In a roundabout way, she said so yesterday (or maybe that's how I chose to hear it). Cate was invited to participate in a gathering of 1002 amazing Australians as part of the new Prime Minster Kevin Rudd’s “2020 Summit” – which took place this past weekend. As an American living in Australia I was extremely excited to see the government have what can basically be described as a goliath brainstorm in the nation’s capital. The attendees were divided into 10 different groups, each with 100 people, focusing on a variety of areas like the economy, health care, the environment, and of course, creativity. I think this is an incredible idea and one that has obviously produced thousands of ideas big and small by people from all walks of life, all working together to simply get some ideas on the table to help Australia be as great as it can be by the year 2020. I’d love to see this happen in the US – obviously thinking this is an idea that perhaps Barack or Hilary could easily implement.

In any case, Cate was a co-chair of the creative group, who was looked at driving creativity and innovation across Australia. She stated “centrality of creativity to all human endeavors – what we do is create. It’s time for us to celebrate the fact that creativity is central to sustaining and defining the nation, fueling the imaginations of citizens, nurturing our children and nourishing healthy communities.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. She mentioned the need for a sustainable creative sector, which helps to power the confidence of all citizens. She mentioned the power of creativity to fuel the economy and how it needs to be encouraged in the education system. And, on the government front, her group talked about a “1% creativity dividend” to all government departments to create a fund to support more arts in Australia.

Even Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spoke of the importance of being creative - stating his interest in one of the ideas coming out of the creative group of summer innovation and creativity camps for young people. 

The summit checks off all the boxes of what could be done by any company large or small – brining people together, dividing and conquering topics, developing a variety of ideas, and hosting all of the discussion on active website and blog for more discussion.

With myself and the larger Hill & Knowlton company being members of the creative community, I am thrilled that the Australian government (and of course Cate) this past week acknowledged the impact we all can have when we put our creative thinking together to overcome challenges big and small.  Go Creativity!