Kia Ora, welcome to Creative Couch, a podcast brought to you by Creative HQ, Wellington's Innovation Hub.  We'll be exploring everything from Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Creativity, Design and all the unobvious in between. Joining us on the couch each week, will be trailblazers, thought leaders, creative champions and generally amazing humans who are contributing to these spaces in Aotearoa & afar. In this first season we will look at demystifying innovation, youth entrepreneurship and chat startup life with some Kiwi founders. So grab a cuppa, settle in and join us on the Creative Couch. Creative Couch is possible thanks to the support of our friends at the Institute of Directors and Wellington NZ.  Creative HQ is based in Wellington, New Zealand. 

Innovating. Innovative. Innovation. Innovate.  What does innovation look like, feel like and sound like and how do those in the sector define it? Welcome to the first episode of Creative Couch. This is the first episode in a 3-part series of “Demystifying innovation”. Each episode, we will be joined by experts in the industry who will be helping us unpack and understand what innovation truly is, and how we can all introduce and/or enhance it in our day-to-day lives.  We are joined by special guests Alexandra Lutyens, a senior innovation specialist at Creative HQ, Chris Jackson, founder of We Create Futures, and Finn Lawrence, founding director of Mevo, who will begin to unravel the inner workings of an innovative life.  What is innovation?  What is the actual benefit of us being innovative?  Together we will discuss these important, burning questions so many of us have, and what the impact innovation has had on us and our planet so far.  This episode of Creative Couch is hosted by Dr Colin Kennedy, Head of Creative HQ's School of Innovation and Senior Innovation Specialist. This episode was made possible thank you to the support from our friends at the Institute of Directors here in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. 

How can innovation change and impact the workplace? How does an organisation implement innovation in a productive and successful way? Continuing our journey to demystifying innovation, joining us on the couch in this episode are special guests Catherine Jones, CEO of Creative HQ) and Shannon Thorpe, CEO of Fortune Favours. We will be delving into innovation and why it’s essential for an organisation's success and survival. We discuss the advantages of a ‘culture of innovation’? What is the real risk of getting it wrong? Success (and failure) stories will be shared with a new lens on how COVID-19 has shaped our different ways of working.  This episode of Creative Couch is hostedby Dr Colin Kennedy, Head of Creative HQ's School of Innovation and Senior Innovation Specialist.

In our final episode of “Demystifying innovation” on the Creative Couch, we are continuing to explore and de-mystify innovation. Today we are joined by special guests Margaret Maile Petty, Head of the College of Creative Arts at Massey University Wellington, Suse Reynolds, General Manager, of investment at Positively Wellington Business and Ben Gleisner, founder and global CEO of Cogo. On the couch, there will be discussions on what innovation looks like in the boardroom and how innovation could be integrated into the way directors interact and think. We will be exploring gender and innovation, measuring innovation and how we can implement a culture of innovation at the board level, because is this where it truly starts?   This episode of Creative Couch is hostedby Dr Colin Kennedy, Head of Creative HQ's School of Innovation and Senior Innovation Specialist.

Gen Z currently makes up 32% of the global population so who exactly are they? What can we learn from them? How do they see the world and what does innovation mean to them? In the next three episodes, Creative Couch will be looking into Generation Z along with experts in the field and a couple of Gen Z’ers themselves! In this first episode, we are joined with special guests Laura Scatchard, learning producer at VIVITA Aotearoa, Professor Stephen Cummings, co-director of The Atom Innovation Space at Victoria University Wellington, and Yohan Kanji, an aspiring Wellington-based entrepreneur. Together we will start to unravel and understand the Z generation with a focus on COVID-19 and how the pandemic has shaped the future of our younger entrepreneurs. This episode of Creative Couch is hostedby Dr Colin Kennedy, Head of Creative HQ's School of Innovation and Senior Innovation Specialist.

What does innovation mean to Generation Z? What do younger generations make of our world and how do they see our/their future?  Continuing our voyage through the seas of Gen Z, we will dive deeper into the reasons many Gen Z'ers believe innovation to be a crucial way of thinking when surviving and succeeding in a post-COVID world.  Joined by special guests Elizabeth Pittman, Head of Young Enterprise Programme and Kadri Uljas, co-founder of VIVITA Aotearoa, we consider if innovation can be in fact taught or learned? Or Is Gen Z a naturally innovative generation? This episode of Creative Couch is hostedby Dr Colin Kennedy, Head of Creative HQ's School of Innovation and Senior Innovation Specialist.

The average age of a successful founder has recently been placed at 45 years of age – why do you think this is? In our final episode exploring Gen Z, we will be joined by a couple of Wellington-based entrepreneurs who are of the Z generation, Ana Warnock, business manager at Sewing Depot, and Shuari Naidoo, CEO and founder of Moraka Menstrual Cups. We will be hearing first-hand from the founders what it’s truly like to live as a young entrepreneur in our current world, what current challenges Gen Z entrepreneurs face that other entrepreneurs don't and what unique opportunities they have, being born into this particular generation.  This episode of Creative Couch is hostedby Dr Colin Kennedy, Head of Creative HQ's School of Innovation and Senior Innovation Specialist.

Is wellness really that important? And if it is, how on earth do you fit it into such a busy schedule? What are the dangers of dismissing this seemingly paramount part of your day? In this episode of Creative Couch, we are joined by special guests Katie Martin, founder of The Sensonauts, Joshua Apperley, founder of Simpel, and James Palmer, investor at Blackbird. Together we will look into the very current topic of burnout with discussions around what it looks and feels like, what can we do to avoid it and if founders run the risk of burnout more or less than the average person.  This episode of Creative Couch is hostedby Ben Hamm Conard, Startup Programme Manager at Creative HQ.

Have you always wanted to start your own business?  Where do you even begin?!  What are your biggest fears and would it be worth it in the end? In our next two episodes of Creative Couch, we will be focusing on the startup scene. We will dive into the reality of starting a business from scratch, how it can change your life and re-shape your usual ways of thinking. In this episode, we are joined by special guests Michel Garvey, founder of Foodprint, Hollie Arnett, founder of Maker & Moxie, and Luke Sinclair, founder of FTN Motion. Together we will explore the pros and cons of diving into the unknown and following your dreams. We discuss and reflect on how starting a business can change your life, relationships and views on business culture, whilst always gently reminding ourselves that everybody's journey is unique.  This episode of Creative Couch is hostedby Ben Hamm Conard, Startup Programme Manager at Creative HQ.