At CreativeMornings Munich, we’ve had an exceptional year filled with captivating events, thought-provoking discussions, and inspiring interactions, all in Munich’s most beautiful locations.

We had 11 wonderful events at great locations all over Munich. 

We also tried something new this year: At our ‘Night at the Museum’, we developed a unique tour especially for our community. It was organised in and by the TUM Architecture Museum at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.

We look forward to organising more events of this kind. If you have any suggestions, ideas or feedback: Please do not hesitate to contact us!

💙
A big thank you to all our great speakers, the lovely hosts at the cool locations, and of course, to our amazing community! It’s so nice to see you every month and chat with all of you!

We wish you wonderful and relaxed days with your friends and families and would love to see you next year at one of our events! 

Our theme for January is #JOURNEY. We’ll share all the details at the start of the new year.

Meanwhile, you can check out recordings from our previous events.

Dear CreativeMornings Community 💙

Recently we got the chance to sit down with Spark Reply, one of our newest sponsors. They gave us lots of interesting insights from their design experience and why they engage in fostering creative communities.What is the main business field of Spark Reply?SPARK REPLY: Spark Reply is a specialised unit of the Reply Group focused on driving innovation and design. At Spark Reply we design the experiences of tomorrow that make businesses future-proof. Our approach involves transforming existing enterprises or introducing entirely new ventures tailored to our client’s unique challenges. We excel at identifying growth opportunities by interpreting and anticipating future needs, challenging the status quo, and seizing new market openings through disruptive experiences, from inception to launch. Moreover, we expedite the scaling of internal teams by assisting in the creation and expansion of high-performing design and product management teams for maximum impact. Our clients span diverse industries including automotive, financial & insurance services, consumer goods, travel & logistics, telco, energy, and more.What motivated Spark Reply to consider a partnership with Creative Mornings Munich?SPARK REPLY: Supporting Creative Mornings Munich interests us because it offers a chance to connect with the creative community, raise awareness, and share knowledge. We’re eager to meet new people, exchange ideas, and collaborate on exciting projects. Additionally, participating in events like this helps us stay at the forefront of creative trends and innovations. It’s an opportunity to discover fresh talent and explore potential partnerships. Overall, Creative Mornings Munich aligns with our goals of networking, learning, and contributing to the creative ecosystem.What does community mean to you?SPARK REPLY: Community to us embodies a sense of connection, collaboration, and support among individuals with shared interests or goals. At Spark Reply, we value community-building both locally and globally. We engage with initiatives like Creative Mornings Munich, UX Mondays to foster connections, exchange ideas, and nurture creativity within the Munich creative ecosystem. We do similar activities in Milan, where we also have an office, with local entities such as Service Design Drinks and UX talks (Experience Design Academy). In Munich, we perceive a vibrant and dynamic creative ecosystem characterised by innovation, collaboration, and a strong sense of community and we are thrilled to expand ours.What does creativity and/or innovation mean to you?SPARK REPLY: Creativity and innovation are fundamental for us, Sparkies. Creativity is the ability to think outside the box, explore new ideas, and approach challenges with fresh perspectives. Innovation is about transforming those creative ideas into practical solutions that add value and drive progress. In our day-to-day work, creativity plays a central role in problem-solving, ideation, and designing innovative solutions for our clients.

“In Munich, we perceive a vibrant and dynamic creative ecosystem characterised by innovation, collaboration, and a strong sense of community and we are thrilled to expand ours.”

What makes Spark Reply stand out as an organisation that actively supports and nurtures creativity and community engagement?SPARK REPLY: Spark Reply stands out as our culture encourages and celebrates creativity at all levels, empowering employees to explore new ideas and approaches. Additionally, we prioritise community engagement by participating in events, initiatives, and partnerships that promote collaboration and knowledge-sharing within the creative ecosystem.

🎄 2023 is almost over! 🥂

At CreativeMornings Munich, we’ve had an exceptional year filled with captivating events, thought-provoking discussions, and inspiring interactions, all in Munich’s most beautiful locations.💙
A big thank you to all our great speakers, the lovely hosts at the cool locations, and of course, to our amazing community. It’s so nice to see you every month and chat with all of you!We wish you wonderful and relaxed days with your friends and families and would love to see you next year at one of our events! 

Our theme for January is #RISE. We’ll share all the details at the start of the new year.

Meanwhile, you can check out recordings from our previous events.WATCH ALL RECORDINGS FROM 2023

See you next year! Your CreativeMornings Munich team

Rhythms of Bali - musical practice to strengthen community

Let yourself be taken into the fascinating musical universe of balinese gamelan! Gamelan is a traditional music of Indonesia. In Bali it is played regularly and is an integral part of balinese RHYTHM of life. Gamelan music has a social function to bring the community together and create art.

To understand Gamelan you need to put aside everything you think you know about (western) music: This is not an instrument that is practiced in solitude in a room. Gamelan music can only be played together, at its core it is about partnership and mutual support. An ensemble can consist of 30+ musicians and just as many instruments. A Gamelan group plays highly elaborate compositions without a conductor or notation - and in Bali they even play insanely fast! It is hard to imagine, but once you see it, it is the most fascinating experience.

Gamelan orchestras range on the same level of complexity as western philharmonic orchestras. Yet its full glory is only known to a rather small niche of music enthusiasts in the west. Let’s change that by exploring some basics of Gamelan music and live demonstrations with instruments on site.

Takeaways from the talk:
* Getting to know a new form of music
* Understanding how to strengthen community with music as a tool
* First hand impressions thanks to a gamelan instrument on site - if you want, you can try yourself.MORE INFOS HERE

An interview with Philipp Refior

CM Munich: You have been presenting at CM twice – once on the topic of Tradition (2018) and more recently on the Theme of Design. You seemed pretty passionate about both of these topics, and I was wondering how they are connected for you.

Philipp Refior: I am personally really fascinated – probably due to my background as a designer who has worked in 3 very distinct cultural environments – by how creativity is leveraged in different cultures. Everyone agrees that creativity is more important than ever to create an adaptable organization that is resilient and future-proof. However, largely depending on the cultural background – there are different approaches to how to leverage creativity.

CMM: Could you name some examples?

P.R.: Yes, it is my experience that in more risk-averse cultures, such as Germany or Japan where I worked, there is a very strong – sometimes unhealthy – focus on process, while in cultures that are more open to risk there is less spotlight on tools and processes and more focus on the outcome.

For example, during my time at 3M – an American company - I was really impressed with the 15% rule. This rule allows every employee to take 15% of their time to tinker around with personal ideas that they can then submit to be funded by the company for further development. By the way, this approach today is often referred to in connection with Google, but it was actually 3M who came up with it.

CMM: And how is this approach connected to culture in your eyes?

P.R.: Giving everyone time to be creative is obviously taking a risk. It is very probable that people will work on ideas that will go nowhere – or maybe not come up with ideas at all. But by spreading the risk so widely, you are actually very likely to get rewarded in the end. To me, this “venture capital approach” is very much driven by a culture that is comfortable with risk.

The approach of a risk-averse culture is to micromanage – or even outsource – the process of developing new ideas. And this is often counterproductive to the very nature of creativity. Creativity requires a certain amount of freedom and ownership. So, telling somebody how to be creative can quickly backfire.

CMM: That sounds like you would recommend everybody to take the 3M approach and give people some free time to develop their own ideas?

P.R.: Not necessarily. For the 3M approach to be successful you need a conducive environment.

We talk about psychological safety in this context: knowing that you can make mistakes without fearing harsh consequences. You also need the right incentives; you need a system that helps finance promising ideas – and you need an organization that promotes networking. Some of these factors are again highly dependent on culture.

That’s why there isn’t a one-fits-all approach to innovation – every organization has a different culture. With my company, The Deep Bench, we are helping companies to find the right approach to innovate for their organization.

CMM: Are there any general recommendations you could give in terms of leveraging creativity?

P.R.: Well, every case is different, but besides the issue of culture, I would break innovation into 3 large blocks: opportunities (where are potential fields for new ideas?), solutions (what could be potential offers?), and integration (how do we prioritize and integrate ideas into our processes?). Over and over again, we see a strong focus on “solutions” but less concern for opportunities and integration. People believe that once you crack the secret of developing ideas, the rest will be a piece of cake. But that is not true. Promising ideas are built on great input, great research. And ideas are only valuable if you have a plan in place how to bring them to life. These are things where we see generally not enough focus.

CMM: And how does your design background play into helping companies become more innovative?

P.R.: A lot of the aspects that are required for an environment conducive to innovation can be found in any design-driven organization, where creativity is at the heart of the business model. That’s why we designers have a lot to teach here.

Dear CreativeMornings Munich community,
dear friends,

After 3 wonderful years of being the host of our great CreativeMornings chapter I have decided to pass the torch to Paolat de la Cruz , my co-host, who will take over as a host starting September 1st.

I’ve had an amazing run, and I couldn’t be more grateful for this unique experience. I have loved getting to know you all, both in person and online and I have created so many beautiful memories along the way.

I’m very proud of my team and of what we’ve achieved together over the years, from all great events we’ve organised and meaningful partnerships we’ve created to how we shifted to digital with a positive approach.

I am happy to have Paolat step in - most of you already know her as she’s been with the team for several years and I’m very confident she’ll take care of this chapter in as good, if not even better way than I did.

HUGE Thanks go to the team - you’re amazing and it’s been an immense pleasure working together and also hang out outside CreativeMornings, not just as co-volunteers but as friends.

And HUGE thanks to YOU, dear community! There is no CreativeMornings without you guys. You’re such an amazing community, and I’m honored to have been here to lead for the past 3 years.

I’d love to stay in touch, so please feel free to connect with me. You can find me online on Instagram under either @timetotrawell or @katieskite or Linkedin.

I look forward to continue seeing you in the sessions ❤️️

With all my love,
Katja Guiri
Host of CreativeMornings Munich

TICKETS ARE LIVE! Join us next Friday, 30th July 2021 at 8:30 am for #CMHome with Tiffany Hart and Tanya Garma of GrowGetters.

We can’t wait to hear Tiffany and Tanya share their thoughts on why finding “home” is so important and how it can help you design your dream career.

Head to the link here to save your (virtual) spot! See you next Friday! :)

#CM #creativemornings #talk #munich #munichiscreative #home #CMhome –view on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CRGevWtJF0s/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

July’s Theme is Home.

‘Home is where our story begins!’
No matter what ‘home’ means to you, there is certainly something nostalgic about the place we call home. Home might be a particular location, but also a place that exists somewhere in our mind. 

To us, home is a sanctuary that provides comfort from the hustle and bustle of the world. It is an ideal place and feeling that exists in our imagination and that we so much long for. But where is 'home’? And what does it take to feel at home?

Explore more about this month’s topic at our @creativemorningsmunich​ chapter: https://creativemornings.com/talks/tiffany-hart-and-tanya-garma-on-what-is-home

CreativeMornings/Kansas City chapter chose July’s Home theme, and Allison Kerek Williams created the accompanying illustration. 

WE ARE LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS TO JOIN OUR TEAM!!!!

CreativeMornings Munich is looking for a Video Editor (Volunteer position)
We are looking for a volunteer to join our team as a Video Editor. You will play a key role in making our talks available online and to an even broader audience. We are looking for someone who is very familiar with video editing of raw footage (currently Zoom recordings) and knows their way around open & end cards, smooth cutting and music adding. Assembling the footage into one cohesive video and playing with many camera angles is what you’re good at. Our ideal candidate appreciates working with an international team and can, apart from video editing, share tips on topics such as space and light arrangements with our speakers.Above all, the person is someone who is passionate about co-creating CreativeMornings events that are inspiring and enjoyable to our community. Our team is fun and international that values friendships, diversity of thoughts and creativity.Sounds interesting? Please contact us for more details munich@creativemornings.com.——–CreativeMornings Munich is looking for a Speakers Manager (Volunteer position)

We are looking for a volunteer to join our team as a Speakers Manager. You will play a key role in being the speaker’s main contact. We are looking for someone who is the connection between the speakers and the CreativeMornings team ensuring our speaker’s experience is smooth and enjoyable: Our ideal candidate appreciates working with an international team handling the communication with our speakers by answering their questions and giving them feedback.Above all, the person is someone who is passionate about designing CreativeMornings events that are inspiring and enjoyable to our community. Our team is fun and international that values friendships, diversity of thoughts and creativity.Sounds interesting? Please contact us for more details munich@creativemornings.com.

June’s theme is MATRIARCHY. It was chosen by @rottendam_cm and illustrated by Xaviera Altena @xavieraaltena. 

This month we shine a light on all the female leaders from across the vast spectrum of identities and experiences of womanhood. From teachers to scientist. From caregivers to problem-solvers. From artists and the world-changers. To the ones with megaphones and the ones working behind-the-scenes. Because without you, where would our WORLD be today?

Save the date for Friday, June 25th, 2021 at 8:30 am. We’ll be back again soon with more details. #munichiscreative #creativemornings #matriarchy #strongwomen #femaleleadership — view on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CPk43k7hTs0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link