Creativity was abundant at the first of the three-part series for The Gathering of Great Minds conference, held recently at the Securities Commission in Mont Kiara. Themed “The Creative Element, Right Brain Activate”, it brought over 300 participants from corporate leaders to students, coming together to learn and discover.

Creativity was highlighted as relevant and important to issues such as  wealth, self-enrichment, the  economy, and even architecture, according to several speakers at the event. Chi Tee, a speaker at the event during the “Ideas, and Why They Matter” session, highlighted some amusing characteristics of our community’s architecture, with the intention of illustrating a lack of creativity in some of their designs. Some are either too plain and some even cartoonish, like castle-resembling homes with conical rooftops, complete with inappropriate colour schemes.

Tan Sri Razali Ismail, former chairman of the UN Security Council, engaged the crowd in a witty and entertaining session as participants engaged in a Q & A session with him. When a young member of the audience asked him if he believed the young generation could make changes for the better, the Tan Sri  replied, to great applause, “I am the sunset. You are sunrise.”

There will be 2 upcoming sessions soon, on September 24 and November 26 respectively featuring interesting personalities such as Anas Zubedy, Dato’ Aziz Bakar of Air Asia, and the famous Dr. Patch Adams.

Explaining the rationale for the event, Tim Fernandez, founder of Live & Inspire, which organized the event, said: “We aim to inspire. The thin line between motivating and inspiring is that one works to empower externally, and the other works from awareness within. The conference party is built on the element of spontaneity and fun, and engaging the left and right brain. In this space, participants take responsibility of their discovery and learning.”

For more information, visit www.thegatheringofgreatminds.com or www.liveandinspire.com