Speaking on Innovation at Queens University Innovation Summit
Posted by admin on Mar 4, 2012
I am honoured to be speaking at the Queens University Innovation Summit on March 10th. I will be speaking on the 4Cs of Innovation- lessons I have learned in the corporate environment.I hope that those who attend the session get a few ideas from my experiences and that we develop a dialog on how they can put their unique slant on the material.
UPDATE- I just posted my slides on slideshare. Here they are below
Experience Journey – Joining Toronto Board of Trade as Director Product Innovation
Posted by admin on Jun 19, 2011
Today I am taking on a new role as Director of Product Innovation at the Toronto Board of Trade. It’s a great opportunity to join a fantastic team and help to advance the success of the Board’s members and the entire Toronto regionI’ve been reflecting over the past few weeks on how I got here. Although I started in the working world practicing Architecture (post degree from the University of Waterloo) I always had an interest in the business side of the firm. Completing my MBA at Queen’s was the first formal step on a long journey that now takes me here.
But what I never really left behind was a love of creatively taking client needs and translating them into something that gives the client more than they could have imagined. That’s why I’m thrilled to be here- I couldn’t have crafted a more perfect job if I’d written the position description myself. It takes both of these parts of my background and puts them together.
As this next chapter begins, I am looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead and want to thank all the people who have helped me get here: friends, family and colleagues (you know who you are! :>) It constantly amazes me how generous you all are and am glad to be able to be associated with such a great group. As always, comments are welcome!
Color and creativity
Posted by Jeffrey on Feb 8, 2009
Interesting post on Discovery’s website about a study that shows color affects creativity. According to the authors, blue lends itself to more creativity while red tends to enable attention to detail. Something to think about when painting the home or office! (But what about purple? Detailed creativity?)The color red boosts attention to detail in tasks such as memorization, while blue encourages creativity, according to a study published online in the journal Science.
The findings apply to advertising, warnings on medication, and especially environmental design for offices or classrooms, said Rui (Juliet) Zhu, who teaches marketing at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Zhu, who wrote the study with Ph.D. student Ravi Mehta, recommends that marketers selling creative or innovative products use blue, and brainstorming sessions be held in blue rooms. Using red in advertising would prompt consumers to pay more attention to product details, she said.
Previously the effect of color on performance was a mystery because earlier studies, which did not match colors to different kinds of tasks, yielded conflicting results, said Zhu, who also studied psychology.
Zhu and Mehta ran six tests involving 600 university students working at computer monitors with a background set in blue, red or white for control groups.