Reasons to be Creative Festival 2015 – personal impressions

WOW! What a fantastic Reasons to be Creative festival! I am back at home and still full of energy and overwhelmed by the inspirational input I got. Additionally I met so many people and made new friends across Europe. Endorphine rush galore.

The advertised slogan truly fulfilled its promise:

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Registration / Reception

Of course my impressions are insofar distorted, since I was a tiny tiny tiny part of the event – as one of the Elevator Pitch speakers, but later about that.

At first I want to emphasize the special atmosphere of the whole thing. It’s a perfect combination of a very well selected program, a beautiful venue and … John Davey, the creator and host of the festival (not to forget his wife and of course the whole crew – but John is “the face to the customer”). It is his personal presence, which creates this family/community like feeling for three days (or four ;-)). And as a good host he is the connector, whilst putting the speakers into the context of “reasons to be creative”.

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ABBA, Pink Floyd … and me have something in common. We shared the stage. Well, at least for 3 minutes 🙂

But it is of course the content that matters (at least to me) and therefore the program/selection of topics and speakers was again wisely assembled. You have always a choice between techie/creative sessions – and especially the Inspired Sessions are a happening you never ever want to miss!

My subjective, personal highlights (it’s a spontaneously generated list, so it might refer to a certain kind of priority):

 

Dominic Wilcox, Idea Hunter

Why: “I’ve convinced myself that inside every single thing in the world there are hundreds of surprising ideas, connections and possibilities waiting to be discovered. I just need to look closer to find them”.  Introduction from his book Variations on Normal. I think that tells everything. Follow the links and dive into his uni-/micro-/metaverse.

 

Jeff Greenspan, Be your own brand
Why: I expected a “how to sell yourself” presentation – maybe a bit cheesy – but I was totally wrong. The session was an insightful talk about the way Jeff developed as a person and how his job titles changed – and especially I liked the narrative of the “comma”. You grow as you do you evolve, and nothing is sure but doing “it”. Success is not guaranteed, so you have to do “it” (your project, idea, vision, …). Just ASK. Good message and very good pieces playing with social hacking. I especially liked the Edward Snowden monument and the story behind it.

 

Evan Roth, The Art of Misuse
Why: It was fascinating to see him speaking with so much passion, personal openness and a honest portion of self irony about his projects, developments and intimate thoughts on the journey to himself. And by the way (and that’s what I love about this festival), I of course have seen already one of his early works:

Further more I liked this idea (and many more):

And here the link to an non-self explanatory presentation: http://www.evan-roth.com/presentations/brighton-2015/ – thx Chris for sharing!

 

My fav technical sessions:

 

David Lenaerts, A Peek at the Future of 3D on the Web
Why: It was very cool to learn about the current trends in 3D programming, covering a wide variety of sub topics like rendering methods, shading, smoke simulation, etc. Besides the technical explanations, which were pretty cool explained so that one could follow the conclusion, he gave insights into matters like the biological constraints, our perception system and what is “good enough”. The Porsche 911 web special is top nudge. Kudos again.

Martin Beepy, The Hitchhikers Guide to JavaScript Futures
Why: A real techie session – I guess I got about 62.41% of the message. A cool guy from Microsoft (yes – I know, but they exist!). I was quite amused to witness, how he at first took his shoes off (is he a tree hugger?), and then a few minutes later he took his jeans off – just to reveal pyjama pants. He ended up wearing a bath robe (“Hello 42”). Hilarious – and quite logical if one considers that we were on a hitchhikers trip, looking back from the year 2020 and remembering mutually what was the hot stuff in 2015. Funny narrative, insightful, condensed message: Use Transpilers. ECMA6 rocks. Think of Javascript as the next VM of the web. #geekwithoutregret

 

Being a tiny tiny part of it – the Elevator Pitch

The gladiators on the stage.
The gladiators on the stage.

Actually one of my fellow gladiators pretty much summed it up: Thanks Geri! 🙂

I could only add my personal insight, how we somehow transformed into a group of competing fellows. It’s nice to remember how we tried to give each other a good vibe, whilst mutually being aware of this adrenalin rollercoaster thingy each of us was going through. Nevertheless – we made it. But maybe this is just the Stockholm Syndrome … Sorry for joking, could not resist  😉 – But… I hope I can speak for all of us: We learned “something”, and that is IMHO the real point about the whole experience. Therefore I can only repeat what Geri already wrote: Apply for the session!

BTW – here is my pitch, thank you Ingo!

Last but not least I want to mention:
Another aspect that I like about the festival: It’s well – very smoothly – organized. And: I am a big fan of a proper AV equipment – and this stuff is high quality. The sound system really rocks. I attended on other “conferences” and it was a pity to see/experience the bad equipment and looking at disoriented people, running around in an non personal atmosphere.

And.. we got unlimited free vegan drinks for everybody! Redbull! 😉 har, har.

Sending a virtual group hug!
See you in 2016!

 

Some basic insights, that I like to transfer to the next generation

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There are for sure many aspects of live (and philosophy) that I would like to transfer to our son. But in the moment three aspects play an important role in my current state of father-ship:

a) A german phrase, which is relatively easy to translate: “Communicating humans can be helped” (-> Sprechenden Menschen kann geholfen werden)

b) Don’t account what you miss – but be aware of what you have (what is here and now), as a resource. In other words: It is not bad to be aware of “what’s missing”. But at first start with the question: What is my initial situation? What do I have? What is the potential of the context? Do not be a master of personal “deficit management” (German: “Mangelverwaltung”). Because then one probably will end up in a loop of mental stasis, anxiety and frustration. Hope can’t be bought, but one can “earn” it by clever reflection.

c) Failing is inevitable. Perfection is abstract. It is very rare to see ones “stars/idols” failing in “public”. But they failed – gazillions times. So especially as a kid it is easy to assume that these “idols” never failed. The learning process is not necessarily obvious. Therefore keep on asking yourself : Have I learned from my “mistakes”?  Aka: By “unterstanding” the limits one could gain the power to overcome these limits. It is not guaranteed that one might achieve ones goals. but it is more likely to get closer – or even push the boundaries of ones personal system.

#intellectualintegrity #intelektuelleaufrichtigkeit #courage #learning #forgiveness #meaning