• Give an overview of creativity/innovation products.
• Provide tools for applying creativity
• Have fun.

The workshop is split into four broad sections. The underlying theme running through it was the development of innovative, eco-efficient electronic and electrical products and services concepts. The prime emphasis was on building solutions using a variety of 'creative tools'.

The four sections are:

• Information surveying
• Building solutions
• Reality checking
  

• Implementation

The workshop utilised the Millennium Project - The Earth Centre - as a case study for developing innovative/creative electronic/electrical product/services solutions.


Conclusions

There was no specific objective of the session (eg, 'designing a greener PC'). The prime aim was to experiment with different creative tools to generate sustainable product concepts that could be applied in any organisation related to the electronics sector. However, key themes that did emerge were the need for high quality information, and a lack of clarity on the practicalities of the concept of sustainable development.

The main feedback from the session was that:

• There is a need to have an overall focus and objectives;
• It is important to define the problem clearly and restate it where necessary;
• Everyone is creative, and can come up with ideas if the process is managed skilfully;
• It is important to "have permission" to be creative;
• It is essential that the process is fun;
• It is important to generate an atmosphere of "no criticism/evaluation", ie that is supportive;
• It is important to "warm up" -- ie, "Let's get crazy";
• There is a range of creative tools that can be used to generate different perspectives and new ideas;
• For corporates it is important to feel free to be creative; eg to be with peers from other organisations rather than with the boss or members of the organisation's hierarchy;
• It is relatively easy to generate ideas, but evaluation and implementation are hard.