Category Archives: Learning and Development

Beer and Napkins Kicks Off Creative with their New Year V Sessions

Artist and Designer John Digney will inspire with his creative journey

One of Beer and Napkin’s goals for the New Year is to nurture the creative soul of the community. Initially, the V Sessions or VUCA Sessions aimed to support a small group with connections and knowledge sharing around change. This has expanded to a larger audience and will serve a greater purpose of brewing creative inspiration.

Our initial Beer and Napkins V Session Creative Kickstart to 2023 will feature Artist and Designer John Digney. John will share some of his journey from Director of Industrial Design with American Greetings to his post-career passion for his Irish heritage, ancient stone craft, and design. His latest work is with the Dry Stone Wall Association of Ireland, www.DSWAI.ie. You can read more about some of his adventures here. https://iirish.us/2022/12/01/stone-mad-the-making-of-a-wall/

You can sign up for our Jan 3rd, 2023 Creative Kickstart on our Beer and Napkin’s Meetup Page https://www.meetup.com/beer-and-napkins-community-of-growth/events/290546244?utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=share-btn_savedevents_share_modal&utm_source=link

About our Speaker
John Digney is an Artist /Designer who received his BFA in Industrial Design from the Cleveland Institute of Art. He was raised in the Cleveland neighborhood of Westpark near Kamm’s Corner, and he and his wife, Kathleen, now reside in Greenville, SC.

About Beer and Napkins V Sessions
Beer and Napkins V Sessions are designed to build a community around knowledge sharing with the specific purpose of creatively nurturing resilience in the face of change.

Beer and Napkins Supports Furman University’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Scholarships available for their new GVL Starts Entrepreneurship Program

Beer and Napkins is excited to be supporting Furman University’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship GVL Starts. For a program overview, please visit  https://www.furman.edu/innovation-entrepreneurship/programs/gvl-starts/  or for more information, contact [email protected]

The Institute will give a 50% scholarship to the first 5 who apply (so it would only be $149). Just enter “50% Beer and Napkins Scholarship” in question 18/last question of the application. For application, visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GVLSTARTS 

Beer and Napkins Year in Review 2019

As we near the close of 2019, I want to take the time to reflect on the many relationships and ideas that make Beer and Napkins possible. It is easy to forget all the things we do and the people who make it happen in the year!   First, I am appreciative of my accomplice, Paul Hebert who has been with me cultivating the Beer and Napkins vision for almost 10 years.  Also, my friends and colleagues Tony Miller, Pam Wood Browne, Greg Holiday, and my brother Joel McCreight who have continually encouraged and nurtured our crazy ideas.  Additionally, I want to thank two special individuals who have inspired me, Saul Kaplan, founder of the Business Innovation Factory, who has connected me to wonderfully serendipitous network and unlocked my perception of the connective and collaborative power of community.   Last but not least, David Gray, who took special time with me to expand my knowledge of visual thinking.  I know there are many more who have contributed to Beer and Napkins and have helped me grow, forgive me if I did not mention you, but I am grateful for you.

Not sure if it is my age or viewpoint, but 2019 has been a hectic year personally and professionally.  Stack on the geopolitical chaos that has been permeating our feeds and collective psyche, I could think of no better acronym to describe the zeitgeist we are experiencing…

VUCA

VUCA, coined at the Army War College to describe this chaotic, asymmetrical environment was the theme of Beer and Napkins this year.  VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.  This theme was the top of my TEDxTalk I conducted in March this year, it chronicled my non-linear career path along with a perspective of freedom fighters, borrowing on the lyrics from the play Hamilton’s Stay Alive, “Outrun, Outlast, and Hit ‘em Quick and Get out Fast”.   Key takeaways:  To be successful in the VUCA world, Reduce your Biases, Embed yourself in a Community, and Try Small Experiments.

See my TEDxTalk here:  Face Change Like a Freedom Fighter

Thank you, Lisa Corley, for the picture!

Much of the year was building on this theme with meetups, podcasts dedicated to dialogue on how to navigate this VUCA world.

Freedom Fighters

As part of this year’s theme we wanted to recognize those who embody Freedom Fighter qualities, appropriately focused in the “revolutionary” month of July we recognized the following individuals for their bias reducing, community building, and experimental focus.

The recipients were:

Pam Wood Browne

Caroline Caldwell-Richmond

Juan Gonzalez

Saul Kaplan

Phil Yanov

Each of these Freedom Fighters helps their respective communities in education, preparation, and connections. Thank you for your inspiration!

Meetups

In 2019, we had several VUCA Meetups with the topic around Career Hacking.   Our goal was to build a community around experimentation, pushing the boundaries around traditional career paths and approaches to job searches, career assessments, and resources.

Chicago

We also had a unique opportunity to expand our conversations to the Chicago area. Special thank you to Molly M. Cantrell-Kraig for hosting a VUCA session on resilience and sharing her new bias busting book “Circuit Train Your Brain”  

Big thanks to Pete Wendell, another BIF connection for helping nurture the Chicago conversations.

Events

Events and Meetups are at the heart of our vision to nurture ideas in 3rd Spaces.  Community Tap has been a big supporter and we appreciate the space where we can drink good beer and do community brainstorming. Thank you Community Tap!  A big thank you to Susan McLarty, Coordinator for Greenville Homeless Alliance, of the city of Greenville. In partnership, this past year Beer and Napkins coordinated three events related to sustainable and resilient Greenville communities. We called it LinkinGVL.

The two events were:

LinkingGVL: Rethinking the link of Affordable Housing and Accessible Public Transportation

LinkingGVL: Rethinking Link of the Comprehensive Plan: Connecting Housing, Transportation and Land Use.

Podcasts

We love Podcasts! It is a great way to learn and connect with great minds! We recorded three podcasts this year, we had an innovator, an artist, and a futurist… what a fun and engaging experience this year with these awesome folks

Innovator, Consultant, and Mentor Deb Mills-Scofield – The Blue Lobster

UK Artist and Creative Organizational Development  –  Doug Shaw – Keep It Messy!

Futurist and Advisor- Dr. Chris Rice- Future is Not what it Seems

 

What’s Next…The Roaring Twenties

Well, let’s just hope there is no prohibition! We may just have to go underground.  In all seriousness, we hope to continue to diversify our connections, our projects, and perspectives this coming year. Being a Freedom Fighter will become ubiquitously part of our modus in the coming years.  Please stay tuned for our long-gestating Beer and Napkins Field Book. As we pursued small experiences beyond our Greenville home, we strive to continue our vision of a revolution of ideas throughout this country and the world through partnerships, ecosystem development, and technology.   Please let us know your ideas and thoughts on how we can serve you and your community.

Thank you and have a blessed New Year

Phil McCreight

Founder, Beer and Napkins.

[email protected]