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How do creative people create? Like Artists? Writers? Poets? Scientists? Entrepreneurs? Maybe you can do it too? Everyone wants to be creative, but the many methods will just drive you crazy. We start with some Myths. What is believed about creativity that is dead wrong? 1) Creativity is a rare form of genius. No! Everyone can learn to be more imaginative; 2) Creativity is only for the arts and sciences. No! Any area of human endeavor can be fertile soil for fresh ideas to flourish; 3) Creativity can be made very easy. No! You need high energy and strong motivation to generate original ideas. 

Participants: Benford, Csikszentmihaly, Janzen, Kao, Siler

Gregory Benford is both a recognized physicist and world-renowned science-fiction novelist. He is professor of physics at the University of California at Irvine, where he specializes in plasma physics and astrophysics. He is also a consultant to NASA. He has written over 30 science fiction books, including If the Stars are Gods and COSM, and is considered perhaps the most scientifically accurate science fiction writer.

Mihaly Csikszentmihaly is considered the leading academic authority on both creativity and happiness. He has been professor and head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and now at the Claremont Graduate School. His books are world famous: FLOW: The Psychology of Optimum Experience, Finding Flow, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, and The Evolving Self.

Rhoda Janzen has published over 150 poems and has won numerous prizes in poetry; she has been Poet Laureate of California twice. She is in the English Department at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) where she received the Distinction in Teaching Award for innovation in pedagogy.

John Kao is an authority in the intersecting fields of corporate creativity, new media and entrepreneurial management. Both a psychiatrist and Harvard MBA, he taught the creativity courses at Harvard and Stanford Business Schools for 14 years. He is a multi-talented entrepreneur, the author of many books on creativity, including Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity, and is widely quoted in the business press.

Todd Siler is an artist whose artworks are held in numerous private and public collections worldwide, including major museums (Guggenheim, Metropolitan, Modern, Whitney, Israel). He is also a writer and educator who was the first visual artist to receive a doctorate from MIT (Psychology and Art). He has written two best-selling books, Breaking the Mind Barrier and Think Like A Genius. His company specializes in teaching creativity.

Robert Lawrence Kuhn is the creator and host of the Closer To Truth television series and author of the Closer To Truth book. Trained in brain research (Ph.D. UCLA), he has published more than twenty books, including the Handbook for Creative and Innovative Managers and the seven-volume Library of Investment Banking. He is the president of The Geneva Companies, a leading merger and acquisition firm for private, middle market businesses.

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