CANCELLATION OF CREATIVITY OZ 2011
The idea of running a creativity conference for the first time in Australia was born a few years ago. The original idea was to run the conference in early February 2010, but thanks to the economic downturn around the World, the decision was made to postpone to 2011. During the course of the past year or so, a number of things have changed quite dramatically, and in particular changing markets and changing priorities have combined to cause a re-think of what might be possible.
We have decided to focus much of our time and attention away from the corporate world, in areas of real need, in particular the educational needs of children living in third-world countries. From the inspiration of Frank Smith in Toronto, through my involvement in Rotary International, and together with some friends and colleagues we have established a registered 'not-for-profit' organisation called ABCD: Art Building Children's Dreams (Australia) Inc.
This means, unfortunately, that we need to abandon one dream in the hope of achieving another. Following that decision a few weeks ago, Bill, Jennifer and I have thought long and hard about how we could find a way to enable the conference to go ahead. But in much the same way, Bill and Jennifer have spent a lot of time re-evaluating priorities and to pursue the conference idea would not be in line with the strategy they need to follow for the next year or two.
We are aware that many people have had the prospective dates in 2011 penciled in the diaries for months and months! So our sincere, collective apologies go out to all those wonderful people who were so generous in their offers of help and in their willingness to participate.
