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A common thread connecting all of Dr. Ward's presentations is interactivity. He directly engages the audience members in creative activities. Not only is this more stimulating and interesting than an academic-style lecture, but participants also learn more when they try out techniques for themselves. They also begin to recognize their own creative potential, an important theme from Dr. Ward's co-authored book, Creativity and the Mind: Discovering the Genius Within.
Even though creative problem solving is fun, the creative techniques that Dr. Ward teaches are more than just fun-and-games. Participants get to apply the techniques to the real problems that they actually want to solve. This means that a group can come away from a presentation with creative solutions to their most immediately pressing problems, as well as a set of skills to apply to future problems.
Some of the topics covered are:
Background:
Dr. Ward is Director of Creativity Sciences at the Center for Creative Media, and professor of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Alabama. He is the founder of Creative Concepts Consulting . Dr. Ward is widely known for his work on how people apply their existing knowledge to new situations, including tasks as diverse as imagining life on other planets and designing practical new products. He has also conducted studies concerned with increasing the creative potential of new ideas. Dr. Ward has published numerous articles and chapters, as well as four books concerned with creative thought, including Creative Cognition: Theory, Research, and Applications, and Creativity and the Mind: Discovering the Genus Within. Dr. Ward has lectured throughout the US and Europe, developed a course on creativity for the International Summer School at the New Bulgarian University, and co-developed "Teaching for Creativity," a web-based creativity enhancement seminar for talented educators identified by the Milken Family Foundation. He also serves as Editor of the Journal of Creative Behavior.