Florida Creativity Conference 2025

Explore the paradox of two core states of being: the Experiencing Self, which loves to dive into the moment, and the Observing Self, which steps back to reflect on those moments. We’ll examine how these two states form The Attention Paradox and how you can use Polarity Thinking™ to manage their push and pull. Get hands-on with tools like polarity mapping, interactive exercises, and real-world examples. Learn how this paradox shows up in your life and work. Build on the pioneering insights of Ruth Noller, Daniel Kahneman, and Barry Johnson to examine the upsides and downsides of each state, learn the early warning signs of over-focusing on either one, and build practical strategies to stay in tune. Whether you want to enrich your personal growth, creative projects, or professional life, you’ll leave with a new approach to get the most out of your two paradoxical states of attention.

Learning Objectives:

• Apply the concept of the Attention Paradox and the interdependency between Experiencing and Observing.
• Recognize early warning signs of over-focusing on your experiencing self and your observing self to help you manage the Attention Paradox.
• Apply Polarity Thinking™ to manage the upsides and downsides of these paradoxical states in personal and professional scenarios.

Participants will use LEGO bricks to build 3D models. They are asked to 'build' based on a question they are asked (Build a model where you feel your creativity shines) 2) They share their model (This provides them with story telling confidence and allows others to get to know them - find commonalities/differences) 3) Reflect - participants reflect on the experience, their learnings etc. Depending on the number of participants we will be able to get through 2-3 questions. A final question in each workshop is to build "one action they will take away and apply to their work/life."

Key Takeaways:

• Confidence (in their ability to share)
• Story Telling (ability to use alternative methods for sharing their thoughts) 
• Awareness (through a tactile exercise they can learn something about themselves and others for which a question may not uncover or unlock)

Do you ever get stuck when deliberate creativity bumps up against reality? Do you know why? In this discovery-focused workshop, you'll combine to powerful strategies to gain insights into yourself and the creative process. You'll start with the Playmobil ProPlay™ method--a way to invoke that magical mindset that allows you to see and say things through play that are often difficult to express through words alone. Next, you'll apply Polarity Thinking™, the both/and approach that enables you to understand and leverage the normal tension of interdependent truths (for example, Focus on the Team AND focus on the individual) to shatter the most common barriers to truly productive problem solving.

Key Takeaways:

• Explore ProPlay™ as a tool for understanding the key forces that can both constrain and liberate your thinking
• Discover basic Polarity Thinking™ principles and explore at least one creativity polarity that is important for you
• Challenge yourself to think about specific applications of these insights for those you lead, facilitate, and work with

This workshop will assist participants to unearth their hidden creativity to discover their originality in ideas and thoughts that appeal to the Affective domain of teaching and learning. An exploration of perceptions, activities, and reflections will mobilize unforeseen talents and boost confidence in the use of creative tools and techniques grounded in theories and research.

Key Takeaways:

• A range of hands-on activities
• Creative thinking strategies and application to teaching and learning
• Ideation tools that supersede traditional brainstorming
• You can implement the new tools that you take home in your classroom immediately

Unleash the power of your brain to supercharge creativity and innovation! In this hands-on session, you’ll explore the neuroscience of creativity, learning how key brain networks like the Default Mode, Executive Control, and Salience Networks fuel your best ideas. Gain practical tools to overcome creative blocks, enhance problem-solving, and inspire innovation in yourself and your teams, all while collaborating in a dynamic and inspiring environment.

Key Takeaways:

• Practical Neuroscience Tools: Understand how to leverage brain networks to enhance creative thinking and problem-solving, with actionable techniques to apply immediately
• Overcome Creative Blocks: Learn strategies to break through mental barriers and ignite new ideas, helping you and your team stay innovative in any environment
• Inspire Innovation in Teams: Gain insights into fostering a creative culture within your organization, using neuroscience-based methods to inspire collaboration and fresh solutions

In this session, participants will engage in a series of hands-on contemplation activities designed to focus attention, deepen engagement, and enhance understanding. Using different modalities—writing, drawing, looking—you will explore how contemplative practices help build sustained attention skills and inspire inquiry and insight, revealing new ways of knowing. In addition to helping viewers develop deeper reflective practices around art viewing, participants will also consider how these activities could be used as part of their general facilitation toolbox.

Key Takeaways: 

• Learn the basics of contemplative pedagogy.
• Engage in several deep encounters with works of art.
• Gain a few new tools for your facilitation practice.

Welcome to a fresh look at how Artificial Intelligence could become a powerful partner in Creative Problem-Solving! This session will give you an engaging overview of AI’s potential to streamline effort, speed up results, and even enhance the CPS experience. Together, we'll brainstorm, explore, tinker and discuss how AI can both open doors and raise questions, all while keeping our focus on the ways it can improve our ability to support ourselves and our clients.

Key Takeaways:

• A fun, friendly look at where we are now with AI integrations as of March 2025.
• How AI might impact the CPS process in practical and surprising ways.
• Strategies to embrace AI’s potential in CPS while being mindful of any potential pitfalls.

There is a great deal of talk about keeping emotions out of the work place and being rational and concrete in solving problems on the job. But, In this session we are going to examine science and experiences that help us understand and apply our emotional brain to the process of problem solving and creativity. We share a simple but provocative model of how emotions and intellect work together to create the best possible creative results, and how to recognize and leverage that aspect of our brain's core function.

Key Takeaways:

• Recognize and describe the way the brain evokes and manages emotions;
• Reach an understanding of emotional responses to problems and challenges and how they affect our relationship to our own creative process;
• Apply emotional responses tool to creative challenges in specific ways that advance our problem solving and creative outcomes

Join us for an Ice Water Cocktail Party (with a slight twist).  Brave guests will do their best to go beneath the surface in their networking and connect with other guests on a deeper level.  No worries if you feel you never know what to talk about in these situations…we have sneaky ways to handle awkward pauses and sleepy small talk!

Key Takeaways:

• Learn a grid technique for sharing about themselves and learning about others
• Interact with others to practice implementing the grid techniques
• See and be seen in a deeper, and more connective way

In this workshop, we will gain a better understanding of why we doodle, demonstrate the potential of drawing as a communicative medium, and learn how to draw ten (or more!) new symbols you can begin to use right away. Whether you are taking a brave first step into the world of doodling or simply looking to add a new creative tool to your facilitation toolbox, this workshop offers practical techniques for all skill levels. No experience necessary!

Key Takeaways:

• Demystify the art of graphic facilitation (it’s easy, anyone can do it!)                                                                                 
• Demonstrate the benefits of graphic facilitation (or adding doodles to your note-taking)
• Teach/Equip participants with a toolbox of basic doodles they can use all the time