Who's for Summer School? "Me!" say some 70 enthusiastic participants

MONTREAL, July 9 /CNW Telbec/ - The Summer School on Management of Creativity in an Innovation Society has just wrapped up its first intensive week in Montreal. Since last Friday, participants from different business backgrounds, organizations and universities have been busy with workshops, lectures, team assignments and brainstorming, company tours, and even theatre and music improv sessions. After this time in Montreal they now move on to Barcelona tomorrow, for a second marathon week.

Jan Malinowski, Division Chief with the Council of Europe, is particularly impressed with the quality of the input from speakers and participants. "The Council of Europe, by definition, is not creative. Taking part in this kind of event gives it access to the most relevant and valuable creative practices. The contribution and thoughts of each of the participants help an international organization like ours to become more creative in its communications with its 47 member countries."

"This summer school lets me take a step back from my day-to-day work setting and introduces me to new creative processes that I can apply immediately in teamwork situations," agrees France Goddard, Executive Director, National Sales and Media Creativity with Astral. "My discussions with other members of the group, made up of academics, managers and students, give me the opportunity to compare my practices with theirs and see whether our company is on the right track."

A creative community

The goal of this summer school is essentially to form a creative community in an innovation society. By sharing knowledge and pooling creative processes and experiences from different industry, academic, cultural and service sectors, the members of this new community come together around a common theme. They benefit by explaining their own practices and seeing how other members do things, and gain by opening up to each other's experiences.

"Our summer school brings together creators and creativity managers," explains Laurent Simon, Co-director of the Summer School on Management of Creativity, along with Patrick Cohendet. "The two-week program encourages transversal learning among participants, given the group's interdisciplinary, intercultural and intergenerational diversity. The week they spend in Barcelona will enhance the experience even more, based this time on architecture and design, aerospace, biotechnology and, lastly, gastronomic innovation, thanks to the Alicia Foundation."

This year's Summer School on Management of Creativity is being held from July 2 to 9 in Montreal and from July 10 to 17 in Barcelona.

For further information: Céline Poissant, Media Relations, HEC Montréal, 514-340-7320, [email protected]