Greetings to all of my fellow members of the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals. No doubt you have heard about the UN World Creativity and Innovation Week (WCIW) and Day (WCID). This is a program that was started by Marci Segal, from Toronto, to promote creativity. The concept became an annual week-long international celebration on April 15, Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday, to April 21st, the day before Earth Day, in 2006.
In 2017, the United Nations adopted April 21st as a UN International Day of Observance of creativity and innovation. The purpose is to promote international creative thinking to make the world a better place to live, by achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Each year has a theme for WCIW, and this year’s theme is “collaboration.”
I often say that there are no accidents. There are opportunities and you just need to see a situation in terms of the positives it can lead to. When FACP’s new website developer, Holly Haggerty, from Haggerty and Haggerty Digital Services, told me that she has been working on the WCIW for a few years and that this year’s theme is “collaboration,” I immediately thought about how FACP can use the week and theme to promote the Collaborative Process. I viewed this as a once in a lifetime opportunity to celebrate and promote the Collaborative Process worldwide.
We created a committee, chaired by Sheila Furr and Karen Sacks, Facilitators from Boca Raton. They worked for six months to encourage the practice groups in Florida to be creative in their community to promote the Collaborative Process. After many hours of work and creative thinking, we reached our goal of promoting a creative atmosphere to promote the Collaborative Process.
I am happy to report that the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, with the help of Michael P. Sampson and the Collaborative Family Law Group of Central Florida practice group, obtained a Proclamation from the Mayor of Orlando to declare World Creativity and Innovation Week and Day in Orlando. Similar Proclamations were issued in Tampa and Fort Lauderdale.
The Collaborative practice group in Miami, the Collaborative Family Law Institute, distributed to its members videos of individuals who used the Collaborative Process in their divorce. The CFLI members can now use those videos to promote the Collaborative Process and the fact that they offer that service to their clients.
The week will culminate with an international panel discussion about collaboration and creativity on Thursday, April 21st, at noon EDT. The panel will Jim Friedman, Ph.D., a clinical professor of creativity at Miami University and WCIW/WCID’s Chief Steward; Javier Bikandi Director of Citizen Services and Digital Services of the Basque Region of Spain, and yours truly. Professor Friedman will talk about using creativity to resolve difference and solve problems, Mr. Bikandi will talk about using collaboration to help resolve issues within the government and to promote open government, and I will talk about using the Collaborative Process and creativity to help couples resolve their differences. Perhaps the best part of the presentation will be the breakout rooms where attendees can brainstorm together to talk about creative ways to help people resolve their differences. I look forward to learning from the other attendees.
Please join me and many other FACP members for the panel discussion. Here is the link to register for the free program: https://www.collaborativepracticeflorida.com/event/saving-the-world-creativity-and-collaboration/?wcs_timestamp=1650542400
I hope to see you during the WCIW panel discussion on April 21st at noon EDT. Let’s show the world that Florida really knows how to be creative and how to collaborate to benefit our clients!
