With innovation and the ability to innovate perceived as the holy grail of business success the recent report, (by INSEAD professor Hal Gregersen, Jeffrey Dyer of Brigham Young University and Clayton Christensen of Harvard entitled Innovator’s DNA, and published in HBR in December 09 makes very interesting reading.
The objective of this six year research study [...]

January and it’s time for the annual JMW Turner exhibition at the National Gallery (A light in the Darkness). In accordance with collector Henry Vaughan’s bequest the watercolours, which are notoriously susceptible to fading, have their radiance preserved, by only being exhibited in the first month of the year. Famously known as “the painter of [...]

The Challenge: How to motivate people to take the stairs instead of the escalator?
The solution: If you want to change someone’s behaviour make it fun to do!

Or as Einstein put it: Creativity is intelligence having fun

(By Ruth O’Looney, TV Producer/Director)
Last week, the BBC series “Imagine” looked at an art ownership scheme that has been running in the UK for the last five years.
The Own Art scheme offers interest -free loans (up to £2,000) to people who want to buy contemporary artwork.  Organised and run by the UK Arts Council, 12,500 [...]

What you focus your attention on determines how your life will be. In other words, your life experience to date-who you are, how you think, what you feel and do is the result of what you have chosen to focus your attention on.
Our focus of attention falls on a spectrum. At one end of the [...]

Ben Zander (pictured) conductor for the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and professor at the New England Conservatory of Music, faced the same problem at the start of each semester. His students, all gifted instrumentalists and singers were so anxious over the measurement of their performance that they were reluctant to take creative risks and open themselves [...]

A really interesting TED talk by Tim Brown of Ideo in which he links the importance of playfulness to ensure creativity and particularly in the world of design
Some of the main points included:
• The importance of creating a trusted environment where people feel secure and free to try out new ideas. He gives examples of [...]

Innovation Dublin is a week long festival running from Wednesday 14th October to Monday 20th October. The festival is a key project of the Creative Dublin Alliance ( a collaborative organisation of businesses, third level institutions Government sectors and the not-for-profit sector). The idea behind the festival,is was to highlight what Dublin can be proud [...]

Voting Ends: October 8, 2009
Google’s Project 10^100, launched last year, called for ideas that would change the world by helping as many people as possible.
The huge response (over 150,000 idea submissions from 170 countries) has been grouped together into the 16 different overall themes or “Big Ideas” set out below:

Enhance science and engineering education
Create real-world [...]

A global toast to Arthur Guinness takes place on 24th September at 17:59 Dublin time. It marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the 9,000 year lease on St James’s Gate brewery. Dublin celebrations will include some outstanding music acts with all ticket proceeds going to the Arthur Guinness Fund.