All around the world, teams are gathering this week to prepare for one of the largest creative problem-solving competitions on the globe — Destination Imagination (DI) Global Finals in Knoxville, Tenn. This four-day DI event is the world’s largest celebration of creativity. More than 8,000 of the world’s most innovative minds compete in teams to showcase their challenge solutions, celebrate creativity and have fun. From engineering and robotics, to storytelling and artistic performances, students will present solutions that they’ve created on their own (without the interference or ideas from adults).
Being a DI team manager for the past five years, I’ve re-learned some of the basic skills of how to put the creative mind to work. How do we let our brains run free? What makes a story sticky? How can we create a solution that is original for a brand? All valuable exercises to push our brains to explore. Whether we’re charged with writing a marketing plan or solving a digital branding challenge, we can apply the basics of DI.
At Scream Agency, we recently gave the DI thinking a whirl. The challenge: to create a kite out of the materials provided and tell a story of what the kite could see from its point of view. Both needed to be created and integrated in 5 minutes or less. We saw aliens from a foreign planet, a hand-drawn tree landscape scene, an original team-created kite made out of straws, string and paperclips and lots of laughter. And, more importantly, we saw teamwork.
Curious to learn more? We’d be happy to share some of our creative brainstorming techniques or DI experiences. Just give us a shout.
Congrats to all of the Colorado DI teams who will be competing at Global Finals this week. Wish us luck!
