World Creativity and Innovation Week April 15 - 21

 

April 15 - 21 every year

How it all started


    In May 2001 Canadian creativity specialist Marci Segal noticed a banner headline in one of Canada’s national newspapers, “Canada in Creativity Crisis” it read.

   “No it isn’t”, she thought, shaken to the core, “there’s plenty of creativity. It’s just that people don’t know it when they see it or, they swat at it when it shows up differently from what they expect.”

    The article described a creativity conference held in Ottawa, ON, the Canada’s capital, between scientists and artists and reported on the BIG discussion: who is the more creative of the two.

   “There’s a bigger question.” she thought, “How do we get everyone to realize they have the ability and can use it to shape a better future?”

  She made a call to other Canadian creativity colleagues John Sedgwick, Paul Rousseau and Jacynthe Bedard. “There’s got to be a way.”

   They brainstormed, claiming World Creativity and Innovation Day on April 21 to encourage people to use their creativity to make the world a better place and to make their place in the world better too.

    The first celebrations occurred in april 2002 in the Netherlands, Bangkok,Thailand,  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Chicago, US,  Hamilton and Toronto, Ontario

    A yahoo group was formed, and people joined.  People from all over the world - US, Brazil, Argentina, Thailand, Over the years the celebrations began happening in other places too, Belarus, India, Australia, Egypt, Peru, Chile, India, Malaysia, UK, Italy, France, and throughout the US. 

    World Creativity and Innovation Day became World Creativity and Innovation Week in 2005 so people would have more time to access their creativity and make something from it. World Creativity and Innovation Week begins on Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday - April 15 and runs through to World Creativity and Innovation Day April 21.

    In schools, factories, businesses, homes, the celebration continues as more and more take advantage of a time to deliberately generate new ideas, use imagination and make new decisions to make a difference.


People celebrate in many ways. Click here for examples.

Leonard Da Vinci’s birthday is April 15th