Spotlight on the (Un)Common Threads Creativity & Innovation Summit: Q&A with Amy Henderson

Do you sometimes wish you were a more creative person? While you might not be a musician or dancer on stage performing in front of an adoring audience, or a plein air painter who beautifully brings landscapes to life on their canvas, everyone is creative in their own way. And whether it's lovingly wrapping a gift for a friend, putting together a nice outfit or coming up with an innovative solution for fixing that leaky pipe in your house, we express this creativity every day (even if we might not realize it).

Creativity is a free, unlimited resource that we all possess. And it's in high demand as the world and workplaces evolve. That's why Business & Arts NL is thrilled to host their upcoming (Un)Common Threads Creativity & Innovation Summit on November 7 at the Sheraton Hotel in St. John’s.

This special one-day event aims to inspire individuals and teams across the business and arts sectors, and members of the public who are "creative curious," and highlight the many ways in which we value and tap into creativity and imagination on a regular basis. 

No ordinary conference, attendees will take in inspiring presentations from creative leaders, and witness skilled artists at work as they debut new projects (stay tuned as we unveil more during our official launch event, taking place on September 10 at 10am at The Rooms).  They'll also leave with new approaches, tools and inspiration to share with their teams and communities. 

We chatted with Amy Henderson, Executive Director of Business & Art NL, to learn more. 

Business & Arts NL: The (Un)Common Threads Creativity & Innovation Summit is the biggest event that Business & Arts NL has hosted yet. In a nutshell, what's it all about?

Amy Henderson: This is our marquee event. It's going to be a day-long event for anyone and everyone who's interested in learning about how creativity drives success in both business and the arts, and how we can encourage it in ourselves and in our teams.

Duncan Wardle, Founder of ID8 and former Head of Innovation and Creativity at The Walt Disney Company, will give a keynote at the summit where he'll share how to create safe spaces for taking creative risks, techniques to ensure everyone on your team is empowered and thinking like an entrepreneur, and strategies to transition from the idea stage to action.

Business & Arts NL: There are some really great keynote speakers lined up for the summit as well. Can you share a bit about them?

AH: The core programming for the day is going to be three speakers and three artists-in-residence. The three speakers are Duncan Wardle, the former Head of Innovation and Creativity at The Walt Disney Company; Jillian Keiley, a nationally acclaimed director of theatre, who's worked with Stratford Festival and the National Arts Centre; and John Devereaux, who is the Creative Director of Perfect Day Canada.

Jillian Keiley, Founding Artistic Director of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland and former Artistic Director for English Theatre at Canada's National Arts Centre, will speak to the courage it takes to create and how emphasizing a project's specific mission in the world offers the permissions and safety to release divine sparks of ingenuity and expression.

Business & Arts NL: At Business & Arts NL, we talk a lot about creativity and innovation. How will the summit tackle those topics?

AH: Some people think creativity is painting a really beautiful picture or writing an incredible song. Creativity can also be being a great problem solver. You get that creative buzz when you have a really good conversation and you come to a solution together.

Creativity can look like different things for different people. And so this is about finding those common threads of creativity, between the arts community and the business community, in the tech sector, in the health sector - how are we all creative at our jobs? How are we all creative as humans, and how can we encourage that in ourselves? How can we build creative teams? And how can we harness the power of creativity towards innovation?

(Check out the video clip as Amy shares more about the summit’s artist-in-residence program and the competitive selection process.)

Business & Arts NL: You mentioned this briefly earlier in the conversation, but can you tell us more about who the summit is for and who should consider attending?

AH: We know that workplaces are rapidly evolving and more and more valuing lateral thinking, problem solving and collaboration. This conference is going to pull together lots of themes and threads to address all of these skills. Creative people are welcome, as well as creative-curious people if you're not sure how you identify in the creative world; and managers who have teams they want to bring together and pull more creativity from, and provide more permission for creativity in the workplace, are encouraged to come too.

Business & Arts NL: How can people get tickets to the summit and when are they available?

AH: Tickets are on sale now (click here to purchase tickets to the (Un)Common Threads Creativity & Innovation Summit). And the full lineup, so that people can get a better understanding of what the day is going to be like, will be released on September 10th.

John Devereaux, Creative Director of Perfect Day Canada, will share some lessons he’s learned through real experiences – about creativity, integrity and life in a small creative studio.

Business & Arts NL: Is there anything else you'd like to tell people about this event?

AH: We're excited about this summit because it's going to provide a great opportunity to build new relationships and networks. We see this as an opportunity to fuel growth and innovation in this province, and to connect with like-minded professionals and forge new networks.

We're really excited about this project. Thanks to the Year of the Arts and the team at Celebrate NL, we are able to host something bigger and different and more exciting than any events we've hosted before.

This is a full-day event featuring an A-list lineup of speakers, but also these artists-in-residence who are working now on these projects that they're going to be debuting the day of. And we've got a whole bunch of other surprises lined up, too. So we're very grateful to Celebrate NL and for the Year of the Arts funding to make this happen, and very excited to see who comes out to enjoy this day with us.

Click here for early ticket access and an exclusive sneak peek of the (Un)Common Threads Creativity & Innovation Summit, taking place on Thursday, November 7 at the Sheraton Hotel in St. John’s.

Follow us on social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) as we get closer to our launch event on September 10 at 10am at The Rooms, when we'll reveal more! (Click here and scroll down to RSVP to the press event.)

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