The Big Idea. Creative and energetic fun day.

The client : Starcom Mediavest

The challenge :

To provide four hours of training to 280 employees of Starcom Mediavest on the same day. The training had to be fun, high energy and themed around creativity and more particularly “the big idea.” In other words – “where do ideas come from and how can we have more of them.” The company also required their employees to put on a presentation of their ideas at the end of the four hours! They wanted the workshop to re-ignite their creativity and passion for ideas.

The approach :

Much of comedy both creatively and in performance comes from a place of chaos. Jack also wanted the delegates to work collaboratively towards a series of solutions. To what appeared to be a hugely challenging brief, Jack came up with a simple solution. He would training 280 people at once. Together they would come up with 10,000 ideas in 2 hours. The group would then break up into smaller groups who would be lead by six experienced comedy tutors and facilitators. These groups would narrow the ideas down to six big ideas which would be presented in the form of a show at the end of the day.

It was vital that the creative process should be deliberately chaotic but in a way that could be replicated and understood. It was also vital that the logistics and training around the day should be incredibly focused, ordered and thought through.

The afternoon was one of high energy, laughter, whilst also challenging and very focused. Each team created thousands of ideas that were narrowed down to six big ones. The end result was a hugely successful and very funny 30 minute presentation of the six big ideas.

The impact :

Starcom Mediavest, re-worked their whole approach to idea generation for 2009. They have re-ignited their creativity and passion for ideas. Moreover, they were given a huge window on the talent and potential across the group.