BATAVIA — The Third Annual Creativity Conference will take place from 8:15 a.m. – 4 p.m. Wednesday at Genesee Community College’s Conable Technology Building, One College Road.
The conference, coordinated by Dr. Lina LaMattina, GCC’s director of Business Programs, will continue to explore and support the development of the number one skill needed in every workplace today: creative thinking. The featured keynote address will be given by Sandra Turner, CEO of Viggi Kids, a business dedicated to the “whole child approach” that is based on design thinking in the creation of stimulating play environments. She will present a creative approach to design thinking, the focus of this year’s event.
Featuring more than 15 notable professionals in creative thinking, participants can select from a number of different workshops including:
- Options Thinking: What bugs you at work? Consultant and former GCC Business Professor Barb Shine will host a session that develops and uses creative problem solving tools to help you rethink your everyday work.
- Design Thinking Strategies in the Classroom: Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Professor Carol Filip and Associate Professor Lorrie Frear highlight the structure of an innovative course which prepares students for the demands of their final year of undergraduate study in their major. The course focuses on design thinking strategies, research methods, web, advanced technologies, social media, collaborative work strategies and presentation methods, including face-to-face classroom encounters as well as online work such as blogs and chat groups.
- Design Thinking Process as a Method for Supporting Innovation: Design thinking is a formal method to solve complex problems and find creative solutions with the intent of an improved future result. Greece Central School District faculty members Kathy Richardson, Keena Smith and Bradley Fiege will share intentional and collaborative protocols that will solicit ideas and a new framework for thinking in a different way to empower educators and students to creative impactful solutions for complex challenges.
- Innovation Lab at Alden High School: Jenna Ziegler, Alden High School faculty member, will demonstrate how to encourage and support divergent thinking skills in students through any content area by making shifts in perspective, using open language and valuing incubation in various thinking processes.
- Personal Reinvention: Are you looking to make a career change or explore new work challenges? Are you planning to work longer before retirement than you originally thought, but hoping to do something different during that time? Marian Arbesman, author and consultant, will help you clarify what you are looking for in a job change and come up with creative ways to achieve your goals.
- Design Exploration in Motion: Join GCC Professor of Business and Computer Information Systems Donna Ehrhart and learn how to make a project or an idea a reality by putting cost effective, time saving and aesthetically pleasing tasks into motion. Create your own checklist process.
Participants can also visit with current GCC students, who will be hosting a number of tables exhibiting some of the core concepts of creativity including:
- Why study creativity?
- How to think outside the box.
- What are the blocks and barriers to creativity and how to overcome them.
- What are the characteristics of a creative person?
- The importance of “dynamic balance” to the process of solving difficult problems
- The importance of creativity in the classroom, and much more!
The one-day conference is designed to help people reach their potential by improving their ability to think and solve problems creatively and innovatively. The cost for the day is $99, which includes a continental breakfast, lunch and afternoon refreshment, as well as all conference materials. Seating is limited!
Register today online at http://www.genesee.edu/events/creativity-conference/.
For more information, contact Associate Director of Marketing and Communications Donna Rae Sutherland at (585) 343-0005 ext. 6616 or via email dsutherland@genesee.edu.
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