Expanding Your World: The Florida Creativity Conference

By Ryan G. Van Cleave | May 2021

I rarely get to write on-the-spot articles for Sarasota Scene, but once I learned about the Florida Creativity Conference (FLCC) and that its 18^th annual conference was in March 2021, I had to attend. I’ve long been fascinated by the subject, having written about it for The Writer magazine, taught a class in creativity at Ringling College of Art and Design, and penned a book about it—Creativity: A Reader for Writers (Oxford UP, 2015).

So, yeah—I very much wanted to attend this event, which is run by the Florida Creativity Alliance, Inc. It ran over the weekends of March 12-14 and March 19-21, with the theme “Reset. Restart. Re*Energize.” And while it’s been a face-to-face event in the past with workshops taking place at University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, Ringling College of Art and Design, and Florida Studio Theatre, this time around the conference was a Zoom-only enterprise. 

That’s fine, though—I like to go to conferences in my pajamas. Plus, when life, writing, and teaching got in the way, I was able to watch—and in some cases, re-watch!—the presentations at my convenience. 

First, a little background. The FLCC was launched by the late Dr. Ted Callisto, the late Nancy Myers, and Dr. Kitty Heusner. They had all lived in Sarasota, attended CPSI (the longest-running creativity conference in the world), learned the Creative Problem Solving system (CPS), and found the ideas and strategies incredibly useful both professionally and personally. Together, they decided to share what they learned with others. That impulse blossomed into an annual local conference, and eighteen years later, here we are. 

Kitty has served as the Conference Chair for many years, and she continues to learn and be reenergized by the sessions and people who share the journey.

Let’s talk about the events. 

Florida Creativity Conference spokesperson Suzanne Dameron, who also co-presented Creativity and Communications Go Together Like Peanut Butter and Jelly (with colleague Martha Wells of The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature), reminded us that creativity is a vital skill for the 21st century.

“We constantly need new and better ideas for almost every aspect of our professional and personal lives,” she explained. “Learning how creative problem-solving works enables individuals and teams to engage in a process that guides thinking as they analyze situations and reach goals. It is a process that defers judgment by using divergent thinking (generating many ideas) followed by convergent thinking (selecting among possible ideas) as people work through problems and challenges. Often referred to as deliberate creativity, it is a process that is set up to help you find solutions that are outside your habitual thinking ‘track.’ There are many strategies and tools that can be used. Not running ahead with the first idea but deferring judgement helps lead to implementing stronger solutions.”

One of the exciting things about the conference was the multitude of voices who each had their distinctive way of understanding and talking about creativity. For example, Dr. Roger Firestien led the Creating a Vision for Your Future workshop where he referred to the creative process as a recipe “because it works each and every time.” In his mind, creativity provides the new thinking that can lead to new perspectives, fresh insights, and innovative solutions.

Diane Allen—who I’d seen before thanks to her 2019 TEDx talk—had her violin going strong to accompany her Harness the Power of Your Flower Strategy^TM for Unlimited Creativity session.For her, the true flow state of creativity “happens at the intersection of a challenge and your skill.” I was intrigued by her skiing metaphor, where the black diamond run is too hard, and the bunny slope is far too easy. It’s the middle path where the magic happens. 

Standup comic Izzy Gesell’s Bringing Real Creativity to a Virtual World Through Applied Improv presentation had a host of ideas, such as “the way we play is who we are,” and “our brains are wired through hands-on interaction with the physical world.” He also gave a convincing argument as to why creativity has specifically helped people to be more resilient.

If you can’t tell, this wasn’t a talking-head conference where the audience gets pummeled with information until they become comatose or sneak in some Sunway Surfers on their phone. These sessions were thoughtful and well-paced. They featured a range of approaches and tools, and all had a hands-on, interactive element which surely pleased Izzy Gesell! 

Dameron adds that she’s surprised more people don’t know about the creative process. It’s been seriously studied since the 1950s, and one thing is clear—creativity doesn’t belong exclusively to artists like Monet, Rembrandt, and da Vinci. It’s also not a roll of the genetic dice. “The science is in. We’re all born creative,” she said.  

Her own creativity—she’s certified in Creative Problem Solving and specializes in the FourSight creative problem-solving system—comes into play on a daily basis with her company, Lime Communications, founded as the first PR and marketing agency in southwest Florida to serve the environmental sector. Since getting certified, Dameron works with clients integrating communications and creativity from the beginning of projects to the end. 

So, if it’s not clear from all I’ve shared, the FLCC was well worth the investment. Kanesha Baynard’s The Art of Pop Up Sanctuaries: Using Creativity to Disrupt Burnout and Mental Fatigue and Csaba Osvath’s Playing to Create: Video Games and Creativity were two of my faves, but every single offering delivered quality ideas that have me still thinking. 

Sign me up for next year, please!

If this sounds like a good time—it was!—go ahead and check them out in 2022. It’ll be here before you know it. And it’s never the wrong time to invest in yourself by building up your creativity muscles, which will surely be the case when you bring in a lineup of top-level speakers like they’ve been doing for nearly twenty years.

For more information about the Florida Creativity Conference, please visit www.flcreativity.com or call 941.809.3247.