AAF-Omaha "Meet the Pros" Intro/Stephanie Jarrett
I've always had an interest in Omaha, NE. Ever since I was younger I've had this idea in my head that some day, I might like to live there. I've told this to several of my professors along the way and one of them suggested that I take the time to come down for the Meet the Pros day. So, here I am!
Today was day one of the event. It was a very long day full of very very very good speakers. My brain is almost on overload as I'm starting to wind down for the evening. I plan to post more about what I learned today in a few other posts, simply because I don't want this one to get too terribly long.
The first speaker of the day was Stephanie Jarret, co-founder of Bulu Box. Stephanie talked to us about how to execute a successful brainstorming session. I found this very informative simply because of the fact that we are doing a ton of brainstorming for the NSAC competition right now.
Stephanie said that there are two phases of brainstorming:
Divergent: she said that there are four rules to this phase of brainstorming... 1. Suspend Judgement 2. Quantity is Quality 3. Wild and Crazy Ideas 4. You must have fun
Stephanie also wanted us to get read of the old stuffy ideas and onto new innovative things. She said that the secret ingredient is stimulus.
Convergent: also has a list of four rules...
1. Define Success 2. Bucket Ideas 3. Evaluate 4. Judge respectively
She wanted us to interrogate the idea, and come up with a reason as to why it is the best idea when we finally settle on one.
Although brainstorming seems like a pretty simple thing there can be some mistakes that come along with it...
Lack of preparation. No assigned moderator or leader. Not enough time (at least an hour). Giving up at the project plateau (not following through with your ideas).
Come back tomorrow for some more posts about #AAFOmaha's #MTP2013