Stefan Mumaw is the Creative Director and Purveyor of All That Rocks at Callahan Creek, a Kansas City-area ad agency. He has authored six books, the most recent being Creative Boot Camp, a 30-day crash course on creativity. Previously, he authored Chasing the Monster Idea, co-authored Caffeine for the Creative Team and Caffeine for the Creative Mind with Wendy Lee Oldfield, as well as Redesigning Websites and Simple Websites. He has spoken at numerous creative industry gatherings over the years and been known to embarrass himself and those around him if given the opportunity.
Sessions
Anatomy of a Brainstorm
Monday, May 4 • 2:30 – 3:15pm
Brainstorming is the process of bringing multiple people together to generate ideas, leveraging the collective experience and perspective in the room to help everyone generate more and better ideas. But bringing people together doesn't guarantee they'll solve the problem relevantly and novelly, so you need a strategy for your idea sessions. Callahan Creek creative director and “Creative Boot Camp” author Stefan Mumaw has a suggestion: story. Humans have used story to connect with one another since the dawn of time — which makes story a strong foundation on which to run effective brainstorms.
Stefan will break the basic brainstorming process into usable techniques. To do so, he'll run you through an actual campaign brainstorm from his agency, everything from ideation to finished product — a process he filmed live while it was happening. Watch as three separate creative teams go through the creative process, all reaching different but equally compelling solutions. You’ll get to imagine what you would have contributed, and decide what ideas you think were the strongest. From this deep dive into Callahan Creek’s process, you'll see how you can use story in your next brainstorm and get the most out of your ideation sessions.
3 Main Take- Aways:
- Learn to use story to take wild-eyed concepts and turn them into tangible, actionable ideas
- Experience a real-world brainstorm session and imagine how you would have contributed to the process
- Dig deep into the brainstorm process to find new ways to manage your own ideation meetings
