IABC 2012 World Conference: Make a creative difference
This is a slide from Lyn Heward's closing keynote speech at IABC's World Conference in Chicago. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll post some thoughts on what I heard and what I learned.
It may seem odd that I am starting at the end, but in many ways Heward's speech was really the beginning of understanding and processing the future of communications. Her presentation summed up what the other three keynote speakers -- Kevin Carroll, Robert Kennedy Jr, and Irene Lewis -- had brought forward, each offering an approach that together gave me a new vision for my communications practice.
Carroll told us to be present; Lewis told us to collaborate; Kennedy told us to belong. Heward told us to be brave. Her challenge: to make a creative difference by finding that inner spark and fanning that flame of innovation.
I liked the Bradbury quotation she used, not only because it honoured a great writer so recently passed on, but because it reminded me that we have lost our innate ability to embrace the fantastic. We need to let go of the chains the word impossible binds around our hearts and minds. Heward's examples from the Cirque experience really helped illustrate her points.
The other take away from Heward's presentation was to be uncomfortable. She said “Complacency is the single biggest risk you’ll ever take.” Avoiding the rut success can create and in which we can be trapped is important. Pushing outside the comfort zone is threatening but also rewarding. It echoed nicely Carroll's reminder of boxer Muhhamed Ali's observation that winning or losing the fight happens before it starts. We must do the lonely work to prepare, to nurture, and to explore and we must also be willing to make mistakes so we can do better the next time.