Creativity Week 2018 took place at Webster Geneva Campus between 11 and 15th of June. It was organized by the Webster Center for Creativity and Innovation (WCCI), and included keynotes and expert panel discussions, workshops, paper presentations, and art exhibitions. It was open to the general public and brought over 120 visitors to the campus, including speakers from 15 countries.
The program featured keynotes from world leading researchers in creativity, innovation, and related fields: Prof. James C. Kaufman (University of Connecticut, USA), Prof. Jan Dul (Erasmus University, the Netherlands), James Robey (MFA, Webster University, USA), Dr. Susan Engel (Williams College, USA), and Prof. Zayda Sierra (University of Antioquia, Colombia). The panel discussions that preceded the keynotes focused on issues from Innovation in Switzerland, and Technology Creation in the East and West, to Visual Arts in Geneva and Creativity in Education. The Creativity Week also included nine workshops offered by prestigious academics or practitioners including dramatic play, neuro-management, improvised comedy, measuring creativity, innovation in the humanitarian sector, etc. Paper presentations were held Tuesday to Friday, covering a range of perspectives on creativity and innovation: sociological, educational, cognitive, cross-cultural and socio-cultural, as well as new topics. Last but not least, the Creativity Week featured several artistic events – two exhibitions, art by Paul March and photography by Francesco Arese Visconti (curated by Julianna Bark) and contemporary dance performed by Webster University students.
The brochure with the program at the glance can be downloaded here.
The Creativity Week was highly successful in accomplishing the aims of the WCCI: bringing together world leading experts and practitioners in order to foster dialogues that advance the state of the art in creativity and innovation, as well as disseminating findings and best practices to a wide audience from Geneva, from Switzerland, and from abroad.
In addition to the Creativity Week, which is envisioned as an annual event, the WCCI organises the Creativity and Innovation lecture series and co-organises the Meet the Artist and Spotlight seminars.