What's America's Number One resource, energy source and priority? Hint - it's NOT oil. Tom Tresser gave this presentation at TEDxIIT on March 26. Follow Tom on Twitter - tomstee.

1. The Creativity Imperative Tom Tresser March 26, 2011

2. It starts with a single mom and a pad of paper in a café…

7. WHAT IS CREATIVITY?

8. Creativity is when you think do or make something new. Tom’s simple definition

9. WHO IS CREATIVE?

10. Howard Gardner John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero. http://www.howardgardner.com Project Zero aims to understand and enhance learning, thinking, and creativity in the arts, as well as humanistic and scientific disciplines, at the individual and institutional levels. http://www.pzweb.harvard.edu

11. HOWARD GARDNER’S 8 INTELLIGENCES

12. Linguistic pitch, rhythm, timbre awareness of others' feelings, emotions, goals, motivations Intrapersonal DO YOU SEE YOURSELF ON THIS LIST? syntax, phonology, semantics, pragmatics Musical Logical-mathematical number, categorization, relations Spatial accurate mental visualization, mental transformation of images Bodily-kinesthetic control of one's own body, control in handling objects Interpersonal awareness of one's own feelings, emotions, goals , motivations Naturalist recognition and classification of objects in the environment We are ALL creative! Intelligence Core Operations

13. Creativity & American Heritage Creativity!

14. America, the Invented Country

15. The Power of words… Thomas Paine – 1737 - 1809

16. The Power of words… “ We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the event of a few months.”

17. The invention of America

18. “ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. etc. etc.”

19. Tom Crafts reads the Declaration aloud in Boston - July 19, 1776

20. “ The bells rang, the privateers fired the forts and batteries, the cannon were discharged, the platoons followed, and every face appeared joyful…After dinner the King’s Arms were taken down from the State House and every vestige of him from every place in which it appeared, and burnt…Thus ends royal Authority in this State…and all the people shall say Amen.” Abigail Adams letter to John describing Tom Crafts, a house painter, reading of the Declaration of Independence aloud on July 19, 1776 from small balcony in front of the Massachusetts State House, Boston.

21. U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!

22. VALUE OF CREATIVITY?

23. Creativity is our promise 43,000,000 people in U.S. born abroad

24. Creativity is our promise

26. Since 1906, 309 U.S. citizens have been awarded Nobel Prizes. 82 were foreign-born (including Isidor Rabi). 27% !

29. The increasing value of creativity

32. Size of U.S. Creative Economy Workforce Source: Catalytix Consulting

33. Value of U.S. Copyright Industries 2007 Produce, distribute equipment that used in creating, use of © materials Distributes both © and non-© to business/ consumers Some aspect of product qualifies for © protection To create, produce, distribute, exhibit copyright materials Manufacturer, distrib,retail of CD players, TV, VCRs, PCs, blank discs, etc. Transporta-tion, communi-cation, whole-sale, retail (only partially counted) Fabric, jewelry, toys, games, furniture Books, periodicals, movies, music, broadcast, software, DVDs Independent Support Partial Core

34. Value of U.S. Copyright Industries 2007 $1.5 Trillion! 11% of GDP

36. What % of Illinois Workers Toil in the Creative Industries? 35%

37. Chicago Region Creative Workers Super-Creatives = 467,760 Creative Pros = 834,080 Total = 32% of labor force Source: Metro Chicago Information Center

38. Creativity Drives U.S. Social + Economic Progress Jane Addams Jonas Salk

39. Creativity in business

40. Creativity can be applied to all types of business THIS BECAME THIS

41. How much value does Starbucks add? Cost of coffee bean when harvested = $0.50/lb. Value realized by Starbucks from selling cup of coffee = $230/lb. AN INCREASE OF VALUE OF +46,000%

42. Creativity can be applied to all types of business THIS BECAME THIS

43. Creativity can be applied to all types of business THIS BECAME THIS

44. http://innovateamerica.org

45. “ Innovate America” – National Innovation Initiative Report, December 2004

47. PAGE 1: “ RESOLVED -- Innovation will be the single most important factor in determining America’s success through the 21 st century.”

50. Prosperity = Literacy + Open Minded Creativity + Innovation Tom’s Unified Field Theory of Creativity

51. BUT…

54. Creativity Champion!

55. Take the Pledge Creativity Champion! “ I hereby declare that I (say your name) as of Saturday, March 26, 2011, am a Creativity Champion and that I will stand up for creativity, innovation, new ideas and an open mind at home, at work and in my community.”

56. Tom Tresser [email_address]