Right To The Point
Katie is always on the look-out for what's new. She fell in love with creativity and ideas when she was 11, and hasn't looked back since.
She's worked with one of the world's top creativity gurus, studied at the TRIZ Institute in St Petersburg (Russia) and earned a Masters degree in Innovation from the Institute of Thinking (Malta).
Katie's creativity blog, getFreshMinds.com, was named a top innovation blog by Guy Kawasaki and she's a co-author of the The Age of Conversation 2.
Katie currently has the coolest job in the world - working at Ideas To Go, a company that helps other companies think of fresh ideas... really, really fast!
Contact Katie
If you're just a fan of her blog, or want to get in contact with her about a potential innovation project, she'd love to hear from you.
Email her or connect with her on Facebook and LinkedIn.
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As a student, Katie competed in the Odyssey of the Mind and Destination Imagination creative problem-solving programs from elementary school through college. During her 10 years in the programs, she won a Global Championship, placed second in the world twice, was awarded Minnesota's highest creativity award, and spoke at the graduation ceremony for long-time program participants. Currently, Katie judges Instant Challenge at the Minnesota Regional and State competitions and serves on the Minnesota Destination Imagination Steering Committee.
Katie's Masters degree in Creativity and Innovation is from the Institute for the Design and Development of Thinking (PDF) at the University of Malta.
During her Masters course, Katie had the opportunity to learn many techniques for using creativity to solve problems and to identify business opportunities. She become a Lateral Thinking certified trainer in Spring 2006.
In the fall of 2006, Katie worked worked with creativity guru Edward de Bono. She was thrilled to learn about Dr. de Bono's methodologies firsthand and to see how he tailored his teaching to fit the needs of different audiences.
After several years in Europe, including a stop at a Swiss innovation consultancy, Katie found herself back in America. Today, Katie works for Ideas To Go, one of the leading innovation companies in the US. There, she is part of a dynamic team that helps Fortune 500 companies "stretch their thinking to discover insights, areas of opportunity, and their next big idea."
Even More!
Katie's undergraduate degree, from Luther College in Iowa, was in Classical Languages. She chose that major because she loves Greek mythology and wanted to read Homer's Iliad in its original form. She rounded out her undergraduate experience with classes in business management, interpersonal communications, entrepreneurship, writing and improvisational theater.
Katie has successfully used her degree to read Harry Potter in Ancient Greek, to help her understand complex German nouns and to impress others with hundreds of interesting tidbits about history and mythology.
For fun, Katie rides horses, swims and plays underwater hockey. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her cat Sophie and her sometimes-cat Cali.
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