Juan Pablo Neira: Innovate by thinking differently
Last week was the WOBI World Leadership Forum in Barcelona and Aurum Speakers Bureau was invited to attend the second day of the event, on Friday.
The day kicked off with Juan Pablo Neira, a former event organizer (founded one of the most prestigious event companies in Latin America) and creative publicist from Colombia who followed his passion, magic, and managed to turn it into his career.
Juan Pablo’s speech was based on one of his bestselling books, Imagine: Creer para Crear (Have faith to create) and was a fantastic way to start the day as the conference combines Juan Pablo’s unique on-stage style of magic tricks, humor and motivation.
Imagine is the ideal speech for a company undergoing a transformation or change, and to motivate your team to start thinking different and incentivizing innovation.
Juan Pablo started with Roger von Oech’s idea that creativity is achieved by playing 4 different roles or putting on 4 different hats:
- The Explorer: the first phase in which we open our eyes and explore by becoming curious, talking to new people, and try to receive as many new sources of information as possible.
- The Artist: the brainstorming phase, when our inner artist shapes all the information the explorer collected and gives them life.
- The Judge: the filtering or analytical phase, in which we judge if the ideas that the Artist created are valid and practical, and if they would work in the real world.
- The Warrior: or the defending phase, in which we fight for those ideas that are worth and demonstrate to the world they can be a success.
He continued with a quote from one of the greatest magicians of all time, Harry Houdini, who said that the way he was always able to perform his incredible escapes was because of his mind: “My brain is the key that sets me free”. A beautiful analogy that we can conquer all our fears and achieve our goals if we put our mind to it and if we’re willing to put in the necessary work.
When talking about innovation, Juan Pablo said we’re mystifying the word when in reality it’s just a product of people’s imagination. All innovation comes from creating new scenarios which first were dreamt in the mind of a person. Technology + Drama = Innovation, as not every new invention sells, it needs a dose of drama, a touch of color to make it appealing to the masses. Steve Jobs was a perfect example of a genius that knew how to add drama to his new ideas so that everyone would want them.
Finally, Juan Pablo spoke about the new trends and where the world is headed, with the experience economy. “The world is a big theater, and every business it’s a play” he said, to illustrate that companies need to make their clients feel (not only show & tell) that they are a vital part of their products and brand.
If your company is looking into new ways to motivate the staff to be more creative, or there’s a need to push innovation internally by finding ways of thinking different, Juan Pablo Neira is a perfect speaker for it. He also delivers a fantastic workshop on public speaking that can help your executives be more confident and learn tricks to captivate the audience from minute one, which will improve the image of your brand.
For more information about Juan Pablo Neira and his booking conditions, please visit his profile by clicking here
