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 [...]

Most feedback focuses on the negative and the areas for improvement. In workplace assessments, even when the overall performance is exemplary, the emphasis usually swings towards the development “opportunities”. It’s as though our strengths and natural talents are taken for granted and our energy goes into correcting our weaknesses (real and perceived).
But is this the [...]

The BUBBLE exhibition is an exploration of the physics of foam and bubbles; it’s very hands on and has had over 50,000 visitors to date. BUBBLE was developed in collaboration with Professor Denis Weaire and Dr Stefan Hutzler, of the Foams and the  Complex Systems Group at TCD’s School of Physics.  Michael John Gorman, Director [...]

For many of us, airports are a necessary (evil) conduit to our destination; for Alain de Botton, renowned author of  The Art of Travel and Essays in Love they’re the “imaginative centres of our civilisation”. For one week last month, de Botton took on the unprecedented role of Heathrow’s writer-in-residence. His book, based on life [...]

Getting started when you’re at a standstill
( By Ruth O’Looney, TV Producer/Director)
It’s not always easy starting to write, whether it’s an article, a proposal or any sort of document. Many of us, when we have an assignment know broadly what we want to say, we may have already worked out the main points of our [...]

To maintain competitiveness every business needs an influx of potentially feasible ideas. Good ideas are generally available from employees at all levels. The key is to have a methodology to collect and select the best ideas and sort them according to available resources and ease of implementation.
From Danish company, Nosco, comes the Idea Exchange; idea [...]

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.

IDEO, whose philosophy centres on building on the ideas of others for optimum impact, has collaborated with the Gates Foundation to create the human-centred design toolkit, an open source innovation toolkit for social impact in developing countries. To date the toolkit has been used on agricultural, medical and sanitation projects and continues to be modified and enhanced by users.