This year's topic was Inspiration, and the World Creativity and Innovation Week was held under the slogan "Ukrainians inspire". What is today a source of inspiration for Ukrainians who have been living in war conditions for the second year already? Is it possible to be inspired by something? Is it possible to find sources of self-motivation, resource conditions to use creative thinking technologies, to create innovations aimed at solving problems and challenges, improving the quality of life of Ukrainians?
The World Week of Creativity and Innovation in Ukraine was represented by 11 offline and online events. In total, more than 300 people attended events - business owners and managers, business consultants, professionals from various industries.
On April 15, the birthday of Leonardo da Vinci, the World Creativity and Innovation Week in Ukraine began with a panel discussion "Inspiration in Ukrainian Style". Modern artists, whose concepts and works inspired Ukrainians during the war, visited KROK Business School: Artem Gusev, art-designer, Sonia Morozyuk, contemporary artist of Ukrainian hearts, Maksym Palenko, artist-illustrator. Creators have found a source of inspiration and strength, they reflect on daily events, reflecting in their creative messages that they not only support Ukrainians in difficult times, but also represent Ukraine in the world as a creative and innovative country. The speakers shared the secrets of their inspiration, told the stories of the creation of their paintings, designs, illustrations, large-scale projects, talked about the ethics of creativity during the war and intellectual property in creative industries. The panel discussion was broadcast live on the KROK Business School Facebook page, so many people were able to watch it.
 |  |
This day continued with the Mastermind "Business vs Creative: the magic of mutual consulting to solve problems", where 10 entrepreneurs, with facilitation by Oksana Sedashova, an International Creativity Ambassador in Ukraine, looked for new approaches and ideas for solving urgent business problems.
On April 17, an open lecture was held for the Dnipro office of the European Business Association on the topic "Creativity is my superpower", and Oksana Sedashova told and showed how creative potential can be revealed in the workplace and how the company's corporate culture can be transformed into an innovative one. The event gathered more than 100 listeners. On the same day, during the webinar under the slogan "Inspiration in Ukrainian style", the famous Ukrainian sculptor Oleksandr Lidagovsky spoke about where he gets his inspiration, ideas for creation, and how he organizes his artistic activity. From Oleksandr, we learned about the psychology of an artist and what artistic thinking strategies can be transferred to business management.
On April 18, creative consultant from the USA Susanne Dameron held a practical workshop on creating one's own vision - a vision of the future. Susan set herself a difficult and at the same time important task: to guide Ukrainians through the process of visionary thinking, which will lay the foundation for creating a vision for their future or their company. As a result of the session, almost all participants had a vision and clear steps that must be taken in order to implement the idea into life.
On the same day, the participants of the week of creativity met with the participants of the project "Vidvazhna (Brave)", initiated by the Diya.Business network of centers. "Brave" is a unique inclusive business accelerator for women who seek independent development and want to start their own business or develop an existing business. During the panel discussion, the participants of the week of creativity got to know brave creative entrepreneurs from the city hero Bucha and were inspired by the unique stories of female entrepreneurship. Project participants shared their experience of how and why they dared to do business during the war, how creativity and bold, non-standard thinking help to make business breakthroughs despite all the troubles, how to develop their own business and help rebuild Ukraine.
On April 20, an online meeting was held with Iryna Kostyuk, the producer and the inspiration source of the animated film "Mavka. Forest Song" - a Ukrainian cartoon that became extremely successful not only in Ukraine, but also in various countries around the world. The animated film was released nationally and internationally on March 2, and has already become a real phenomenon, a record holder in cinemas. In the first four weeks of distribution in Ukraine, "Mavka. Forest Song" became the highest-grossing Ukrainian film and the highest-grossing animated film since Independence of Ukraine. In general, for 8 weeks of national distribution, the box office of "Mavka" amounted to UAH 137,914,937, and 1,095,407 tickets were sold.
More than 80 countries bought the rights to show it. During the webinar "In search of inspiration. MAVKA. "Forest song, the story of creation" listeners learned the secrets of creating this tape, namely, what innovations were used during the creation of the cartoon and what strategies helped make it financially successful. It was interesting to learn how the creators of the cartoon gathered information about Ukrainian authentic symbols and things that were visually reflected in the cartoon, how three woman became part of the identity of the main character, how the music, characters, appearance and costumes of the main characters were created, how Swampy the Kittyfrog was created - the only character that does not have a mythological basis, which is important symbolism is present in the cartoon, and why the tape became supportive and inspiring for Ukrainians. Business representatives significantly expanded their knowledge about positive experience in managing finances during the creation of a cartoon and about a business model based on partnerships and collaborations with various Ukrainian enterprises and brands, which made it possible to finalize the production of the animated film and make a stunning PR company even during the war.
This day continued with an equally inspiring meeting with the maestro of Argentine tango, Anatoly Yakimchuk, the founder of Kote Dance Studio. It was interesting to dive into the world of tango-thinking strategies to understand how to use them in life and business to build optimal interaction with people, develop leadership, influence, and self-presentation.
The online workshop "Leader of the Heart. Are you one of them?” from the creative leadership expert from Germany, Marie Reig Florence, who showed how to become an exceptional leader who leads from the heart, and it is this type of "inside-out leadership" that will contribute to the maximum development of innovation in the company.
On April 21, on the World Creativity and Innovation Day, the event Creative Problem Solving Challenge was held - a team championship in creative problem solving, where the instructors Roman Romantsov and Oksana Sedashova taught the attendees to see the essence of business problems, analyze them and find good solutions for solving them using lean production technologies and creative problem solving technologies.
And the creativity week finished with a speech by the creativity and innovation coach Michael Lee from South Africa, who talked about the true nature of the source of inspiration.
World creativity and innovation week in Ukraine is a source of inspiration for the whole year, a lot of insights, realizations, support, and creative interaction. KROK Business School will continue to provide access to the best knowledge in the field of creativity and innovative development - follow the news, join events! Because issues of creativity and innovation are constantly explored by Oksana Sedashova, the International Creativity Ambassador in Ukraine, associate professor of the KROK Business School, who is the initiator and driver of the World Creativity and Innovation week in Ukraine, with colleagues from other countries.
