CREATIVITY ACROSS CULTURES: SMU HOSTS ASIA’S FIRST INTERNATIONAL CREATIVITY CONFERENCE

SMU played host to over 200 delegates from around the world at the American Creativity Association’s 20th annual International Creativity Conference from 25-29 February 2008. Themed Creativity Across Cultures, the 2008 conference was held for the first time in Asia, and was chaired by SMU Associate Professor of Creative Thinking and English Literature Kirpal Singh. Professor Singh is also the first non-American elected to the ACA’s prestigious Board of Directors. Mr Zainul Abidin Rasheed, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs was the Guest of Honour at the conference opening. The five-day event was co-organised by SMU’s Wee Kim Wee Centre.

Throughout the conference delegates discussed the challenges and opportunities in applying creativity and seeking creative solutions across cultures in four broad areas: government and quasi-government, education, business and commerce, and arts and culture. The Conference included plenary sessions with provocative presentations by nine internationally acclaimed keynote speakers and over 80 breakout sessions with presenters from 34 countries. New ideas and analysis were presented alongside the most recent thinking in the area of creativity. Keynote speakers included Tony Buzan, creator of Mindmapping; Bernhardt Trout, PhD, MIT chemical engineering professor and Director of the Novartis-MIT Center for Continuous Manufacturing; Anthony Le Storti, Executive Consultant for IDEATECTS Inc.; Herbert Hauptman, PhD, world renowned mathematician and 1985 Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry; as well as Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO of the LEGO Group, who shared significant observations on how creativity plays a role in mega businesses in his closing keynote address.