Inspiration doesn’t always just “hit” you, or at least not for me.  I often find being inspired is an active process.  So being at Say:Media’s #SAYCreate conference while I’m re-imagining TravelsfromMadAve.com is serendipitous.

The opportunity to spend a few days with “the best creative minds in media” is an opportunity to step back from our day to day and find inspiration in surprising places.  It’s a proven process known as “bisociation” and introduced by Arthur Koestler in the 1960’s.  Bisociation is about bringing together two seemingly unrelated things, or concepts, together in a new way.  That is pure creativity.  This creativity can only be fostered by stepping back and exposing ourselves to things that, on the surface seem irrelevant.  Throughout the next couple of days I’ll be capturing this “irrelevance” @TravelsfromMadA on Twitter and will hopefully be translating some of it into what www.TravelsfromMadAve.com becomes.

On the plane ride out here I watched, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”.  Maggie Smith’s character (who just happens to be Muriel Donnelly) is consoling Jean Ainslie who is finding her adventure to not be quite what she expected.

Muriel: Most things aren’t (sic). But sometimes what happens instead is the good stuff.  

While TravelsfromMadAve has not taken me exactly where I had envisioned when I first embarked on creating this blog, it is getting me to the good stuff, for sure.