By @larrywrites

Why attend a Creative Social event in one word? Inspiration.

In two words? Very inspirational.

This was my second event run by CS, having previously attended the Hacker Maker Teacher Thief book launch evening for students, and while different in its intended audience (this day was aimed at Producers) it was no less brilliant in motivating me to get out and make things.

Five brilliant talks, each different than the last, each exploring a different part of the creative industries and a different perspective on the world – but all similar in their ability to inspire change.

After a brief introduction Dawn Sillett kicked off the event with a presentation on ‘emotional intelligence’ and how it can transform the way you do business – how empathy can solve business problems and make you a better leader. This was a nice grounding for the event before we took a detour in to some of the weird and wonderful creative endeavours from the other speakers.

Such weird and wonderful detours included, ‘how the hell do you make a flying dress for Lady Gaga?’Benjamin Males had the answer: Get someone who’s worked on a nuclear submarine, an expert on drones, and whoever else might have an idea –  lock them in a top secret hangar in the Californian dessert and don’t be afraid. We were regaled with tales of pressure from the FAA, Gaga’s own boundary pushing ideas and simple problems like how many drones do you need to lift a person off the ground. This talk was fascinating in its existence on the boundary of fashion and technology – proving the point that if you take two points of knowledge from separate fields something magical will happen.

From a flying dress to a nihilistic hamster, Miriam Elia treated us to what can only be described as a peek in to her twisted worldview. While her perspective on life might have been terrifying if it wasn’t so hilarious, her desire just to make things and not ask permission was refreshing in a world of client approval and endless planning. Yes, she may have been sued by Penguin thanks to our archaic lack of a parody exception in copyright law, but creativity should never think about anything other than creation at its moment of birth. Change the status quo.

Jon Barnes from hyper island spoke on culture within companies and how transforming from the old model of a top down hierarchy to a more collaborative system can benefit everyone. How in this age of a digital democracy sharing is the most important thing in making things happen.

And then we finished with Ben and Andrew who talked to their globetrotting adventures marrying ethical projects with brands. How business can be a transformative element in developing countries and serve not just their own interests but those of a common good for humanity. Especially interesting was their exercise of taking inspiration from the world around us: each writing on a card one thing we hated about London and one thing we loved. The cards were collated and one from each deck were juxtaposed with the hope that an answer would present itself. Lateral thinking in action.

A whole day of inspiration from various corners of the world to inspire us as producers, as people who make things, to go out and change the world.