Well it's only day one, but we've done so much already that it feels like it's day twenty. It's a good sign.
Our flight was delayed yesterday so we didn't make it to LA in time for the Sunday pre-check in. Which meant we had to brave the line-ups today (which thankfully weren't too long) this morning.
Once we'd finished checking in we hit the Art and Design Galleries, which are fabulous this year. My favourite piece was called the "Dream Pillow" - an actual pillow that is touch sensitive and, depending on how it is touched (how much pressure, how quickly or slowly) displays a visual representation of a series of dream images. Beautiful. I posted a few pics on Facebook and would've posted more, but the volunteers were pretty tight about keeping an eye out for cameras...
After viewing about a quarter of the Art and Design Galleries (we'll take in more later on in the week). We got into line with about a thousand other conference attendees to enter one of the halls to watch the keynote speech and awards.
The key note this year was given by Ed Catmull, president of Disney and Pixar. Here are the notes I took while he was speaking (sorry they're so choppy).
“The story is the most important thing” – original idea behind success, abstract summary of methodology, became popular/adopted by others, original meaning became lost
Explanation of meaning:
What’s most important, great ideas or great people? – Great people – Pixar's development team switched from coming up with ideas to just putting together teams of people who work well together after it was determined that ideas were better generated by a cohesive production team.
Pixar's "post mortems", evaluation session held with the team upon a project's completion – success depends on ability for all team members to be honest (not deferring to others out of respect, not being polite). For this session to be productive, equal authority must be given to all team members. Not a pat on the back session for mangers to recognize employees' achievements.
How to create a healthy community / how to build trust:
Stronger as part of a larger community, participate, give back – not holding back ideas/resources and keeping them within the organization
Early identification of problems, authority given to all members to “stop the production line”, as a manager, not to have to hear about things before a meeting
Dealing with crisis – as a “creative team” every project being tackled has never been done before, therefore you should not be able to perceive the outcome (e.g. a successful outcome). If you do know the outcome, then it is not creative.
The goal is not to create success but to create pathways for dealing effectively with crisis when it happens.
After the keynote, we spent some time exploring the conference area and getting oriented. Tomorrow's a big day - we hope to take in quite a few events and spend some time on the exhibition floor. Later on in the evening Cara and I be meeting up with Baasje's cousin, Melissa who will be taking us out for an authentic California dining experience (our suggestion). Should be a good day. But first I need to grab some sleep in a big way...'night!
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