain and alleviate depression and anxiety.
I can go on and on about how amazing the NASF is, but I’ll end with this quote that sums up its awesomeness, “technology does not need more futurism; it needs to solve problems and build better versions of tomorrow.” Ashely and her team (of women) at Hyphen-Labs are definitely working toward solving problems and building better tomorrows.
And lucky for me, such a company was at the conference. That company is Hyphen-Labs and their director, Ashely Baccus-Clark, used her twenty minutes to talk about the NueroSpeculative AfroFeminism (NASF), which is a three-part project that was inspired by the deaths of Philandro Castile and Alton Sterling. The project has inventions like electrodes inspired by Octavia Butler, Ruby Cam door knocker earrings that discreetly launch a video recording at the touch of a button, the hyper-face anti-surveillance scarf that disables face recognition software, and much more.
Another fascinating thing about these products is that the electrodes send electric currents to stimulate regions in the brain and alleviate depression and anxiety.
I can go on and on about how amazing the NASF is, but I’ll end with this quote that sums up its awesomeness, “technology does not need more futurism; it needs to solve problems and build better versions of tomorrow.” Ashely and her team (of women) at Hyphen-Labs are definitely working toward solving problems and building better tomorrows.
And like they say, I saved the best (or in this case, my favorite) for last--the Creative Dim Sum workshop.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to eat dumplings, but I got to be a part of a collaborative method developed by Technology, Humans, and Taste (THAT). For this process, Nathan Phillips, the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at THAT, gave everyone in the workshop two post-it notes and asked us to come up with one truth and one problem in about twenty seconds. And once those seconds are up, we switched papers.
Scary right?
But the good thing about swithing post-its is that it made the process compelety annonymous, so no one knew whose truth or problem they ended up with.
But, back to the process.
Once we received our new problem and truth, Nathan gave us about five minutes to come up with a solution, budget, and a collaborator.
Crazy I know!
What’s even more crazy is that I knew the workshop challenge my creative thinking what I didn’t know, however, was that it would bring me closer to God because, man, did I pray!
Every time Nathan walked to the front of the room, I prayed that he wouldn’t choose my less than stellar idea and make me share it with the rest of the room. And I guess I prayed hard enough because I made it through the workshop without sharing my idea.
But, nerves aside, the workshop was a fantastic experience! And even though the process seemed crazy, at the time, somehow our ideas (even terrible ones) came together in the end.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to eat dumplings, but I got to be a part of a collaborative method developed by Technology, Humans, and Taste (THAT). For this process, Nathan Phillips, the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at THAT, gave everyone in the workshop two post-it notes and asked us to come up with one truth and one problem in about twenty seconds. And once those seconds are up, we switched papers.
Scary right?
But the good thing about swithing post-its is that it made the process compelety annonymous, so no one knew whose truth or problem they ended up with.
But, back to the process.
Once we received our new problem and truth, Nathan gave us about five minutes to come up with a solution, budget, and a collaborator.
Crazy I know!
What’s even more crazy is that I knew the workshop challenge my creative thinking what I didn’t know, however, was that it would bring me closer to God because, man, did I pray!
Every time Nathan walked to the front of the room, I prayed that he wouldn’t choose my less than stellar idea and make me share it with the rest of the room. And I guess I prayed hard enough because I made it through the workshop without sharing my idea.
But, nerves aside, the workshop was a fantastic experience! And even though the process seemed crazy, at the time, somehow our ideas (even terrible ones) came together in the end.
So, this is it, my recap of the 4A’s CreateTech Conference.
I hope you enjoyed reading about the event because I enjoyed attending.
I hope you enjoyed reading about the event because I enjoyed attending.
