The Subject:Creativity 2017 Creative Industries Conference

The audience, myself included, was pleased that this year there was not a single "sales pitch", and that all the speakers were sufficiently charismatic and worth getting acquainted with. Each had their own remarkable life experience, creative approach to realising projects, persistence, the ability to view a situation from several perspectives simultaneously, their own pain, joy, enthusiasm, and a formulated message they wanted to convey to the audience. The beauty lay also in the diversity - one speaker's contribution was expressed through the value of the content; another's through the quality of the form.

In total, there were twenty speakers at the conference. I will mention those who left a lasting emotional or substantive impression. Below also are a few quotes and insights, things heard and felt.

Composer Ēriks Ešenvalds and his Northern Lights

The multimedia symphony "Northern Light", created following an expedition to Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, and Alaska, where he experienced first-hand the greenish shimmering optical phenomenon of our Earth's atmosphere - the northern lights. The sound, the association that came to mind - gently running fingertips in a circular motion along the rim of a fine glass. A peculiar, almost cosmic sound.

Yesterday, 17 February, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra delighted listeners' ears with a performance of Ē. Ešenvalds's symphony.

I was like an ashamed child before it - before that, the northern lights. (Ēriks Ešenvalds)

Journalist Sandijs Semjonovs on war photography

In war, life is lived on a knife's edge. Everything is real. Pain, suffering, loss, the awareness of what a life is worth. Even though human life has no value in war. Syria, Iraq, Chechnya, Somalia... In Africa, journalists and photographers are accompanied by a group of twenty security personnel. Because the kidnapping of white people for ransom is a lucrative and desirable business there.

Coming home, you feel that here we whine and cry about trifles. (Sandijs Semjonovs)

The speaker showed several war photographs that have been recognised at various times as the best World Press Photo images. I was particularly struck by this photograph by Malcolm Browne - a Buddhist monk who on 11 June 1963 self-immolated on a street in Saigon in protest against the South Vietnamese government's persecution of Buddhists. The monk sits in the street, flames engulfing his body, his face radiating calm, resolve, and faith in what he is doing. Mesmerising, a perfectly captured moment - one black-and-white photograph that said a great deal to a large part of the world's public.

Advertiser Kristaps Siliņš on the unbeautiful truth

An interesting example involving Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Hillary is a leader who looks inward - and as a leader, she has a great deal within her to communicate - yet the people chose Trump, because he listens and hears people's pain.

People find it difficult to name the things they like, things that are positive and bring joy; yet almost everyone has a ready list in mind of what they dislike, don't want, what hurts or saddens them. We need Hillary's head and Trump's ears.

Advertising is the solution:

• respond to people's pain;
• talk about the problems in people's lives;
• don't hide ugly things;
• acknowledge your own weaknesses too.

Māris Gailis's life principles

1. Change occupation every 5–6 years

2. Do only what is personally interesting to you

3. Choose people smarter and more capable than yourself for your team

4. This applies especially to your life partner

5. Set high goals

6. Never overwork yourself

7. Accept failures with philosophical calm, yet still try to succeed

8. Never worry particularly about money or the lack of it

9. Maintain physical and mental fitness

10. Avoid boring and unpleasant people

11. Don't let anyone make a fool of you

12. Be tolerant of people's weaknesses

Gundega Skudriņa's PSP formula

Content is valuable, but form must also be considered. The best synergy in event organisation: content + interesting experience + innovation + form. I truly admired her ability to not limit her creative spirit and to be free - truly free - in its expression.

Gundega also has an excellent motivation formula, packaged as an abbreviation.

PSP - get off your backside! (Pacel Savu Pēcpusi!) (Gundega Skudriņa)

Designers Ingūna and Holgers Elers on necessary egoism

Creating design is an egotistically individual process. The areas where both feel egoistically comfortable:

• clear, clean forms;
• asking many questions;
• not working with people who never doubt;
• not taking the "safe" path.

Doubt with conviction! (Ingūna and Holgers Elers)

I also greatly enjoyed Džemma Skulme's video address; the insights of physicist and scientist Mārcis Auziņš on the simultaneous yet different viewpoints on a situation or thing, to truly see it in its entirety; Agnese Kleina's account of the concept behind the book-magazine Benji Knewman; and film director Andris Gauja's insights about obstacles as a path. The addresses by Aija Tūna, Andrejs Žagars, and Niklāvs Paeglis were clear and comprehensible. So too were the addresses by guests from Estonia (the AHHAA Centre) and Lithuania. Thanks to conductor Ints Teterovskis for organising the audience of Lielais Dzintars into a mass choir to sing "Pūt, vējiņi!" (Blow, Little Wind!). It moved the hearts of more than one former or current choir singer and stirred feelings of patriotism.

The obstacle is the path. (Zen koan)

Mārtiņš Sirmais - the popular Latvian chef - was in his element, as always. Skateboarder Madars Apse got a strong feedback from the audience - I would say the form was simply superb, but the content was nonexistent. My mind and all other senses refused to absorb writer Gundega Repše's public literary reading from carefully inscribed sheets of paper. I will admit - for the first time during the entire conference, my hand reached for my smartphone to check the latest work emails and social media posts, and to "post" something myself. Equally, I could not decode the message about anarchy from the talented storyteller - or is it rambler - Pauls Timrots. Are those of us dissatisfied with the government's work or decisions supposed to go rob jewellery shops to start a revolution, or what?

At the close, conference participants were involved in a networking game organised by BNI members. The essence of the game was simple - use themed symbols as icebreakers to start a conversation with a stranger, find common ground, and exchange contacts if there is a wish to communicate again. How well it all went overall - we await feedback from the networking participants.

I was glad to have had the opportunity to meet new people from various fields - marketing, fashion and jewellery design, directing, event management, service and product sales, media, and public relations. This is certainly an additional gain from the conference that had been missing from last year's Subject:Creativity.

But there was also a conversation that genuinely surprised me, as my conversation partner maintained that at a networking event he looks for an opportunity to have a good time in the company of acquaintances, to talk about familiar topics and the latest news in his own industry. Having regularly attended networking events for some time now, I have always seen the beauty of such meetings in the opportunity to talk to representatives of industries initially unfamiliar to me, and to meet people I would never otherwise have met.

 

All in all, I am pleased to have attended the conference and to see the good work of the organisers, who clearly do it from the heart. See you next year!