At the core of all Brigadoon events is the belief in the power of conversations.

Brigadoon believes there is power in engaging with subject matter experts from fields different than our own to help with our personal creative skills development.

Sure, as a speaker, when you make the Mad Men presentation with sizzle and flash wrapped up with the big showstopper reveal, it may feel useful to you, but it actually does little to advance understanding or securing solutions.

Standing before a room full of interesting, smart professionals with a slide deck to reveal data on your terms, showing off, and making it all about you is a disservice to your audience.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is the author of the seminal book Flow, and he has spent decades studying happiness and creativity. 

Csikszentmihalyi believes creativity is the ability to see and bring a new perspective to a problem with a solution that has meaning. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and total engagement.

The idea of flow is being in the zone, in the groove, in the barrel. 

The flow state is an optimal state of natural motivation, where a person is fully immersed in what they are doing.

Advancing slides is not a flow state.

Conversing with an audience is a flow state.

Much of the talk surrounding what is typically thought of as creativity is limited and restricted.

Csikszentmihalyi believes creativity is not the ability to write, draw, poet, or sculpt - these skills as personal creativity.

Csikszentmihalyi believes creativity comes by looking at things differently, hearing things differently, tasting things differently. 

Creativity demands immersion with conversations and the ability to think on your feet.

When a subject matter expert can bring a fresh perspective to a problem, they also can go with the flow, engage in conversations, and respond to whatever the audience throws at them. 

Brigadoon events curate conversations where the discussion leader starts by sharing their expertise, responding to the audience, having the ability to react, and then moving the audience into flow.

Finding solutions, being creative, expanding learning demands presence.

Man Men was a television show, it ain't real world - at least today's world.

You can't present and be present at the same time.

Drop the deck and have a conversation.

-Marc A. Ross
Brigadoon Founder + TLC