Image by Jeremy Lim.

Hello. You’ve reached THE CREATIVEMIX HOTLINE, to learn about this year’s conference please press #1.

Oh man! We’re so freakin’ excited! November 3, 2011 is the day that creativity and collaboration collide in Vancouver in the name of helping creative people gain the inspiration and insights they need to thrive as artists and services providers. This is a cross-industry, non-profit-meets-business-sector mash-up that is unparalleled in Vancouver. It’s a professional development day and a creative showcase like no other.

Back for its third year, CREATIVEMIX will be held at the Roundhouse Community Arts Centre in Yaletown and it’s going to be bigger-n-better than ever! The team behind the conference is the same but with one very special difference – the event is now proudly produced through the innovative and dynamic theatre company Boca del Lupo.

There’s a TON of info to come, including the Open Call for Submissions to have your creative project or business featured in the CREATIVE EXHIBITION and the speaker roster of course! Be sure to follow the updates on the blog, on Twitter, or Facebook.

And because it’s fun… I did want to mention something that made us smile: Anoop Aulakh (Co-Founder of QuikPiq.com, Advisor at SIFE Simon Fraser, and a cool social entrepreneur guy) had this to say about his time at CREATIVEMIX:

“CREATIVEMIX provides a new way of looking at what a conference can be. From the speakers to the delegates, CREATIVEMIX brings together people from different spaces who are clearly passionate about what they do. Looking forward to seeing what next year brings!”

Awesome.

Posted by Corwin Hiebert

A Post-it Note from the giant sticky comment wall at CREATIVEMIX 2010

The reviews are in. Here’s what people had to say about their experience at CREATIVEMIX 2010:

“CREATIVEMIX is a great place to network, get inspired and tap into the creative community in Vancouver. We had a blast and are already looking forward to next year.” – Christa LeCraw, VanArts

“Creative inspiration! It’s mishmash of fresh ideas and perspectives, good ol’ fashioned creative fun.” - Kim McMullen, Flipside Creative

“It was a well planned event that had good energy within a casual atmosphere. There were lots of people interested in what was actually happening and what people had to say rather than just passing out cards to try to make their own thing happen; people seemed to understand that sometimes it’s nice to make something new together.” – Steve Wright, Sound and Music Workshops

“Very inspirational! A great way to meet a diverse collection of people from a variety of backgrounds with common interests and inspirations. Definitely a good place to be. We need more of them – how about two or three a year?” – Sushant Sound, MetroLeap Media

“I found CREATIVEMIX a fresh approach for people who do creative work. By bringing in people of different artistic/creative disciplines it’s a great way to hear about and learn about how others work. Stimulating!” - John McLachlan

“Very interactive and the presentations give people a new perspective on ways to view and interpret new and different ideas. The speakers do a fantastic job of putting the audience in their shoes and describing how they use their creativity to achieve success in specific industries. Makes you think. Inspiring. Enough said.” – Kira Campbell

“CREATIVEMIX is innovative and unique in the way we’re encouraged to share and collaborate with other creatives and bring everybody to the same level. There is no “I’m at the top of my class and I am speaking down to you, because I know it all”. The environment is very open and driven towards personal as well as community success. I came away inspired, excited, ready to create and collaborate!” – Sharon Barnes

Ah, gee. Thanks everyone! Stay tuned for 2011 details! -Corwin & Eileen

This is the second CREATIVE TALK VIDEO from 2009. There were 11 keynote speakers at CREATIVEMIX last year this was the talk that got it all going. Enjoy and share!-Corwin Hiebert

David Aiken (AKA The Checkerboard Guy) is a comedy juggler who’s passion for being on stage has lead him to come up with creative ways to ensure that being on stage happens on a regular basis. In his CREATIVEMIX 2009 talk David spoke on Finding Convergency When Juggling Creative Ideas.

Be it in the designing and building of his shows to his pursuit of performance opportunities in various markets (everything from street performances to working with Symphony Orchestras) to how he promotes himself to these markets, creative thinking is at the heart of identifying the challenges involved and coming up with innovative solutions. So clearly we had to give this guy a mic; besides, anyone who’s been able to make a living as a juggler for 28 years must be doing something right.

One of the great things about his keynote presentation is that he kicked-off the inaugural conference. His energy and insights were a perfect fit to launch the event and to get everyone engaged with what we wanted to accomplish. You can learn more about The Checkerboard Guy at: checkerhead.com

David Aiken at CREATIVEMIX from CREATIVEMIX on Vimeo.

Now, for whatever reason, my brain got sidetracked the other day with all of the things that I HATE about events (and event-related marketing) and I went OFF on a mental tangent that produced some totally useless but funny images (at least to me, I giggled as I photoshoped). So, I’m going to call this a little window into everything that I think is sick and wrong with respect to events. Here’s some event promotion FAIL items that I’ve received in the past when attending an event, conference, or tradeshow – I thought it would be fun to stick our graphic on them; a couple at the end are just for fun – I got carried away.

Stress Squeeze Toy	Silly Putty
Logo Launcher	Game Cube
Frisbee	Credit Card
Snuggie Blanket	Pack of Smokes

Now I have to get back to work. The moral of the story is: cut out the crap.

We’re going to continue with what we did last year: keep things simple like not giving people a name badge or a printed program and making everyone use ceramic coffee cups filled with Ethical Bean Coffee – that kind of stuff. How we’re going to get people there is still being worked out. Chime in if you like.

So if you’re planning an event do the world a favour and don’t destroy the earth one tchotchke at a time. If you need gifts or giveaways for your event be smart and order it from Saul Good Gift Co.

Posted by: Corwin Hiebert [This post can also be seen on The Red Wagon Blog] ]]> http://creativemix.ca/promo-fail/feed/ 1 http://creativemix.ca/reviews/ http://creativemix.ca/reviews/#comments Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:28:32 +0000 Corwin http://creativemix.ca/?p=1449 Here’s what people had to say about their experience at CREATIVEMIX 2009:

“This was a day of mind-expanding learning experiences. I’m glad I came. Thanks!” – Mary Mahon Jones

“Working in a creative field is one thing, but learning how to connect with other creative people in other fields and getting to broaden your experiences in an overall creative community is something quite spectacular.” – Ewan Johnstone

“It is a collaboration for generating and indulging in new ideas! It is a way to connect yourself to your creative passion and with others who share it.” – Cecilia Daude

“CREATIVEMIX was an awesome mish-mash of creatives from all over Vancouver doing all sorts of things that you wouldn’t expect you could make a living doing. I got so much inspiration and I loved the approach that was taken.” – Colleen Keith

“We attended CREATIVEMIX for some “inspirational disruption” and were happy we did! It was a great reminder that as creative professionals we’re part of a vital, interesting community, and that it’s important to not only stay connected with this community, but indeed reach out to foster new relationships.” – Ryan Thompson

“Vancouver has been starved for this kind of conference that happens here and is about here. We need to stop identifying ourselves just with our amazing geography and start sharing how the creative mix of people are truly this city’s killer app.” – Darren Roberts

“The quality of speakers was impressive, the topics engaging, the organization outstanding, and registrants were taken care of at every turn. From the flowers to the fruit to the lounge, it was like you were at a friend’s house. Everything was comfortable, well thought out, and my brain is still processing the plethora of images and information. I am definitely looking forward to next year’s conference.” – Carol Fergusson

24 Hours Vancouver has published a piece on the conference (page 5) — just look for my pensive “Sssshhhhh… I’m thinking!” headshot — and it’s a great piece about the event. Terry McBride drops some very encouraging words and it really gets the vibe across.

So there it is. Creative math. 24 x 24 = October 22. Ha! I’m hilarious.

Okay, now let’s get on with it! Eileen and I have lived, breathed, and bled this thing and with one day left we can honestly say that we’re crazy-excited to see this event come to life. Bringing together Vancouver’s creatives in a “meeting of  the minds” is one of those never-quite-completed tasks, but we’re having a blast doing it! Yes, we “think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” At this point, all I can think about is the Think & Drink.

Thanks to Kristen McKenzie for writing a great article and Editor-in-chief Dean Broughton for being our champion.

Posted by: Corwin Hiebert

5 GREAT reasons to send your employee(s) to CREATIVEMIX

1. Inspiration. You need a big idea and you need it now! Your staff will hear twelve in-depth talks on the nitty gritties of creativity, inspiration, and working outside the box. Maybe they’ll just come back with exactly what you need!
   
2. New connections. Collaboration is the name of the game. It’s not just about networking and generating sales leads anymore (that’s so 1998). Your team will mix and mingle with other top creative minds, which could lead to alliances and new business in areas that may surprise you.
3. Energy booster. Are your peeps stalling on a project or stuck in a rut? Give them some positive reinforcement – this will get the wheels turning for sure.
4. Cutting edge. How cool will you be sending your staff to an ideation conference? Who does that?! You’d stand out from competitors as an innovative company doing everything you can to get the creative juices flowing.
5. It’s local. Sure, you could spend thousands sending your crew to some status-quo conference in Vegas, or wherever, but the service providers, connections, and content will all be out of context. You need to inject some “local” into your business AND you don’t have the budget to send them out of town anyway.

5 TOTALLY LAME reasons to send your employee(s) to CREATIVEMIX

1. Extra space in the office. You want to move some furniture around or practice your Rockband guitar licks without anyone around. We get it. Get rid of them for a day.
2. More coffee for you. Your tired of sharing the coffee pot. Finally. . . a day when you can make the coffee the way YOU like it!
3. Stop the whining. They are getting on your nerves. Mask your frustration with a pro-d day and enjoy some free time from all the annoying questions and complaints.
4. Exit strategy. You’re going to fire them anyway but you need some time to plan the big boot. You can’t have a war room meeting when they’re within ear shot!
5. Laundry money. When trying to balance the books you found some fiscal discrepancies. To cover your tracks you need to spend some money quick.

Please call Corwin at 604-803-2019 for more information regarding group rates.

Posted by: Eileen Rothe & Corwin Hiebert

It hasn’t exactly been all peachy keen however. I was talking about CREATIVEMIX with someone at a party last week and when I mentioned the poster they responded with: “Oh, that’s you?! I’ve seen that poster! I really liked it, in fact, I’m thinking of buying a new blender.” I guess you can’t win them all.

Anyway, if you see one of our posters do this: stop, point, and yell “What a great poster! What a cool conference! I’m going to visit double u double u double u dot creative mix dot C A right now!” You won’t look like a dork at all.

A special note for Diane Haynes: no goldfish were hurt in the making of this poster.

Posted by: Corwin Hiebert

Have you read Tribes by Seth Godin? I just finished this bite-sized book, my first by Godin, and though I’m not all that keen on the writing style (a bit too blog-ish) I do feel it was time well spent. I love to read and sometimes when things are busier than normal it’s nice to have a light book that can spark ideas, drum up good feelings, and give a little positive reinforcement along the way; Tribes did this for me.

Since starting my own event production company I’ve never been busier than this past month (Camp Moomba Yogathon & GeoWeb – just two weeks apart). The next big event on the calendar is CREATIVEMIX and I just can’t switch gears that fast (yogi-fest to geospatial uber-tech to artsy-fartsy think tank) so I needed something to ease my brain into a place where I could make that transition. I needed an exercise that would help me prepare for the next 10 weeks of planning. Ultimately I needed to focus on what truly matters when it comes to working towards CREATIVEMIX: building community.

I loved reading Tribes because it spoke directly to the unique planning effort for CREATIVEMIX (and gave me a buzz word to attach to all this work, hehe). We’re calling it Vancouver’s Ideation Conference but it is much more than a conference. The event, by its nature, requires the existence of a community – both before, during, and after October 22. In the spirit of all things Godin, it requires a tribe in order for it to be successful, to truly contribute to the lives of creative people.

The scary part is… one just can’t create a tribe. Despite all the high praise for social and viral marketing it would be foolish to think that we could spontaneously muster up a group of people that want to attend an event like this. Even if we could it’s not how we’d want it to happen – generating demand is overrated with respect to event marketing, meeting demand is vital. When Eileen and I birthed this event (read Behind it All) it came out of a desire to simply connect our creative friends together. That’s it. We’re surrounded by so many inspiring people that it felt like if we don’t do this we’ll miss out on all the fun. When we started planning CREATIVEMIX we’d talk it up with friends as well as people we had just met to see what the response would be and it was clear right from the get-go that it resonated with people (phew). Since January we’ve dedicated ourselves to the discovery of, and connection to, as many local creative leaders and tribes as possible. How fun is that?!

The result has has looked, at times, like we’re pulling together a macro-tribe, though that sounds grander than necessary, even a bit cyborg-ish, sorry. The fact of the matter is: creative people want to be around other creative people and we’re honoured to contribute to that cause. Godin says that “Tribes are about faith – about belief in an idea and in a community” and our hope is that CREATIVEMIX will be a gathering of Vancouverites who share our passion for, and dependence on, creativity, creative expression, and idea making. We want to celebrate and foster the cross-pollination of creativity. We want to see as many tribes come together as possible so that each person can take their own creativity to the next level and contribute to the growth of their own tribes.

We’re having a blast discovering all these tribes, especially the heretic leaders behind them, and we’re really excited about how this CREATIVEMIX community is coming together.

Tell us about your tribe! Okay – now it’s your turn. Our city is full of creative groups, clubs, teams, companies, meetups, projects, charities, schools, and clusters of friends that feed and grow the creative spirit in Vancouver. We want hear about them all! Leave a comment below, send us a DM (@CREATIVEMIXca), or post a comment on our Facebook Fan Page and tell us about the creative tribe(s) you lead or are a part of.

Posted by: Corwin Hiebert

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