The whole idea of Innovation Camp was learning by practicing techniques to generate new ideas and expanding upon those ideas in order to accomplish a shared goal such as creating a product or completing a challenge.
I practiced seeing opportunities and taking advantage of them through creativity and innovation exercises.
We did numerous fun activities, but here are some that really stood out:
Subtracting a feature: I had to think of an object in my living room then subtract one feature or attribute from it i.e. wood burning stove. I had to think of as many uses as possible for my new product i.e. a wood 'less' stove. Some ideas generated were; a fish tank, a place to put plants and a water barrel concept. The objective was to practice a counter-intuitive route to creating a new product.
Another exercise we did was to solve a problem with a random object: I wrote down a problem I had as well as a random object in my home or office. Then as a group we had to create a way to solve that problem using that object. The problem I had was being too busy and my object was my dog, Goose. One of the solutions was to hire a dog-sitter to take Goose on walks so I could have time to focus on other tasks. The objective was to look at obstacles in my life from a new perspective and connecting unrelated concepts.
We also had a discussion "Why is failure an important part of the learning process?"
Everyone seemed to come to the same conclusions; to see failure as a positive learning experience; failure is just information; it's taking a risk, stretching your abilities; it offers learning opportunities; forces us to re-evaluate goals and priorities; it's a sign that you have taken on challenges that expand your skills.
Lastly we had to work in teams to make as much money as possible starting with $5.00 between 11:00 am and 6:00 pm.
Our team, created a local ‘Twitter’ promotion to highlight businesses in Gastown. We took a picture of their business, added a message about their company and a website link to our group of 2000 followers, in turn they had to donate money.
I practiced seeing opportunities and taking advantage of them through creativity and innovation exercises.
We did numerous fun activities, but here are some that really stood out:
Subtracting a feature: I had to think of an object in my living room then subtract one feature or attribute from it i.e. wood burning stove. I had to think of as many uses as possible for my new product i.e. a wood 'less' stove. Some ideas generated were; a fish tank, a place to put plants and a water barrel concept. The objective was to practice a counter-intuitive route to creating a new product.
Another exercise we did was to solve a problem with a random object: I wrote down a problem I had as well as a random object in my home or office. Then as a group we had to create a way to solve that problem using that object. The problem I had was being too busy and my object was my dog, Goose. One of the solutions was to hire a dog-sitter to take Goose on walks so I could have time to focus on other tasks. The objective was to look at obstacles in my life from a new perspective and connecting unrelated concepts.
We also had a discussion "Why is failure an important part of the learning process?"
Everyone seemed to come to the same conclusions; to see failure as a positive learning experience; failure is just information; it's taking a risk, stretching your abilities; it offers learning opportunities; forces us to re-evaluate goals and priorities; it's a sign that you have taken on challenges that expand your skills.
Lastly we had to work in teams to make as much money as possible starting with $5.00 between 11:00 am and 6:00 pm.
Our team, created a local ‘Twitter’ promotion to highlight businesses in Gastown. We took a picture of their business, added a message about their company and a website link to our group of 2000 followers, in turn they had to donate money.
At the end of all this teams combined raised funds that equaled to $5000.00, we donated this to the Vancouver Food Bank.
Read post here.
It was a pretty amazing week, I felt really re-charged and excited of all the opportunities out there for me.