What happens when you turn off practicality, loosen the rules, and give yourself permission to invent something totally unnecessary—or wildly world-changing?
In this fast-paced, playful, and thought-expanding session, participants will imagine, develop, and “launch” a conceptual, emergent, or even completely absurd product in just 40 minutes. This is not about building something useful (though it might become useful). It’s about stretching how you think, create, and imagine possible futures.
Through a series of guided prompts, you’ll move through two core phases: Create and Construct. Using words and images to bring your idea to life. You’ll invent what the product is, what it does, why it exists, and what people might one day say about it. Hats that cook your food? Global clean water solutions? Something even stranger? All possibilities are in play.
Your idea must be written or typed to count. Articulation is part of the challenge. Along the way, you’ll be encouraged to push past norms, modify assumptions, and either ground your idea just enough to glimpse a real possibility or lean fully into the absurd and see what emerges there.
A small number of standout ideas may be invited to briefly share their imagined product and future story, with a light, conversational interview to explore how the idea took shape.
This session offers a repeatable creative approach you can apply to real products, speculative design, storytelling, or future-thinking by starting with imagination, not constraints.
Come prepared to invent, suppose, elaborate, and maybe surprise yourself.
Speakers
What happens when you turn off practicality, loosen the rules, and give yourself permission to invent something totally unnecessary—or wildly world-changing?
In this fast-paced, playful, and thought-expanding session, participants will imagine, develop, and “launch” a conceptual, emergent, or even completely absurd product in just 40 minutes. This is not about building something useful (though it might become useful). It’s about stretching how you think, create, and imagine possible futures.
Through a series of guided prompts, you’ll move through two core phases: Create and Construct. Using words and images to bring your idea to life. You’ll invent what the product is, what it does, why it exists, and what people might one day say about it. Hats that cook your food? Global clean water solutions? Something even stranger? All possibilities are in play.
Your idea must be written or typed to count. Articulation is part of the challenge. Along the way, you’ll be encouraged to push past norms, modify assumptions, and either ground your idea just enough to glimpse a real possibility or lean fully into the absurd and see what emerges there.
A small number of standout ideas may be invited to briefly share their imagined product and future story, with a light, conversational interview to explore how the idea took shape.
This session offers a repeatable creative approach you can apply to real products, speculative design, storytelling, or future-thinking by starting with imagination, not constraints.
Come prepared to invent, suppose, elaborate, and maybe surprise yourself.
Speakers