- I saw in the newspaper that there would be a lecture : Creativity & Innovation Day 2008, sounded good so I went along Innovation.
- MACRI is maybe a bunch of eccentric inventors, but it's important someone is talking about Thinking.
- Monday it opened at the top of the KL Tower then there was a full week of lectures so I don't know why they didn't call it the Festival of Creativity & Innovation instead of "Day"

- Monday, the festival kicked off at the top of the KL Tower with all the big political speeches . So I skipped that and turned up at the coffee break before the the main lecture.

- Why do people stay at home ? we got to get up the tower for free, the room actually has flush windows so the view is even beter than normal. and free lunch

- 3 speakers : 1. Ghazi the chairman of MACRI -- I see the newspapers always refer to him as ex-senator so I guess he's politically connected.
- 2. local Inventor Bug's Tan - talked about his inventions/products - surge and lightning protectors which are resusable. As an electronical engineer I was unable to see anything new with this .. it seems like gold plating your taps. For most people the trip switch on your house ciruit breaker will be enough to stop surges. For your PC using a 4 way extension lead with a built in trip switch is worth the few dollars it costs, but then remember each device is protected by it's own internal fuse anyway. His device may well be better, but not worth the extra cost. Basic measures will stop 98% of damage so it's not worth spending a huge amount to get the extra 2% to bring protection upto 100%. Maybe his technology could have certain niche applications.
- 3. The Chairman of Menara KL then gave an impressive professional speech.

- All 3 speakers acknowledged that there were deficiencies in the education system in Malaysia which stifled creative thinking. Ghazi's buzzwords acronym begins with "Minds reset". They didn't talk about why ..Of course they have to pussy foot around instead of speaking directly. The culture now is OBEY : children have to respect authority especially the government and religion. People are actively discouraged from thinking and asking questions as this could be seen criticising, and therefore damaging the powers that be. Read My Opinion by putting the mouse over

- So other cultures where people can speak freely have a head start in thinking.

- In was noticiable that in a company sponsored educstion project : the Digi- Treasure Keepers programme - the children began the exercise using mind maps.

- Ghazi's Purple Beach book ghazi.com.my- instinctively I feel bad about it. It seems like they saw other people have created systems and buzzwords like "blue sky thinking", and they have said we need to create our own. No if the other peoples systems work then use them, there's no need to create your own.

- He uses the anacronym IQRA as one of his buzzwords and for name of his institute and since this is the Arabic word for read ties creative thinking with Islam, which is an innovation itself as since usually Islam is about accepting rather thinking of new ideas.

- He points out that in Malaysia is there is a tradition of copying the next guy and says we need innovation instead.

- He recommended the book : A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

- He talked about a number of ideas to bring more innovation to Malaysia.
- I think his idea were sometimes flawed - by using stereotypes which don't standup to close analysis e.g. he said rice padi- farming is not viable here (you could make a lot money farming rice here if you had large efficient farms, but the main problem is the government keeps the price of rice artificially low.)

- talked about Singapore copy Silicon Valley by creating the Bio-Research Valley - called Biopolis

- He did some interesting exercises like The design a better water carrier for Africa.
- the exercise didn't really work well cos the kids there had never been asked to do anything like this before they are accustomed to writing what the teacher tells them

- revealed a rolling drum was the winner.

- The main barrier to personal innovation in Malaysia he said is culture.

• fear of being different
• no time
• lack of knowledge
• it's easy not to
• lack of support
• pressure from family
• no motivation - don't see need to change
  maybe existing works OK

His company buzzwords :
CONCEPTION : CREATION : CONVERSION : CONNECTION

• Don't Dismiss an idea too quickly
• speak less : listen more
• question
• possibilities
• why not, what if
• read widely
• always be willing to learn
• don't be too rigid in interpeting instructions
  - demonstrated this by asking students to draw something without the pencil leaving the paper, the was to fold over the paper.

- comments - he ran out of time

4 sides of brain
- A Rational - D Experimental
- B Safekeeping - C Feeling

he recommends listening to Baroque music for brain growth.

Some Malay : pahara = hope, deedo = sleep, zaman = era

- He also had poor planning as he tried to fit too much in so confusing the audience . The personality profiling exercise was too complicated cos the students didn't have the maths skills

- He had a lot of word games and mental exercises. I think he spoke good Malay ? .. maybe nothing new ?

his company is an events org - - He also had a lot of interesting puzzle objects like rings chained together etc. He should have opened with these as most students were bored at the beginning by his wordy explanations in English

- The inovation festival has hours of "invention TV shows" playing in the Menara KL Tower.

- Talk about extreme TV. Normally you have Reality shows, where the public and experts are all real people, weird people and selectively edited, but they are real people. Then there are parody/comedy shows where all the people are comedians/actors overacting to exaggerate.
but in this prog ..This woman comes on with her invention and wips off her wig to show it it's sweat absorbing pads for people to wear under wig. Then there is a super-overactedacted scene as an expert pretends to change his mind about rejecting it. And so the show goes on and on like this ..and then I realise the producers have done the most perverse thing ever : half the people are real and the other are actors. They are mixing the 2 formats Reality and the taking the piss Parody together in the one show. Totally bizarre.

- 1. Thankyou for organising what is effectively THE FESTIVAL OF CREATIVITY INNOVATION you might want to call it that next time

-2 - It is a good idea to have a centre space/museum to raise public awareness C & I The 2 places that come to mind are the Design Centre Council ? in London and the Red Dot Design Centre in Singapore. I note that this word DESIGN is closely linked to C & I .
- I also note that although some space in TM or a travelling exhibition is good a lot of things can be done online these days.

-3. I would like to see a lecture on HEY DON'T STEAL MY IDEA LAH what people in Malaysia can do to Protect original ideas which are original, but not of the level of research, which justifies a patent. (my own belief is the only way to do this is use your own inside understanding to keep your product better that those people copying you.)

- Patents are only granted on the basis of a lot of original research went into the idea, you can't just write an idea down and say you own it, cos someone else would have thought of the same idea sooner or later.

- Great business ideas like say Starbucks or The Bodyshop can't be patented all you can do is try to execute the business plan better than the copier. And the person who comes up with the original idea should have a better understanding of it rather than someone who is just copying it.

Fri 9, 10, 11 : Invention and Technology Expo

- Sat 10th May Developing & Managing Innovation & Creativity - Bugs Tan 9.45am-12pm .. web note UTAR, PJ Centre for Extension Education
- by - Malaysia Mental Literary Movement (no website found)

- minds.org.my appears to be an organization similar to MACRI which works with the Ministry of Education

- mrm.gov.my MRM the Malaysia Design Council a government agency. They may have exhibitions at their office MIDF building on Jln Tun Razak

- cradle.com.my seeding grants organisation ... website seems still going but not very active -