Two years since the Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship opened, and many more years of planning and development before that, a celebration of the commitment from students and staff alike was well overdue. Transdisciplinarity defines the Centre, so with such a great mix of people it was bound to be an unforgettable party. But how do innovators party? If they think differently, do they party differently too?
A group of students, innovators themselves, got together to address this very important question. With post-it notes at the ready, they went to work. After much ideation, they realised that a casual mingle with a few nibbles wasn’t quite going to cut it.
Find Your Post-It
Innovators do love post-its, we could hardly have a party without them. Our first game of the evening was designed to help attenuate that awkward tension that puts a dampener on the beginning of nearly every party. No more loitering by the bar, no more slouching on the loungers waiting for somebody else to make the first move, no more standing in groups only talking to your really close friends. It was time to get up, break the ice, and find your post-it.
Each person was given a post-it note to stick on their forehead (we innovators don’t care about looking a bit silly, in fact we relish it). Through an elaborate game of twenty questions, you needed to first discern who or what you were, and only then could you take on the epic adventure of discovering your perfect match. Sadly, Ann never found her jelly.
The Golden Peg
Students and staff continued to chat and share stories, but little did they know, there was a sinister movement in the crowd. Three golden pegs were on the loose. Those in possession of a golden peg as the ninth hour sounded were asked to approach the stage and collect their golden box. Inside each box was a unique object. Each winner (or loser depending on your perspective) was given one minute to come up with a thirty-second pitch to sell their unique object in a charity bid.
“This is what you’ve been looking for. Say goodbye to boring curtain rods and bleak bed poles, this 3D printed pink skull will brighten up any room,” assures Ross Tatham.
Awards for Innovators
We couldn’t finish the evening without some special shout-outs. Hitting off the awards was David Jones with ‘The Most Likely to Have a Song About Recycling in the Charts’ (could there be any other winner?). As mentioned earlier, us innovators quite enjoy looking silly, but the ‘Wackiest Prototyper’ had to go to Zoe Andrews. If you can’t make it, you can’t test it, so the wackier you can be, the better chance you have of meeting those all-important needs of the user.
The next award was reciprocated with this expression. “And the most likely to…” a pause as Ki realises what is to follow “replace me as academic director, goes to Amber Probyn”.
So what can we say about how innovators party? Just like everybody else. We eat, we dance, we laugh. We are all born innovators and anybody can use these games to liven up their party, and make their night ‘truly innovative’ (whatever that means).