Creative Idea Generation

Breakthrough Café is an experiment that fuses dinner-party idea exchange with the focus of a brainstorming session. "If you think back to Henry Miller and other artists, they would meet at cafés. They needed community to further their ideas, and then they'd go back to their studios."

Their first task is to define an intention--the idea they are struggling with--and write it on one of the green badges that serve as icebreakers. As strangers meet, strategically placed "inno-waiters" help guide and stimulate conversation. One device is the "either or d'oeuvres"--slips of paper served alongside the artichoke crostini that pose questions like "Dalai Lama or Dolly Parton?" to help tease out ideas.

The conversation is called "tablestorming" and "whine lists" aren't about alcohol. They're the excuses we come up with to justify not doing what we really want. Guests break into small clusters to describe one another's lives 10 years hence--first, if they surrender to their "whine," and then if they actually take the creative plunge.

Read the complete article: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/next-dispatch.html

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