Maya Angelou said, “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
If that’s true, meeting planners certainly are a creative force. Their job requires brains that churn and produce new ways to engage, surprise and please their audiences.
Considering, though, that even the most creative among us sometimes run dry in the idea department, let’s look at a few suggestions for firing up the creative spirit.
Worm your way into reading
Many former bookworms are now overworked adults who can’t seem to make time to read more than emails and texts. But when it comes to creativity, reading can be like Miracle-Gro for gray matter, a team of researchers at Ohio State University found. By using storytelling, the researchers have helped organizations pull themselves out of the ruts they fall into. Reading works, they discovered, because it transports us into other places and into the lives of others, which changes our perspective and opens our minds to new ways of thinking. All reading has value they said, but one book was especially effective. “Anyone who reads Winnie the Pooh will instantly feel more creative,” said lead researcher Angus Fletcher. Other recommendations for grown-ups? Books about kids who break rules like Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Why? Because, Fletcher said, the characters are brave, bold, mess up, get in trouble and take chances.
To get in the groove, move
Turns out, exercise isn’t just good medicine for hearts, lungs, muscles and bones. Movement also kick-starts our craniums, particularly creative thoughts. Look at brain scans online sometime. A brain at rest looks sedate; a brain just back from a 20-minute walk is lit up like a Christmas tree. Darwin knew that, and so did Steve Jobs. Both went for walks when they needed a brain reboot. For meeting planners, the challenge is two-fold: how to find time to take their own walk and how to get their attendees to move more. Maybe it’s morning stretches or yoga classes or group walks and hikes. Break up a long session with 10 minutes of standing yoga moves; plan meals that make people move more, like picnics, dine-arounds or buffets with stand-up tables. Take a short walk right now, let your mind wander, and you’ll probably come up with even better ideas. The odds are good, according to researchers at Stanford University; they found a short walk increases creative output by 60%.
Get a new view
One highly recommended brain booster — a change of scenery — is already a natural element of many meetings. Hopping in a car or on a plane and heading out of town for a conference can feel like being handed a tank of fresh oxygen. Researchers have found that when we are in a new environment, forced out of familiar routines and into new experiences, our brains enjoy the novelty and the break from monotony. So, as you choose a meeting site, think about what attendees experience in their day-to-day life, then flip the script. If it’s a state association whose members are mostly from small towns, take them to a midsize city, where streets are safe but also lined with liveliness: local restaurants, music venues, shops, galleries and museums. Get a corporate crowd away from their big headquarters city and skyscrapers and into the woods or the mountains.
Circle up and spout outlandish ideas
Bouncing thoughts off one another, especially when rules are few and minds can go a little wild, is a fun way to get our brain synapses snapping. So, circle up a small group and challenge everyone to quickly come up with 100 bad ideas (or 20 or 50 — you choose the number). The freeing aspect of this brainstorm is that the pressure to create a great idea, which can tamp down creative thought, is eliminated. Another fun way to get imaginations engaged? Present a small group with an everyday object — a hairbrush, a frying pan, an ink pen, anything will do — and then have them come up with new uses for it — the wilder and wackier, the better. Another highly popular brainstorming activity is the “What if?” game. Come up with some “what if” questions like “What if a spaceship landed outside?” “What if animals could talk?” or “What if you had a superpower?” and watch imaginations explode as your crowd conjures up the many possibilities.
Pop into culture
Pop culture is an endless source of creative inspiration. There’s a certain timelessness to it, as themes for parties and events can be spun from old TV shows like “Friends” and “Survivor” or current hits like “Bridgerton” and “Stranger Things.” Pop culture provides playlists that can soothe stress, bring smiles or get toes tapping. It brings action and play into a long conference day with the latest trends in fun and games: pickleball playoffs, mahjong meetups and World Cup watches. And pop culture can provide more than party themes. Popular television shows like “The Pitt” might inspire educational sessions at a medical conference; a documentary like “Crip Camp” might convince a planner that it’s time to have a conference speaker tackle disability issues. So, remember that creative inspiration is all around — from music and art to fashion and sports, hobbies and movies.
