Nico Steyn
Nico Steyn started his career in Television at
twenty-one with MNET as the youngest Creative Director in South Africa. Being
part of the dynamic group of Marketers in one of the most renowned success
stories in PayTV, he was afforded the opportunity to brush shoulders with such
brands as MTV, ESPN, Nickelodeon and Showtime on an international platform at a
very early age.
In managing a large creative staff Nico’s search
for high volume concept output lead him to discover the work of Lateral Thinker,
Dr. Edward de Bono. Through a remarkable series of coincidences they
finally got to meet two years later and discussed ways to collaborate.
They have since produced a TV series called
Competitive Thinking with Edward de Bono, and have also been searching for
funding to launch an animation series that teaches children how to think. Based
on Edward’s work, Nico’s and his creative team have developed a board game,
used in the training of Promo Producers. In a spoof “on-screen interview”, he
has brought Dr. de Bono’s work to the Promax forum in a series of key note
speeches globally.
Training and sharing of knowledge has always been
a key aspect of his personal journey of discovery. Beside this fascination for
the creative processes and how the mind deals with problem perception, Nico has
recently taken time out from TV to pursue his love affair with the movies. He
is currently in production with his second feature film.
Session:
Amidst a financial crunch, many
people make the mistake to assume that creativity should apply the same set of
rules as the suits have for how their money works. But by cramming “more for
less” into a message, it doesn’t necessarily equate to more that is
communicated. It could just be a confused message.
While it is true that we must work
smarter and faster or that our ideas may need to be sharper, it doesn’t
necessarily mean that we need to cram more ideas into the same concept.
Simplicity still communicates the best; nothing beats a single minded, strong
idea. While the world panics, creative people need to apply clear thinking,
because we all know that fear paralyzes good thought.
This workshop will look at finding
solutions to this problem on three related levels, and we will do exercises
that demonstrate the broad concept behind each:
Forest for the Trees:
Sometimes there are many aspects
to a problem. Find the core that needs to be solved by understanding the
creative brief and dissecting it into different parts to apply thinking to.
Then put the idea together again. Although it isn’t a very environmentally
friendly picture, I often speak about “getting though the forest, one tree at a
time!”
Creative Kick-start:
This is a series of “quick entry”
tools to shift the perception of a problem, or creative brief. By looking at
things differently one often finds a new angle to tell a story. These tools are
based on some of the fantastic work that Dr. Edward de Bono has done by
introducing methods to inspire deliberate thinking.
Getting the most out of a Brainstorm - FAST:
Time is money. Everyone is looking
for the next great idea, fast. And while it is true that many heads can come up
more ideas in a brainstorm, the quality of those ideas can be higher if the
efforts are focused. In the last part of the workshop we will take a look at
some structures to put into place when dealing with tapping great ideas from
larger groups.
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