Creativity and GIS: A Webinar

Get it now through Google Checkout — $55.00

Did you know that creativity is not something you are born with but is actually a skill that you can practice and improve upon? In fact, there are four main areas in which you can train your brain to become more creative. They are: creative perception, postponing judgment, flexible association, and imagination. There are specific exercises, each taking less than 5 minutes out of your day, which you can do to increase your skills in those areas.

If you are about to go into a brainstorming session and want to be the person who makes an impact, if you are in need of a new approach to your programming, if you have "cartography block" and can't come up with a concept for your next map, you need to learn these exercises. Just a few minutes to run through a few of them before embarking on any creative activity gets your right-brain activated and will improve your results significantly.

This information-packed, one-hour webinar is about those four creative skill areas and the exercises that you can use to improve in them. But that's just the first 30 minutes. After that you'll learn about data and map graphics and the importance of highlighting information appropriately as well as the trend toward multi-data visualization displays. Then it wraps up with specific ways in which creativity science can be applied to those aspects of our GIS profession where it is needed: analysis, web mapping, GIS management, and the profession as a whole.

The content is designed to inform and inspire. It is non-promotional.

Slide Preview

A small portion of the slides in the webinar are shown here:

Cost

The webinar is available for US $55.00. It was recorded with a live audience on April 14, 2009. Please click the Google Checkout link at the top of this page to purchase the webinar. Once purchased, a link to the file download area is sent to you via email. The file is about 90 mb and is in a windows media file format (wmv).

Booklet

A booklet containing extra information about the four creativity skill areas as well as a list of resources for furthering your study is sent to you along with the movie file at no extra cost. The booklet looks like this:

What People Are Saying

"I agree with your points 100%. It was valuable to hear a reminder that idle time is needed. . . It was all worth my time. It was a break from my normal work routine and therefore, in itself, got my creative juices flowing. . . Thanks again."

– Rick Hollatz, GIS Coordinator at Skamania County, Stevenson, WA.

"You brought together a nice collection of ideas from a variety of creative minds . . . There was a really nice balance between more general concepts and GIS-specific ones . . . The CreativityResources Power Point follow up file provides an excellent bibliography and take-home resource for participants. I am very much looking forward to following up with those . . . So Good Job! & Thanks again!"

– Walker Willingham, Earth Walker GIS

"Well done . . . you really have a good grasp of the subject."

– David A. Howes, Geospatial Information Scientist, Compliance Services International, Lakewood, WA

Presentation Design

Visuals are kept simple and interesting, moving along at a pace that is both fast enough to keep your attention and slow enough to allow you to absorb what is being said. The resources slides, which showcase books, websites, and videos that elaborate on the presentation points or provide inspirational examples are sent to all participants at the completion of the webinar.

About the Speakers

Gretchen Peterson, GISP, gives the creativity science and GIS applications portions of the webinar. Gretchen runs a successful GIS consulting practice near Seattle, WA. Her work focuses mainly on advanced geospatial analytics for natural resources projects. Ms. Peterson is the author of "GIS Cartography: A Guide to Effective Map Design." She is a member of the LoneGISpro group and is on the GISCI review committee.

Stephen Few presents the data and map design portion of the webinar. He is the author of several books including, "Information Dashboard Design," and is the founder of Perceptual Edge, an information design consultancy. He also teaches in the MBA program at the University of California, Berkeley.