Chicago 2008 Presenters

Wide Open Spaces—
Exploring the Horizons of Improv in Business

At this year’s Applied Improv Network conference, meet and work with some of today’s leading thinkers in the world of creativity and business, including Sarah Finch - Producer and Director of Learning at Second City, improv guru Mick Napier - founder of the Annoyance Theater, Keith Sawyer - author of Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration, and Thiagi - renowned expert on human performance technology.

Click on the conference types below to skip to a more detailed description of each speaker & topic.

Pre-conference speakers & topics (Thur 10/23)

->Download the PDF of presenters & workshop description

Dr. Sivasailam "Thiagi" Thiagarajan

Faster, Cheaper, Better: Alternative Approaches to Training Design

Mick Napier

Master class with Mick Napier

Paul Z. Jackson and Sue Walden

Three Approaches on Three Issues

Main Conference speakers & topics (Fri 10/24-Sun 10/26)

Dr. R. Keith Sawyer

KEYNOTE: From the Bottom Up: Improvisational Secrets Behind Every Successful Company

Andrea Barrett and Viv McWaters

Successful Improvisation in Group Dynamics

The Energy That Fuels Improv

Karen Dawson

Wide Open Coaching Conversations – AAHHHHHHH

Gary Hirsch, Mame Pelletier, and Brad Robertson (from On Your Feet)

The Engagement Show

Greg Hohn

Gesture, Voice, and Meaning

Teresa Norton and Kat Koppett

Designing Workshops That Work

Belina Raffy and Jonathan Hughes

Using Improvisation to Save the World

Yael Schy

Embracing Change: Using Improv Exercises for Change Management in Teams and Organizations

Alieke Van Der Wijk and Iris Van Den Akker

International Management and Improv – What a Combination!

Rita Venturini and Denzil Meyers

Touch Peace

Mike Weaver and Robin Starr

Improv Spirituality

Missy Whitis

Keeping ‘NSync with Your Team: The Boy Band Way of Thinking

Bridging the Generations: Record Player, Rubik’s Cube, Facebook – Which One Can You Operate?

Cort Worthington

The 90-Minute MBA

And more to come from Kat Koppett, Alain Rostain, Izzy Gesell, Alan Montague, Jerry Kail

Pre-conference options:

Dr. Sivasailam "Thiagi" Thiagarajan

Faster, Cheaper, Better: Alternative Approaches to Training Design

Several AIN members are improvisers who want to be trainers; Thiagi wants to stop them from being led astray toward rigid, mechanical, and stultifying models that are touted as systematic approaches to training nirvana.

In the training design industry, there used to be a rule that said you can have any two of these three: faster, cheaper, and better. Being greedy, Thiagi wants to show how you can have all the three plus one more (engagement, which is a politically-acceptable synonym for fun). Using an approach that borrows heavily from complexity, chaos, creativity, and improv, Thiagi and his colleagues have been producing highly popular training packages. This approach uses such counterintuitive principles as Build airplanes while flying them, Let the inmates run the asylum, and Never let the fat lady sing. Guarantee: At the end of this workshop, if you are not convinced that you too can design faster, cheaper, and better training, Thiagi will shave his head.

Thiagi feels guilty and inferior about not being an experienced improviser (other than having been a street corner magician) but he feels happy about being in the training design and delivery business for the past 90 years. (He’s older than he appears to be.) And Thiagi has a lot of friends among the influential thought leaders in the improv field. He is currently the Resident Mad Scientist at the Thiagi Group, an organization that helps people accomplish more through interactive strategies for improving performance. Internationally recognized as an expert in human performance technology, Thiagi has lived in three different countries and has consulted in 21 others.

http://www.thiagi.com

Mick Napier:

A Master Class

Mick Napier will lead a day-long improv workshop, featuring his own brand of improv—how it works, what makes it work, how we take care of ourselves as a way of supporting our scene partners. Bold choices. Getting out of one’s own way. He throws the usual rules out the window and also creates a new window.

Mick is an actor, director, teacher and author living in Chicago. He is the founder and artistic director of the Annoyance Theatre and an award-winning director of The Second City. He has worked with people such as Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Horatio Sanz, Nia Vardalos, Andy Richter, Jeff Garlin, and David Sedaris as well as others. Napier directed the Comedy Central show Exit 57. Mick graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington. As of 2008 Mick Napier is directing a revival of the classic Annoyance show Co-Ed Prison Sluts.

Time Out magazine celebrates its 40th Anniversary in September, and will be honoring 40 Time Out Heroes: "women and men who are helping define Chicago’s culture and, in essence, make the city cool" Annoyance Theatre founder and Artistic Director, Mick Napier, will be included among the chosen 40 on the September 25th cover of the magazine.

Annoyance One of 4 Reasons to Love Chicago. The August 17th Issue of the Chicago Tribune lists Annoyance as one of the reasons to love Chicago!
http://www.micknapier.com/

Paul Z. Jackson and Sue Walden:

Three Approaches on Three Issues 

One of the major benefits of belonging to AIN is exposure to the various ways our work can be done. This pre-conference session offers three panel discussions, featuring three experienced practitioners describing three different approaches/styles to three typical issues (team building, change management, creativity).  Interspersed with these panel discussions will be favorite, biggest-bang-for-the-buck exercises that support the different applications.

Paul Z. Jackson is an inspirational consultant, coach and facilitator.  His expertise in improvisation, accelerated learning and the solutions focus approach has attracted clients worldwide.  There are some useful ideas in his books The Inspirational Trainer, The Solutions Focus and 58½ Ways to Improvise in Training. www.impro.org.uk

Sue Walden, founder of ImprovWorks! has 28 years of adapting and widely applying improvisation skills. Her experience includes a BA/Education, plus 30 years of teaching/performing improv.  Author of Working with Groups to Enhance Relationships, Sue’s current passion is training trainers and helping facilitators design interactive learning programs.

Full conference highlights include:

Keith Sawyer (keynote speaker)

Dr. R. Keith Sawyer, a professor of psychology and education at Washington University in St. Louis, is one of the country’s leading scientific experts on creativity. He combines this scientific expertise with a strong hands-on background in real-world creativity. His latest book is Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration.

 http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~ksawyer/

 

Thiagi (keynote speaker)

Thiagi will be speaking on the impact and use of technology in education. (More information on Thiagi is listed in the pre-conference schedule)

Mick Napier (Saturday evening speaker)

Mick Napier will share how he came to the world of improv, his experiences at Second City, Improv Olympic, his work in television, films, how Annoyance came into existence, his values and ideas as a leading edge improviser. He’s got stories, opinions, vantage points and large amounts of passion for improv. During his Q&A he’ll most likely invite people up to improvise as a way of demonstrating what he’s talking about. Showing vs telling.

Concurrent Session Descriptions & Presenter Bios

 

KEYNOTE: From the Bottom Up: Improvisational Secrets Behind Every Successful Company

Dr. R. Keith Sawyer

Dr. R. Keith Sawyer has studied the world's most innovative companies, and the histories of breakthrough historical inventions.  His conclusion?  All innovations emerge from a deeply improvisational process.  It's collaborative, it's unpredictable, and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  The most innovative companies are the ones that have cultures and structures in place that foster constant improvisation. Dr. Sawyer will draw on compelling stories about the inventions that change our world: the ATM, the mountain bike, and open source operating systems, among others.  His talk reveals the improvisational core of innovation, and helps us understand why all companies need to be more improvisational.

Dr. R. Keith Sawyer, a professor of psychology,education, and business at Washington University in St. Louis, is one of the country’s leading scientific experts on creativity. His new book Group Genius shows us how to be more creative in collaborative group settings, how to change our organizations for the better, and how to tap into our own reserves of creativity.  His research has been featured on CNN, Fox News, TIME Magazine, and other media.  A popular speaker, he lectures to corporations, associations, and universities around the world on creativity and
innovation.

Successful Improvisation in Group Dynamics

Andrea Barrett and Viv McWaters

Using action methods we will explore how individuals act and react in groups, and how the improv activities we use may enlarge or diminish particular behaviours. Drawing on sociometry, sociodrama and Playback Theatre traditions, we will explore how the activities we choose can build relationships between individuals in a group.  We’ll also see how some improv activities can be used as a bridge between different styles of thinking.  Underpinning this workshop is the recognition that every intervention we choose to use in a group, whether spontaneous (in the moment) or pre-planned, has a major impact on the group’s dynamics.

Andrea Barrett knows about psychodrama, sociodrama, role theory, and is an inspirational facilitator and executive coach.  She introduced Viv McWaters to Playback Theatre way back – hence, it’s only fair that Viv now introduces Andrea to AIN so they can play together, sharing their knowledge of facilitation and improv.

The Energy That Fuels Improv

Andrea Barrett and Viv McWaters

Imrovisation is an amazing medium. So why do I sometimes feel that I am dragging my improv moments out of my boots and to no great effect? And why are my improvisations sometimes so accurate and energising for my groups?  This experiential workshop will introduce participants to the concepts of creativity and spontaneity as the enablers of improv. The workshop will draw on action methods, psychodrama, role theory and sociometry and will facilitate participants to explore their energy flow/eruptions in the moment of improv.

See above for bio.

Wide Open Coaching Conversations – AAHHHHHHH

Karen Dawson

Ingredients: People curious about the intersection of improv and coaching.  People eager to explore challenges, opportunities, or patterns in which they feel a bit stuck.

Recipe: Discern what makes coaching powerful – add an improv exercise – practice – get even clearer on the elements of effective coaching conversations – add another scoop of improv – practice – continue until the learning becomes sticky – bake at 350°until the session is delicious.

Karen Dawson coaches, facilitates, teaches, and learns about leadership development.  She is committed to integrating improv into more of her work.  Karen serves as faculty at the Banff Centre and Royal Roads University.  Karen is working (painfully slowly) on a Ph. D., and she consults with organizations all over Canada.

The Engagement Show

Gary Hirsch, Mame Pelletier, and Brad Robertson (from On Your Feet)

Everyone has an audience. Every conversation, pitch, interaction, campaign, meeting, partnership, speech, presentation, interview involves the engagement of another person(s). About 4 years ago we started to play with a structure that was part performance, part applied workshop designed for ad agencies and marketing departments to help them create more engaging, interesting, and productive interactions with themselves and their customers. It‘s a Show…it’s a Workshop….it’s a Workshow….or a Sworkshop….come and see and decide!

As a child, Gary Hirsch spent many long afternoons in his father's cardiovascular research lab playing with cute bunnies and that fun liquid mercury stuff that rolls all over the floor like it has a life of its own!  The result of this contamination is an extreme case of A.D.D. which splits Gary's attention between On Your Feet (www.oyf.com) a consultancy founded 12 years ago that uses improv to help organizations create and communicate, Doodlehouse (www.doodlehouse.com) an illustration and surface design venture, and Super Project Lab. Male cats peeing on trees have nothing over this guy. Gary has been improvising for way too long (something like17 years) but doesn’t have the sense to stop. As co-founder of On Your Feet, he has designed and led programs for Nike, FedEx, Disney, Warner Bros, Intel and others. He served as a visiting faculty at Templeton College at Oxford University, and is a regular faculty at “12” the graduate school at Wieden + Kennedy advertising.

Mame Pelletier, a faciliator with On Your Feet, has facilitated and performed for groups such as JWT, Starbucks, Warner Bros. Disney, Nike, and others. Mame has  served as an instructor at “12” Wieden + Kennedy’s graduate school for advertising.. She is also a member of Super Project Lab Improv and Brainwaves Improv Comedy and recent re-transplant to the land of a thousand lakes.

Gesture, Voice, and Meaning

Greg Hohn

Effective and dynamic communication, whether it’s on stage, from a podium, or one-to-one, is about conveying meaning as much as data. How do you indicate the importance of your information? This workshop focuses on the physical, gestural, and vocal components of communicating. Participants will begin by performing improv scenes and monologues that focus on gesture. Later participants will do prepared or scripted presentations. Participants will not only receive coaching but will also receive suggestions on how to coach others on physical and vocal communication.

Greg Hohn has been performing and teaching improvisational theater professionally since 1989, when he joined Transactors Improv in Chapel Hill, N.C. Since 2000 he has been teaching Applied Improv to MBA candidates at the University of North Carolina’s business school and he recently joined the faculty in Duke University’s drama department. Greg has presented Applied Improv programs in academic and corporate settings throughout the USA and in Canada and Sweden and has taught improv to UNC’s MFA acting candidates. Transactors’ director since, 1996, Greg also acts, sings, and directs in scripted theater, film, TV, radio, and corporate media.

Designing Workshops That Work

Teresa Norton and Kat Koppett

Linking ‘art-based experiences’ to ‘workplace needs’ is key to developing advocate clients and repeat business.  Too often workshops end with participants feeding back that it was a ‘great experience’, but if they are not provided with practical tools  which they can put to use back in the office, how will the success of workshop be measured?  Learn how to strategically design & deliver workshops that have clients coming back again and recommending you to others.

Teresa Norton’s career in executive coaching and strategic training is founded on over 20 years of live theatre, television, advertising, bilingual radio and international business experience.  Based in Asia, Teresa provides strategic counsel to a large number of multinational corporations through effective, theatre-based group training to enhance corporate communication skills.

Using Improvisation to Save the World

Belina Raffy and Jonathan Hughes

A mini-version of the “Change the Dream” symposium, this session is designed to galvanise an unprecedented pulling together of people and businesses to change the prevailing cultural story of our times.  Its aim: To bring forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just human presence on this planet.  In this session, we use experiential improvisation techniques to deepen the impact of parts of the “Change the Dream” symposium.

Belina Raffy Director of Maffick, Ltd., is a delighted AIN member who works with individuals, leaders, and organizations to enhance performance and happiness.

Jonathan Hughes, founder of Wordzup, has steered projects for clients from Accenture to Unicef.  Jonathan uses brainstorms and workshops to give clients powerful “ahas!” and help them see through new eyes.  He is a facilitator trainer of the “Change the Dream” symposium.

Embracing Change: Using Improv Exercises for Change Management in Teams and Organizations

Yael Schy

Few things in life are certain, except for constant change! Organizations must learn to be flexible and adaptable to cope with the increasing rate of change. This interactive session will use improv exercises to demonstrate the value of thinking on your feet, taking risks, and being ready for whatever may happen. Learn some new tools to use with teams and organizations to help them not just “manage” change, but to embrace it as a gift!

Yael Schy is a leader in using expressive arts in organizational learning and development. She is principal of Dramatic Strides® Consulting, specializing in leadership development, communication skills, teambuilding and creative decision-making techniques that help people and organizations move forward together. Yael helps individuals, teams, and organizations to dance their passion.

International Management and Improv – What a Combination!

Alieke Van Der Wijk and Iris Van Den Akker

Diversity and inclusion are tough topics in the corporate world.  These soft topics, however, contribute to the so-important business results and performance.  Therefore, soft and tough co-created this production to show the value of international management and improv – what a combination!

Alieke Van Der Wijk is the co-founder of Troje Training en Theater, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Troje Training en Theater stimulates change: we support the design, implementation and embedding of change, using ‘performative interventions’.

After having worked as an anaesthetic nurse for several years, Alieke van der Wijk left her job in order to begin Social & Educational Studies. Graduating three years later she started work in the cultural sector, with a particular interest in those activities directed towards change and training. Outside working hours, her passion for improvisation theatre was taking up more and more of her time. Then she discovered how the laws of theatre and communication could be combined, with exciting consequences. It was time to put it all into practice, and Troje Training and Theatre is the result.

Her main interest in (applied) improv is to provide pleasure, inspire interaction, and encourage (creative) thinking. To enable open dialogue about sensitive issues. No judgements are made, nothing is being held up as being right or wrong.

Iris Van Den Akker: After studying international management in a double award program in the netherlands and UK, Iris joined the ABN AMRO as a corporate trainee. In 7 year with this company, she has seen different layers of the organisation ranging from IT, HR and diamonds as well as perfoming in different roles like virtual team manager, portfolio manager and change consultant.

Touch Peace

Rita Venturini and Denzil Meyers

Touch Peace focuses on the experience of BEING WITH other human beings, without judgment or pretense, without right or wrong, and without doing anything.  Duets, trios, more … sensing each other and the world around us, shaking hands, hugging, arm in arm ….  Participants will leave with a profound sense of connection to their conference cohorts, and the courage to deepen their emotional intimacy with others.

Rita Venturini, MD, CLMA, worked as a neuroscientist until 1998, when she turned her life and attention to the body.  Since graduating from Moving On Center’s school for participatory arts and somatic research in 1999, she has been teaching and performing movement improvisation locally and internationally.  She is very curious about body/mind interaction and its effect on our collective life.  

Denzil J. Meyers has spent most of the past 15 years researching and designing creative process for groups and ensembles.  As a systems coach, consultant, clown, and theatre artist, he is interested in the body as a channel of information, and in the greatest number of simultaneously possible stories.

Improv Spirituality

Mike Weaver and Robin Starr

One of the Open Space topics last year at AIN was “Improv Spirituality.”  This year we move the topic from Open Space to structured experience.  Discover one of the most unique, fun, and engaging ways to experience the spiritual life.  In this workshop we’ll experience connecting with the unseen, connecting with others, and connecting with our beautifully creative selves.  Also, you’ll gain tools to work with communities of faith.

Mike Weaver, co-founder and partner of The Group Mind, is a pastor, writer, and public speaker who speaks to groups large and small around the world. He has trained in improv with Cinublue Productions of Columbus, Ohio, teaches improv, and performs regularly with Easily Amused improv.

Robin Starr is an award-winning speaker whose passion lies in helping teams work well together. She holds a Bachelors of Administration from Bowling Green State University. She has trained in improv and acting with Cinublue Productions. Robin is an actress, teaches improv, and is an active member of Toastmasters.

Keeping ‘NSync with Your Team: The Boy Band Way of Thinking

Missy Whitis

Keeping in mind that not everyone should be able to do everything will make for a more balanced team - be it in the workplace, or an improv troupe.  What kind of improviser are you?  Not everyone is built to start the scene.  Are you support?  A realist?  The character person?  What kind of team member are you at work?  You can’t all be the lead singer! Let’s find out what role you play! 

Missy Whitis is a freelance consultant and speaker who spent 12 years in the high school classroom teaching fine arts.  Ten of those years were spent coaching and teaching improve - studying with Paul Sills, and at the “SAK Comedy Lab.”  A two time cancer survivor, she is incredibly active in activities around Cincinnati.

Bridging the Generations: Record Player, Rubik’s Cube, Facebook – Which One Can You Operate?

Missy Whitis

Radio babies, Baby Boomers, Gen-X, and Gen-Y all together in the same workplace for the first time.  What do you do now?  Well if you want the best of each employee, then you do something different for each one.  Discover the difference in each generation and learn to speak their language.  What you don’t know will surprise you!  Be prepared to be indoctrinated through dance, music, games, and exercises.

Missy Whitis is a freelance consultant and speaker who spent 12 years in the high school classroom teaching fine arts.  Ten of those years were spent coaching and teaching improve - studying with Paul Sills, and at the “SAK Comedy Lab”.  A two time cancer survivor, she is incredibly active in activities around Cincinnati.

The 90-Minute MBA

Cort Worthington

For those bringing improvisation into the corporate world, learning to speak “the language of business” can be a challenge.  This session delivers a whirlwind tour of current business concepts and vocabulary, empowering YOU to speak the language of your clients.  Decode the murky depths of finance, marketing, strategy, negotiation and, yes, accounting.  We’ll also focus on creative ways to tie improv-based training to the infamous corporate “bottom-line.”  This session is primarily lecture, but the pace will keep you scribbling. 

Cort Worthington is founder or co-founder of five businesses and non-profits, and holds an MA in Communication from Stanford.  He recently took a two-year sabbatical from improv to earn MBA degrees from Columbia and U.C. Berkeley.  He now speaks the language of business, except at home.

Share-a-Method, Learn-a-Method

Izzy Gesell

One of the advantages of using Improv games in your work (facilitation, training, teaching, consulting, etc) is the flexibility that the games offer. We each have our own insights, interpretations and techniques for the games we use, AND other folks may be using the same game and have different experiences or ideas. We'll take turns demonstrating a game that we use and show how we use it. Then others will offer ideas and techniques to expand that game's possibilities. Let's build each others' Improv toolkits!

Izzy Gesell is an "organizational alchemist." As a keynote speaker, workshop leader, professional facilitator and presentation coach, his skill is in transforming something commonplace into something special. Izzy is the author of Playing Along: Group Learning Activities Borrowed from Improvisation Theater, and was one of the first to bring the concepts of Improv Theater into the business world.

Following The Follower: Improv And The Art Of Leading

Kat Koppett

In this highly interactive and practical session, we will explore how to bring the principles and philosophies of improv to leaders at all levels of an organization. Where can they be applied? How do they help? How can we best teach them? Topics will include building trust, inspiring action, creating a motivating environment, and whatever else comes up and delights us.

Kat Koppett is the eponymous founder of Koppett & Co. Her book on using improv in organizations,Training to Imagine, is used by trainers, teachers and organizational leaders around the world. Kat holds a B.F.A. in Drama from New York University and an M.A. in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University.

Extra Added Attractions!

Coming soon!  Watch this space for complete descriptions of the following ADDITIONAL concurrent sessions!

 ·        Innovation Workshop, with Alain Rostain

Accelerated Learning, with Alan Montague

·         Improv & Business Literature Slam, with Jerry Kail

… and watch for descriptions of the LIVE CLIENT SESSIONS, in which seasoned practitioners of the improvisational arts will demonstrate with real clients (and without a net) the process of consulting, gathering needs, and designing solutions for the clients’ real business issues!  (No clients will be hurt – and all will be helped – in the conduct of these sessions.)