Abrams, Selah

Selah Abrams,

Engineer at Turner Studios (Atlanta) and CIO of PartyRepublik (Germany, South Africa, USA) began life as an entrepreneur in 1991 by building a bricks and mortar retail and wholesale active wear and accessories line that grew from an $1800 investment to several million in annual retail sales, franchised retail locations, and online sales before “e-commerce” was a foregone conclusion. Following the sale in 1998, he moved to New York to work at Grey Worldwide, the 3rd largest Ad and Branding Agency in the world, specializing in interactive marketing, online branding, and breaking open the Latin American market before it was recognized as the current powerhouse that it is.  Currently, Selah splits time between a day gig at Turner Studios, post-production house for the Turner Networks, CNN and outside clients, and managing an international entertainment promotions and production company, with locations in Atlanta, Germany (6 cities), and Durban, South Africa. Selah is a partner in several other ventures, is a regular speaker at events and conferences and is deeply involved with the local Atlanta Digital Entertainment industry, by chairing and/or sitting on the board of Audio Engineering Society, Digitainment Georgia, TAG Entertainment and WLS societies, and involved in the creation of a Georgia Film Workforce Development Program, Workforce Readiness Region, and mobile media teaching lab.

Basic, Amy

Amy Basic

is both an engineer and artist (Amy Lee Segami) with 20+ years experience -- corporate engineer, executive VP, gallery owner and educator. She installs creativity confidence for leadership development and team-building events. Her interactive Suminagashi (flowing-ink) program has the rare formula of visual art, fluid physics and cultural diversity. She has presented world-wide, from Eastern Europe to Asia, conducted training workshops and delivered keynote speeches at conferences.

She is National Council Member for Arts-Based Learning in Science Education Conference, Director for International Committee of IAI (Interior Design Professional Education Program) and founder of Creativity Academy. Born in China, raised in Hong Kong, she earned two engineering degrees from Illinois Institute of Technology. Her unique, distinctive paintings have won numerous awards. She received many honors for her extraordinary ability and innovative application of combining art and science.

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Barlow, Chris, Ph.D.

Chris Barlow, Ph.D.

is a researcher, consultant, professor, and author who has been involved in the management and teaching of team creativity and strategic thinking for more than thirty years.  In addition to his extensive consulting through The Co-Creativity Institute he has educated managers as a business professor for the last fifteen years, currently serving on the faculty of the College of Business Administration of the University of Illinois-Chicago as Director of Experiential Learning.

Baum, Bruce, Ph.D.

Bruce Baum, Ph.D.

Dr. R. Bruce Baum, a legend in his own mind, is a Professor in the Exceptional Education Department at Buffalo State College and the ‘Head Honcho’ of HumorCreativity.Com.  He received degrees from the University of Cincinnati, and Indiana University.  Dr. Baum is author of How to Motivate Audiences: 121 Warmups, Icebreakers and Activities for Promoting Creative Problem Solving, Teamwork and Laughter (Bates Jackson), The Almost Wet Your Pants Book of Humor (Author House, in press), 20 Magic Tricks for the Magically Impaired (DVD) and the MEGA TRAINING CD.  In 2007 he received the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from Buffalo State College. He is a Colleague in the Creative Education Foundation, a leader in the Annual Creative Problem Solving Institute, a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, an Ambassador with the Center for Development of Human Services, a member of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute Humor Project, a Certified Laughter Leader, a member of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, a faculty member of Now to Wowtm Adventure and Learning Programs, and a Certified Rock Balancer.  He has presented, consulted and facilitated with numerous companies and organizations including ones in Cyprus, South Africa, Costa Rica, Singapore, Jamaica, Canada and in many states. In his spare time, Dr. Baum is a Rocket Scientist, Bronco Rider, Taxidermist, Explorer, Brain Surgeon and Gourmet.

Beasley, Elizabeth

Elizabeth Beasley 

is a copywriter for Cartoon Network and has worked at Turner Broadcasting since 1998 in a variety of roles ranging from Turner Studios Communications Manager to TBS Interactive Producer. Elizabeth started taking improv classes at Laughing Matters and Dad's Garage in 2000 and met her fellow Gorgeous Ladies of Comedy shortly afterwards. In addition to performing, she facilitates improv workshops for business professionals.

 

Black, Ph.D., Robert “Alan”

Robert Alan Black, Ph.D., CSP

Each day Alan strives to S.P.R.E.A.D. creative thinking wherever and however he can around the globe and has been doing so since 1976. As a consultant, speaker, trainer, coach and author he works to help people expand and enrich their natural creative abilities.  Through workshops, keynote speeches, university courses he strives to help leaders and managers learn how they can turn their organizations, departments and teams into productive and profitable Cre8ng Communities.

Alan has earned and/or been given several awards from the Creative Education Foundation: Colleague, Leadership & Commitment, Distinguished Leader, Leader Choice: Prince of Creativity and People’s Choice.  He has served on the Board of the American Creativity Association.  Also he has presented at over 100 creativity conferences around the globe.

Alan uses his 50+ years of daily creative working experience at 47 different jobs in 8 fields along with his formal education in creativity -Ph.D., design-MA, architecture-BS, counseling-MEd and educational psychology-Ph.D. to provide examples, skills, tools and techniques to everyone he works with.

Alan sees life as A Creative Journey, Not a Guided Tour.

Carvana-Moore, Tobi

Tobi Carvana-Moore

Known for creating intuitive, compelling brand ideas that produce results, Tobi has over 15 years of experience working with blue chip brands like Publix, Nationwide Insurance, BMW, Bellsouth and Hanes. (The Wall Street Journal credited her work for making relatively small Florida’s Natural the country’s #2 juice brand, right behind Tropicana.) She has a special love for and has created several non-profit campaigns such as the When I Rise, We All Rise effort for the WEB Dubois Society and the Help Tarheel Heroes.org campaign which provides financial support for our returning troops. Tobi also writes fiction, loves Facebook, cooks for her husband, runs after her 7-year-old and adores teaching left-brainers how to write outside the box at the Center for Business Innovation and Creativity at the Coles College of Business at KSU.

Cook, Christine

Christine Cook…

is the President of INGATHER RESEARCH. With 20+ years of research experience, Christine’s is known for being a forward thinker and industry trend setter.  During her career, she has been involved in administration, operations, research, strategic planning, sales and marketing for both field and full service research companies, as well as end user experience.

Prior to INGATHER RESEARCH, Christine was most recently the Vice President/Executive-in-Charge of Eagle Research, a full-service custom market research company and wholly owned subsidiary of Cox Broadcasting, Inc., with offices in Denver, Atlanta, and Cincinnati.

Christine has served as Secretary for the Colorado Chapter of the Business Marketing Association (BMA). She is also a Past President of the Colorado Chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA), a Past President of the Southwest Chapter of the Marketing Research Association (MRA), and is a former Director at Large for the National MRA.  She is the founder of SummerToast, Denver’s largest networking and educational event for marketers. Last years event drew over 1,000 marketing professionals together for networking and education with $14K of the proceeds donated to the Colorado Film School.

She teamed up with Visiting-The-Smith’s Atlanta to create the basis of the industry’s new “Reality” Research & Workshop Facility concepts. 

 

Daniels, Aubrey C.

Aubrey C. Daniels, Ph.D.,

is the world’s foremost authority on applying the scientifically-proven laws of human behavior to the workplace.

With business and industry confronting complex new challenges—from ethics to high turnover to outsourcing—Daniels helps the world’s leading organizations employ the timeless principles of behavioral science to re-energize the workplace, optimize performance and achieve lasting results.

His management consulting firm, Aubrey Daniels International (ADI), works with business leaders such as DaimlerChrysler, Blue Cross Blue Shield, NASA, Roche Laboratories, and Westinghouse to develop management strategies that reinforce critical behaviors vital to their long-term success. Headquartered in Atlanta, the firm was founded in 1978.

Daniels is the author of four best-selling books widely recognized as international management classics: BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN PEOPLE, CHANGING BEHAVIOR THAT DRIVES ORGANIZATAIONAL EFFECTIVENESS and OTHER PEOPLE'S HABITS plus MEASURE OF A LEADER with James E. Daniels.  His books have been translated into Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish and French and have been licensed in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Romania and Saudi Arabia.

New book coming out: OOPS! 13 Management Practices that Waste Time and Money (and what to do instead).

 

Davidson, Bethany

Bethany Davidson 

Bethany Davidson is a visiting assistant professor of entrepreneurship at Western Carolina University where she teaches primarily in the area of innovation and creativity. Bethany was the College of Business Professor of Excellence in 2009 and believes that teaching creativity and fun go hand in hand. Bethany’s research interests are in the areas of leadership, innovation leadership, organizational creativity, and organizational cultures and processes that support innovation. Bethany also has an executive and entrepreneur coaching practice and consults in the areas of ideation, organizational innovation, and leadership. 

 

Doyle, Eileen

Eileen Doyle

President of Deeper Dives, provides highly interactive facilitation and market research.  She has guided diverse projects such as ideation sessions, team building, market research, TV casting, naming studies, diversity forums and ethnographies.  Eileen applies techniques that access right brain and left brain, creating an atmosphere where participants use all learning styles: visual, auditory and kinesthetic. These include creative problem solving, projective techniques, archetypes, leadership/communication preferences and laughter. She partners with clients to clarify goals and facilitate their progress to actionable results.

Eileen is a leader in the field of creativity, presenting engaging workshops at conferences in the U.S., Canada, Italy and South Africa.   She is a Colleague with the Creative Education Foundation, co-author of the soon to be published Even More Ways to Motivate Audiences and co-founder of the New England Creativity Group.  She’s MBTI ® Certified, Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator™ trained, and Innovation Game® Certified.  Her favorite credentials are Certified Laughter Leader and international cat-sitter.

Eckoff, David

David Eckoff 

is co-founder of Spitter.com, a real-time social news network for sports fans; and president of Revolutionary Ventures, a consulting company that specializes in taking revolutionary ideas from the drawing board to market. For the past three decades, Eckoff has been an innovator in start up companies and Fortune 500 alike. Previously, he served as Vice President, New Product Development & Innovation at Turner Broadcasting (CNN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network); Senior Director at RealNetworks; Senior Vice-President at Rivals.com ; and Founder of Inside Carolina. In his consulting work, Eckoff helps businesses create new growth through innovation. Clients have included Kleiner Perkins backed Zazzle.com, live interactive broadcasting platform Ustream.TV, 3D Virtual World innovator Kaneva, and more. You can read his thoughts about innovation and new media on his blog at www.DavidEckoff.com and follow him on Twitter at @davideckoff

 

Ellison, Debbie

Debbie Ellison

is a Certified Laughter Yoga Leader and a freelance writer and editor. She facilitates writing, creativity, and laughter workshops in Atlanta, Georgia.

She is a volunteer for HOPE-HOWSE International, a peace and human rights

Organization, and in the prison system in Georgia. Her promise to the world is

“being peace in the world through writing and laughter.”

Farin, Rita

Rita Farin

Marketing Consultant and Certified Creativity Coach

founder of Flying Motion Creative, Rita Farin is a 20-year marketing professional and entrepreneur who chose to become a writer and artist.  She is a certified creativity coach, consultant and facilitator, helping individuals unleash their imaginations to create new realities and organizations foster creativity in the workplace to improve business productivity.  A contributing author to the Creativity Portal, Rita also blogs about creative life transitions.  Her articles on creativity and change appear in various publications, including the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the International Journal of Cuban Studies.

 

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Finley, Janet

Janet Finley

is an internationally recognized consultant and author on facilitation, teamwork, creativity, and strategic planning with more than twenty years of experience leading co-creative design improvement teams in service, construction, manufacturing, and non-profits.  Her graduate work in organizational behavior and management building upon her undergraduate degree in liberal arts from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has led to various publications including a book chapter titled “Using a ‘Typology of An AHA’ for Broader Access to the Sources of Creativity” in Business Creativity, Greenwich University Press, 2007. 

Gilmore, Allison Dukes

Allison Dukes Gilmore

has entertained audiences through improvisational comedy for over 20 years as a founding member of Laughing Matters and The Gorgeous Ladies of Comedy. Her passion is teaching the skills of improvisation for leadership development to a wide range of students - from CEOs to Pastors, children to adults. She’s also the Director of the PHD Program in Business at Emory University where she trains students across all programs in the principles of leadership through intuitive and spontaneous thinking.

Greene, Kim

Kim Greene

is the founder of GreeneLight Consulting LLC.  Over the last thirteen years, Kim has worked with government bodies, professional groups and numerous large corporations (e.g. Microsoft, Pepsi, Astra Zeneca, Pfizer, Visa, McDonalds, Starbucks, Kimberly-Clark, General Mills …) as an innovation consultant.  She has designed and facilitated hundreds of projects to develop ideas for new products and services.  She also helps organizations generate unique solutions to business challenges.  Those challenges range from identifying and dealing with the “elephant in the room” – problems that everyone is aware of but not one wants to tackle, to figuring out how to deliver needed services after government budget cuts.

Kim regularly teaches creative thinking processes and styles internationally.  She is certified in Myers-Briggs, KAI, and NLP and has attended Whole Brain practitioner training.

Kim is delighted to return to ACE for a weekend of stretching and discovery.

Harrington, Ed

Ed Harrington

Ed Harrington—Principal, Innovation Process Facilitator, Ideas To Go

Principal and Past President and CEO of Ideas To Go, with 20+ years of experience in Creative Process Facilitation and Marketing Strategies. Has extensive CPG experience with Procter and & Gamble and Bausch & Lomb. At P&G Ed received the fastest promotion to Brand Manager in the history of the company and was assigned to lead a breakthrough cross-functional team to discover true consumer insights as a basis for creating winning businesses. Outgrowth of this team include P&G’s foray into ‘bag’ coffee (Millstone), re-centering brand communications and product development to be consumer-driven as well as many other product, communication and  promotion efforts. Ed has a Masters Degree from the Yale School of Management and is an Advisory Board Member for the Yale Center for Customer Insights.

 

Hipple, Jack

Jack Hipple

is Principal in the consulting firm Innovation-TRIZ

After 30 years in industry, he formed Innovation-TRIZ to devote his full time efforts to assisting organizations achieve breakthrough solutions and new product concepts through the use of the state of the art inventive problem solving tool kit known as “TRIZ” and the parallel use of personnel assessment tools that assist team in understanding the barriers to breakthrough thinking. He is one of the few individuals in the world certified in TRIZ, Myers Briggs/16Types™, and the Kirton KAI™ methodologies.

Jack is a ChE from Carnegie Mellon University led Dow Chemical’s corporate chemical engineering research and its Discovery Research program. With the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, he led collaborative projects in the environmental and management areas. At Ansell Edmont, he led new product development in general purpose gloves. At Cabot, he led the developmental efforts for Aerogel insulation materials.

He is the TRIZ trainer for the AIChE, ASME, the World Future Society, the American Creativity Association, and various chapters of PDMA and ASTD.

Hoffman, Mary Ann

Mary Ann Hoffman

Mary Ann is the Lower School Head at St. Luke’s School, in the West Village of New York City.  Prior to her current position there, she was Lower School Head at Heathwood Hall Episcopal School in Columbia, South Carolina for 14 years.  She has 31 years of experience in the education field where she has been Teacher of the Year three times, principal of a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence, and has developed gifted and talented programs for elementary and middle schools in PA and SC.  She has created a thinking skills program for both St. Luke’s School and Heathwood Hall that uses original lessons and commercial programs.  She has coached both Odyssey of the Mind and Destination Imagination teams, and her students have garnered two national Invent America first place awards for the fourth grade.  She has presented her Thinking Skills Workshops at the National Association of Independent Schools national conference, The National Center for Independent School Renewal national conference, The Commonwealth in Education national conference, The Atlanta Creativity Exchange, and numerous other local and state conferences

Hurson, Tim

Tim Hurson

Throughout his career, Tim has helped large and small organizations around the world see the possible and create the new.

A sought-after international speaker, Tim has addressed audiences in 31 countries on five continents. He speaks regularly about how to use the principles of productive thinking to discover possibility and create positive change.

Tim is founding partner of ThinkX Intellectual Capital, a firm that helps organizations explore and implement innovative solutions to a wide range of challenges. He is also a founding director of Facilitators Without Borders, a not-for-profit offering the same services to NGOs, charities and communities in need.

Tim's 2008 book, Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking (McGraw Hill, NY), is its third English-language printing and has been translated into six languages.

His new book The Shock of the Possible: why we can’t solve 21st century problems with 20th century thinking is set for release in late 2010.

Jatah, Udaiyan

Udaiyan Jatar

has 20 years of developing and launching new brands in companies like Coca-Cola, P&G and Grey Advertising. This included leading the $400m Global JV between Coke and Nestle for whom he expanded Nestea bottled teas across the world.

As Coke’s Global Vice-President for Innovation in Brewed Beverages, he founded the Far Coast coffee & tea business that leveraged disruptive innovation to afford 100% Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance certified coffee purchases, and use of sustainable materials etc.

He recently founded the Blue Earth Network to partner with universities, non-profits and for-profit organizations, to generate transformational innovation and create holistically sustainable businesses.

 

Justice, Jeff

Jeff Justice

Considered the leading authority on teaching humor in the Southeast, Jeff Justice, CSP is sure to pack this presentation with lots of laughs and some great tips.

 

As the president and head "Laugh Master" of Jeff Justice's Comedy Workshoppe, Jeff has graduated over 2000 students and rewritten over 25,000 jokes!  His graduates include many business leaders including zillionaire Charles Brewer, founder of Mindspring, Sara Blakley, founder and president of Spanks as well as most of the top professional speakers in Georgia.  Whether you're writing a manual, article or adding humor to your presentations Jeff will show you how to squeeze every laugh out of your punch lines.  The methods are easy and the laughs are big.

His seven humorous books have sold over 100,000 copies.  His latest "Laugh More, Stress Less...(and avoid getting burned out)" 

TELEVISION APPEARANCES AND ARTICLES:

              •              CNN-HEALTH WORKS twice

              •              CNBC

              •              Southeast EMMY Awards

COMEDY APPEARANCES:

              •              Caroline's Comedy Hour

              •              A&E's Comic Strip Live

              •              A&E's Comedy on the Road

              •              Showtime's Comedy Club Network

              •              Thicke of the Night

              •              Comedy Tonight

              •              NBC Comedy Club

Time Magazine, Newsweek, Competitive Edge, The Daily News, TV Guide, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Atlanta Business Chronicle and many, many more.

 

Landrum, Brownell

Brownell Landrum

is the founder and Chief Innovation Officer of DrawSuccess, LLC.  Brownell's vision for DrawSuccess came from being a member, years ago, of a particularly challenging team.  There was hostility, animosity, detachment, manipulation, frustration, dishonesty, rejection, cliques and ganging-up – and there were only six people involved!   It was a turning point for her, because she couldn’t stop until she discovered an antidote to such an unsettling and pervasive problem in corporate America.  DrawSuccess is the solution.  Brownell has worked on teams in marketing, sales, project management, planning, and many others, for over 20 years, with companies of all kinds, including The Coca-Cola Company, Eastman Kodak, Siemens Energy & Automation, The Bloom Agency, Chattem Consumer Products, Long John Silver's, and several others, as well as a two-year study group while getting her Masters in Business Administration at one of the leading EMBA schools in the U.S.

McDonald, Jim

Jim McDonald

has spent 30 years marketing all kinds of products and services—from BMW motorcycles to pre-paid funerals. Since 2001, he has applied his senior-level marketing management experience toward providing planning and research    services to advertisers and agencies across a wide range of industries.

Prior, he held senior posts in both line-management and consumer research at Morton-Norwich and Ciba-Geigy consumer brand divisions. Agency-side, he    served as senior account planner at Chiat/Day New York, McCann-Erickson and TuckerWayne/Luckie.

Jim is a workshop instructor at the Coles College of Business Center for           Business Creativity and Innovation and has taught brand marketing and             copywriting at The Creative Circus and Kennesaw State University. He also     developed and taught the workshop, Small Business Marketing on a Shoestring, for the Greater Atlanta Small Business Project.

Off the clock, he reads history, thrashes the mandolin, and with his wife, Leisa,

co-directs the First Fellowship of Eatin’/Walkin’/Wavin’/Weepin’ & Dog Rescue          

McDermott, Michael

Michael McDermott

has spent many years in Corporate America. During those years, he has taught leadership, specific management skills, teamwork, dispute resolution, diversity, problem solving and numerous other employee related classes to all levels of the organization. He has also worked with employees for their personal and professional development. Some of his other activities have included facilitating for problem-solving/quality improvement teams, facilitating for process mapping teams, facilitating employee dispute resolution and as a control operator of an electric power generation plant.

Michael has had the opportunity to teach business and decision-making classes, as adjunct faculty, for several colleges and universities. He feels that well prepared people are successful and have the potential to be innovative in their organizations.

Michael has been a past presenter and attendee at the Creative Problem Solving Institute, the International Creativity Conference at Northwood University in Midland, Michigan and the Atlanta Creativity Exchange.

Whether in Corporate America, academia, or through conferences his focus is to help others be the best they can be for who they are.

Meyer, Al

Al Meyers

has accumulated nearly 20 years of experience in the media and entertainment industry with several Fortune 100 companies

Al is currently President of Saisei Consulting, a strategy and advisory services firm supporting digital media companies around the world.  Additionally, Al serves on the advisory board of several media startups.

Al spent 13 years at Turner Broadcasting, most recently serving as Vice President, Strategic Planning.  One of a team of senior executives tasked with identifying, evaluating and developing strategic business opportunities across the company, Al also helped launch GameTap as a founding member.  Prior to leaving Turner in early 2008, Al helped facilitate the sale of Game Tap to a French company.

Al is currently collaborating on a book with clinical psychologist Reid Daitzman about how cyberspace behavior has impacted the lives of young consumers around the world. Tentatively titled “Love at First Byte,” the book will explore these issues in new and creative ways, providing a lens for the average person to re-think what they do, and why, all day. The book is expected to be published in late 2010.

Miller, Scott

Scott Miller

Bio to be posted soon

Neuschaefer, Gabriele

Gabriele Neuschaefer…

studied psychology & economics and has been the head of several social marketing projects at the University of Kiel, Germany before she founded her own consultancy grasp working with international clients. For her one of the most interesting parts of consultancy is to bridge science, knowledge gained while practicing and reality - to create working tools.

Gabriele developed insightology™, the science of human insights and is an expert in insight based idea, concept & communication development.

She created and owned one of the first Internet based tools for moderation, ideation and insight generation – which was created about 15 (!) years ago and is constantly being improved.

Her newest tool to develop more in-depth insights and greater ideas is Visiting-the-Smith's in Atlanta - a revolutionary approache on an ambience oriented research and workshop facility.

Rein, Ph.D., Rosemary

Rosemary Rein, Ph.D.

is President of Now to WOWTM Learning Adventures and Retreats Costa Rica .  Dr. Rein is the Author of “Go Wild! Survival Skills for Business and Life” published by Career Track Seminars and a contributing author of “Blueprint for Success” with Dr. Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard.  A Former Director of Training and Development for First USA Bank, and Hotel Business Entrepreneur,  Rosemary moved to Costa Rica over a decade ago and speaks internationally on Leadership, Creativity and Business Survival Strategies in a Tough Economy.   A graduate of Wilderness Survival Skills, Rosemary has survived evacuation from volcano eruptions, mudslides and earthquakes and presents a Go Wild! Go GREATTM Formula for organizational survival and transformational change amidst economic tsunamis. Her client list includes the Distinguished YPO (Young President’s Organization) Procter and Gamble, Pfizer, International Women in Coffee and the U.S. Military.  Rosemary is a frequent Keynote Speaker and Presenter at Global Conferences on Creativity and Innovation in Organizations in the United States, Canada, Latin America and South Africa and also hosts Executive Leadership and Personal Growth Retreats at her Learning Center based in Costa Rica, ranked “The Happiest Place on the Planet”. 

Rosemary’s highly interactive and inspired training programs win rave reviews for connecting with the head and heart of teams and educators through the use of creative learning tools, nature and tribal traditions.   Dr. Rein is also a certified NBITM Whole Brain Practitioner and Professional Coach. 

Sawyer, Keith

Keith Sawyer

is a professor of psychology and education at Washington University in St. Louis, is one of the country’s leading scientific experts on creativity and innovation.  After receiving his computer science degree from MIT in 1982, Dr. Sawyer began his career with a two-year stint designing videogames for Atari.  He then worked for 6 years as a management consultant in Boston and New York, advising large corporations on the strategic use of information technology.  Dr. Sawyer entered doctoral study at the University of Chicago in 1990 and attained his PhD in psychology in 1994.  He is best known for his studies of jazz and improvisational theater groups.  His ten books include _Group Genius_ (2007) and _Explaining Creativity_ (2006), and he has published over 50 scientific articles.

Thompson, Maria

Maria Thompson

manages a Motorola Law Department team of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Process and Information Technology specialists, benchmarking industry best practices, ensuring stability of IPR management tools, applying Digital Six Sigma principles, & continuously enhancing systems and tools to automate business processes used by legal professionals and their clients in large in-house law departments.

She facilitates Directed Innovation sessions, generating technology and product-focused solutions to problems and ensuring generation of High-Quality IPR.

Over the past 27 years, her job roles have included:

• Telecommunications switching/networking systems software design & development;

• Software engineering systems and tools Applied Research;

• Process Design, re-engineering & improvement;

• Benchmarking best practices;

• Operations Management, Software Quality Assurance management, and culture change applying the SEI's Software Capability Maturity Model to software organizations;

• Patent portfolio analysis, patent disclosure review & prior art searching

• Invention Leadership Program management – proliferating use of creativity methods & tools

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Vicksta, Mary Ellyn

Mary Ellyn Vicksta

spent the last 27 years at Kimberly Clark in the areas of Product Development, Marketing Research, and Creativity/Creative Problem Solving.  Mary Ellyn was responsible for creative capability which involved creativity training, exploring best practices in creativity and innovation, and leading idea generation workshops.  She provided highly engaging, experiential courses in creativity, diverse thinking styles, innovation practices, and facilitation skills.  She mixed fun, inspiration, and “different thinking” with an eye towards actionable business outcomes.

She recently formed her own business, Vicksta Innovative Practices LLC, to help teams apply innovative thinking to their business challenges and for team development.  In her spare time she loves to travel and explore creative expression with photography.

Waldeck, Nancy

Nancy Waldeck

Eating better, enjoying life and food define Nancy Waldeck. She combines a corporate training background with solid culinary education and diverse experience in the food world. Her skills have taken her from monthly appearances on national TV to the kitchen crew at the TBS cooking show Home Plate, then to Africa where she has served as Chef Instructor at the United States Embassy in Burundi. Food should be fast, fun, healthy AND taste great is her philosophy. She is a favorite chef at the Cancer Wellness Center at Piedmont Hospital and Atlanta’s Cooks Warehouse. From the Taste of the NFL to recipe development and food styling to working with celebrity chefs like Anthony Bourdain, Shirley Corriher, Emeril Lagasse and Virginia Willis, she has devoured the full realm of culinary artistry. A lover of wine and food pairing, she holds international wine certifications from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust. Over 50 local and national companies like GE, McCormick, Ford, St. Regis Hotels and Google have enjoyed private cooking or wine classes with Chef Nancy. Her unique perspective from big business combined with cooking savvy make Nancy’s classes fun and creative!

Wenger, Susan

Susan Wenger

has retired from the federal government. Previously she taught Philosophy and English. She enjoys humor, puzzles and wordplay. Susan is a member of Mensa and Intertel, and is the coordinator for Mensa's Patrick O'Brian Special Interest Group. She is the author of The Port-Wine Sea, co-author of Your Limitless Inventing Machine, and author of The Better Baby, a new book about raising happy geniuses. She has taught workshops at the Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI) and at other creativity venues both in the USA and abroad. Susan and her husband Win live in Montgomery Village, Maryland.

Wenger, Win

Win Wenger

is one of the principal pioneers of the creativity movement, having created and developed several dozen CPS methods now in apparent successful use. "Practicing what he preaches," he has authored or co-authored 50 published books, is an inventor, and teaches several techniques of creatively composing music. Motivated by world conditions, Win has been active in the CPS and creativity movements for 35 years.

Wolf, Erin

Erin Wolf

Erin is the Managing Partner of SuiteTrack, a firm dedicated to helping companies develop and accelerate the advancement of female professionals. SuiteTrack’s programs include executive coaching and workshops designed to develop leadership competencies.

With more than 25 years of experience, Erin brings a diverse background in strategic consulting, change management, organizational development/leadership, investment banking and finance.  She has worked for leading firms such as Bain & Company, Goldman Sachs, Accenture and Salomon Brothers Inc. She has also been a member of the executive team of two nationally-recognized companies, ChoicePoint Inc and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

Erin is currently the Chair of Girls on the Run Atlanta and sits on the Boards of Trustees of The Atlanta Girls School, Homrich Berg Investment Advisors and the Harvard Business School Club of Atlanta. A former nationally ranked tennis player

and scholarship athlete, Erin received her BA Magna Cum Laude in Economics and Spanish from Duke University and her MBA from Harvard University.

 

Wolf, Jack, Ph.D.

Jack Wolf, Ph.D.

For 31 years Jack has presented before audiences on the topics of Adult Learning, Teaching and Training Techniques, Meeting Leadership and Communication. His clients include the Government of Hong Kong, AIG, HBO, Starbucks and numerous school districts. His classes titled Creative Teaching Techniques is being utilized at the local, county and State levels with teachers, administrators and staff developers. He is certified in Learning Styles, Adult Learning, Accelerated Training and numerous psychological disciplines. His classes are interactive and immerse the learners in techniques that they can use back in their training and classrooms. He is an adjunct faculty member at Kennesaw State University and teaches at the annual Creative Problem Solving Institute.