The Edward de Bono Institute celebrates World Creativity and Innovation Week 2023.
A total of fourteen activities were organised to celebrate World Creativity and Innovation Day/Week. Dr Margaret Mangion, the Ambassador for Malta coordinated the programme of events. Each activity was linked to one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The celebrations were also noted as a news item on UM’s Newspoint (https://www.um.edu.mt/newspoint/events/um/2023/04/edward-debono-institute-celebrates-world-creativity-innovation-week-2023).
13 April: a press conference announced a collaboration between the Edward de Bono Institute and two entities related to the creative industries, the Malta Crafts Foundation and the Valletta Design Cluster. During the press conference a programme of events for an activity titled Innovative Creatives was launched.
18 April: My Malta, My Future. This event involved a seminar organised in collaboration with the Western Region Council. Students in Year 10 (approx. aged 14-15 years) attending schools falling within the perimeter of the Western Region Council were invited to take part in an interactive event. A plenary session was followed by activities in groups where students from different schools came together to address pressing social issues identified by the participants themselves. The young audience were encouraged to think creatively to seek solutions or methods of prevention for the identified issues.
19 – 21 March: A series of lectures and workshops in creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship was planned for a group of 33 teenage students coming from France. During the workshops the students had the opportunity to embrace and practice a number of 21st Century Skills while engaging with an entrepreneurial and creative mindset.
19 April: Sustainable Futures. A thinking project. A press conference was held to launch a social project where the Edward de Bono Institute collaborated with the Southern Region Council. Future oriented, this project entails a series of workshops aimed at encouraging young people to engage with what is possible. Starting with ‘What can be but is not yet here’ as a basic premise, groups of young people will be engaged to explore different scenarios related to sustainable living in the respective towns and village on Malta.
20 April: The Thrift Life. Undergraduate students had the opportunity to experience hands on activities related to tips and tricks to be thrifty yet trendy by extending the life of existing garments. Ms. Sarah Grech from Perla u Suzy shared her flair for upcycling. A hands-on workshop was delivered to introduce students to techniques of stitching and mending.
20 April: Sustainable Development in Action. Students enrolled on the Diploma in Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship had the opportunity to follow a workshop delivered by Ms Katarzyna Szczepaniak from SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities. The workshop introduced and explored the concept of sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an interactive, creative way with the elements of art therapy and non-verbal communication that will help Students to internalise the concepts and suggest their applications.
20 April: The scientific study of creative thinking: From the brain to the creative behaviour. Prof. Sergio Agnoli from the University of Trieste and the Marconi Institute for Creativity, delivered a lecture to students enrolled on the Master in Creativity and Innovation.
The aim of this lecture was to review some of the modern approaches to the study of creative thinking. Starting from an analysis of the role of creativity for the human society. Prof. Agnoli then explored the brain dynamics subsuming the generation of creative ideas empathising their psychological meanings. This analysis provided a first overview of the main cognitive functions associated with the creative thinking process and will open the possibility to introduce the role of some basic motivational systems and of emotions in the prediction of the originality of the ideas produced within a creative process. It will be a fast ride starting from the neural substrates and arriving to the actualization of creative ideas.
20 - 22 April: Innovative Creatives. A creativity festival was organised. During these events a number of artists and artisans interacted with the public to showcase how they engage with the production of traditional products in innovative ways. A number of workshops took place on site. Prof Sandra Dingli from the Edward de Bono Institute shared her experience on an EU funded project titled InnoGreen – Innovative entrepreneurs leading green businesses.
21-22 April: What the Hack! Tackling Food Waste. The Edward de Bono Institute collaborated with the Institute of Earth Systems on a hackathon addressing pressing needs to decrease food waste. This event was aimed at students attending Sixth Form.
24 April: Let’s Think! This workshop was organised in a collaboration between the Edward de Bono Institute and NSTS - Education, Mobility, Lifestyle. A group of animateurs were invited to take the challenge and ideate innovative activities aimed at educating and entertaining foreign students who come to Malta specifically to learn the English language. A varied portfolio of ideas was aimed to be produced by the end of the workshop.
27 April: SCAMPER IT! This event was aimed at students enrolled on IOT1009 – Thinking Out of the Box will follow. Students from MCAST Institute for the Creative Arts attended a creative thinking workshop delivered by Dr Margaret Mangion. Following the workshop, the students were tasked to design period costumes using recyclable materials. Under the supervision of Ms Maria Cutajar lecturer at MCAST, the students used SCAMPER to generate ideas to design their artefacts. This event by students for students was aimed at fostering communication and collaboration between students from the two educational institutions.
27 April: Measuring Creativity. Prof. Roni Reiter Palmon from the University of Nebraska, Omaha, USA delivered a lecture to students on the Master in Creativity and Innovation. During this lecture the students will had the opportunity to explore a range of methods to measure creativity while gaining knowledge about the appropriateness of the different tools.
28 April: Creativity for sustainable wellbeing. A seminar for nurses was organised in collaboration between the Edward de Bono Institute, the Mental Health Department within the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Malta Union for Midwives and Nurses. During the seminar, attendees had the possibility to explore how creativity and wellbeing may be related through an interactive approach.
15 May: Dr Margaret Mangion was invited to deliver a lecture to doctoral students from the University of Trieste. During this lecture Dr Mangion spoke about critical thinking skills in relation to academic writing.