Creativity Coaching Conference Wrap-Up

October 4 and 5 saw a creative breakthrough in Lake George, New York. The Creativity Coaching Association held its first conference. A group of artists, creative thinkers and creativity coaches gathered to hear speakers, attend workshops and have some creative fun.

Beverly Down, the CEO of the Creativity Coaching Association organized the entire event and deserves the credit for the great feeling of community, collegiality, and creativity.

My idea for conferences is that if I take away one good idea, I’m happy. Because I was a speaker myself (on the business of art and how to make a living as both an artist and a creativity coach), I had the opportunity to hear only two other speakers.

Steve Harper, a professional actor and creativity coach, was incredible. The one idea that I took away from his presentation was the value of being in service to your work. What does that mean? It means that no

Steve Harper

matter what you do, you are both attached and detached from it. You care about it, work on it, and it comes from the place that is meaningful to you. But at the presentation, you keep detached from it. Criticism about your presentation, art, or speech is not about you–it is about your “thing.” Which is separate from you. This allows you to take criticism, weigh it, and make your work better without cringing and feeling bad.

This is exactly the idea that leads to success–improving without blame and negative self talk.

Just to be fair, Steve is also a graduate of Yale, The A.R.T. Institute at Harvard, and the Juilliard playwriting program. His coaching clients range from artists and individuals facing life/work issues to corporate officers developing projects.

Melissa Rosati, also a creativity coach, gave a wonderful presentation on word-of-mouth marketing. The one great idea I took away from her workshop was that social networking isn’t just for kids, and that professional

Melissa Rosati

creatives, no matter what their age, can benefit from web networking. The best part? She showed us how. She gave clear examples, cited books and Websites, and those of us in the room wore out pencils and pens taking notes from her powerful ideas.

I ran into Paula Chaffee Scardamalia, whom I know as a writer for a number of art and craft magazines. Paula is also a weaver, and her new book, Weaving a Woman’s Life:

Paula Chaffee Scardamalia

Spiritual Lessons from the Loom, is a wonderful read. Using her art–weaving–as a metaphor for live, Paula spins some warm and comforting lessons that every woman can relate to.

Beth Barany was also there, contributing her great ideas on print and online publishing. Beth is one of those people who shares ideas freely, knowing that she isn’t losing anything by

Beth Barany

helping writers expand their options. Knowledge is power only if enough people know how to use it all. Beth is a great resource with an enviable depth of experience. Beth is a creativity coach who specializes in working with writers.

There were, of course, many other coaches there, and I couldn’t talk to all of them, no matter how hard I tried.  Dave Storer, a coach and fiction writer; Nellie Jacobs, creativity consultant and host of internet talk radio; Eric Maisel, author and creativity coach specializing (most recently!) in creative tourism; Stacey Rasfeld, artist and coach all had interesting things to chat about.

If you missed it this year, sign up for 2009–the event will be in Lake George, New York again, the third weekend in October–the 17th and 18th. Experience the joy of being surrounded by creative people for yourself.

–Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach, writer, and workshop leader. She just returned from the First Creativity Coaching Conference.