22nd June 2012 – Jerome Lau
HOW Now!
Months of anticipation and planning, the 8 Splashees finally came to beautiful Boston for the HOW Design Conference 2012. Stepping into the Hynes Convention Center, we immediately felt the electrifying atmosphere in the air. The center was packed with designers from all over the world (though more than 90% are Americans) and exhibitors lined up along the main hallway were thrusting freebies into the faces of people walking past. One even dangled a new iPad as a lucky draw prize!
After collecting our show passes, we hurried to our first workshop of the conference like freshmen in school. Terry, Brice and I attended the “From Passion to Profits” workshop and Stanley, Farid, Cai Ling and Shijin went for the highly-charged “Effective Brainstorming” workshop.
Passion to Profits
It was a self-discovery journey though the title suggested otherwise (think ka-ching! $$$). It was not just about the goal of seeking profits and abundance in life, it was about understanding what you really really want in life as an individual/ business and the journey you have to take to get there. Coach Peleg Top shared some of his insights on this journey and he broke it down into 6 parts – Desire, Purpose, Service, Benefits, Market & Value. What do they mean and how do you apply it to yourself? Email me and I’ll be glad to share more.
Ideas at the speed of lightning!
The creative quartet, Stan, Farid, Cai Ling and Shijin, had one of the most fun creative jamming session ever. 3 ideas in a week? A good idea the next day? How about 100 ideas in 10 minutes!!! As David Kelly, Tom Monahan and some of the leading creative gurus are saying, if you want great ideas, you will need a hundred ideas. An idea is an idea, there is no lousy idea. Let’s look forward to the next creative jamming session in Splash. I guarantee that sparks will fly.
Fighting the “Z” monster
Lunch was wonderful but it was also an invitation to Mr “Zzz”. The afternoon workshop on “Strategy as part of design process” flew past. Not because we dozed off, but because it was uneventful. The case study-based workshop didn’t inspire and in fact backfired on achieving the learning objectives. We managed to have one takeaway and some valuable interaction with fellow attendees.
Choices, planes, balls
The opening keynote raddress was like a high school rock concert. The speech was about making choices in life and acknowledging one’s unique individuality yet we threw inspirational paper planes, shredded and threw our excuses in the air, recite motivational self declarations and bounced giant colourful beach balls in the air. It was entertaining and interesting though I can’t say I was as pumped up as some of the other attendees.
Eat, Beer, Sleep!
End of day one and a Boston lager later, we made our way back to the hotel. Splashees are back in bed and ready to soak in more stuff on day two.
