Sources of Creativity & Thinking On My Feet

Figure 1. Catabas. 2023. Beach in California

Creativity is especially important to me. As an event practitioner, reflective thinking, the exploration of new ideas, and working outside of my comfort zone feeds my imagination. Sometimes I use nature’s quiet moments to draw out my creativity through hiking and listening to the sounds of nature whilst carrying a pen and notebook. I agree with Elizabeth Gilbert’s notion that a creative genius isn’t just a rare person, instead, there is a creative genius inside all of us (Gilbert, 2009).  Her theory makes me believe I have the natural talent to be creative in my event work, such as the Wigan Comic Con where I can put my creative ideas into practice. 

 http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius/transcript?language=en

 
Artwork which conveys my creative thought process

Tang Yau Yoong created an illustration of a boy swinging on the light of a lamp post (2013).  Underneath, Einstein’s quote read: “Creativity Is Intelligence Having Fun”.  His other illustration of an elephant and alligators wading in water with Thoreau’s words, “It’s Not What You Look At That Matters, It’s What You See” is another great quote. It reminds me that the beauty of the world is in the details and observing things from a new perspective can encourage creativity.

Figure 2. Hoong. 2013

I enjoyed watching the video of Claire Eason Bassett (2018).  She states that the success of an event hinges upon the design and execution of the event from start to finish. Planning, crafting, and problem solving are equally crucial elements for delivering the final product. Collaboration also plays a key role as teammates can contribute a variety of ideas on how to improve the event. I can relate to this because at Comic Con, the staff and I had to really apply teamwork to solve problems as they came up, especially when design and execution cannot cover all unforeseen circumstances. 

Event design can be leveraged to build a community and nurture positive social interactions (Greg et al, 2015). For example, a multitude of cosplayer communities use events as a gathering for their fan activities . A Star Wars fan group called the 501st Legion, is a community of individuals who dress up as Stormtroopers from Star Wars. 

In fact, I had the incredible opportunity to work as a guest event assistant at Wigan Comic Con 2025. My  role was to assist a celebrity named Terry Molloy, the actor from Doctor Who. I managed his booth, organized, and designed his promotional materials, and created an inviting atmosphere to ensure smooth interaction with fans.

Figure 3. Catabas. 2025

One of my biggest takeaways from this event was the importance of creativity in problem-solving. Amabile (1998) discusses creativity-relevant processes which amounts to a thinking style unique to an individual’s personality. It involves independence, adapting and solving problems through new perspectives, and then applying a disciplined work style to generate ideas for scenarios with ambiguity. The chaos of Terry Molloy’s queues required adaptability for success. To explain, we did not have proper signage to guide the attendees. Therefore, the staff and I collaborated to create checkpoints in the queue – giving attendees an organized line with a sense of progression.

Amabile also illustrates three major components of creativity: expertise, creative thinking skills, and motivation. In hindsight, I used these ideas to oversee the attendees waiting for autographs as I could have used these components to form guidelines for a more disciplined structure in managing events.

Figure 4. Graph by Amabile. 1998