VANCOUVER—Great ideas can "focus, lead, change, inspire, give  back and control."

Ian Grais, partner and creative director of Rethink, spoke at the second GDC sponsored Creative Mornings/Vancouver recently. He shared Rethink's process for developing great ideas with the eager ears of 200 in the audience.

Great ideas can be elusive; where do they come from? Rethink recognizes that a process is needed to allow those ideas to come to their creative staff.

The first step in idea generation is observation of the world around us. Grais is constantly collecting and photographing. He believes that "art has power in our society" and by gathering bits and pieces of it, connections in the brain can be made.

Secondly, think of yourself as a conduit for creativity, he said. This means filtering your aforementioned collection. The filter should be focused on the task at hand: what are you trying to say? Focus on the service or product for which you are working, and find as many visuals as you can to describe it. Now apply this to your visual collection. The result should be a list of good ideas (easy, right?). Grais did make sure to mention that in contrast to good ideas, "great ideas are from God" so you should always have your pen and paper ready for when inspiration strikes.

The third step is peer review. Running thoughts, ideas and sketches by as many people as you can creates objectivity; Grais says "the enemy of objectivity is ego."

The second Creative Mornings/Vancouver sold out in under one minute. November's session will feature multi-platinum record selling singer/songwriter Bif Naked.

Started in New York by Tina Roth Eisenberg,Creative Mornings is a monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types. Each event is free of charge, and includes a 20 minute talk, plus coffee! The program has experienced great succes and participation and has spread throughout the world including Zurich, Los Angeles, Berlin & London. As of September 2nd, thanks to the efforts of Mark Busse, Vancouver will be a part of the international program and the first Canadian city to participate.

Interlink Conference is a small and carefully curated 3-day web conference that features a broad spectrum of talks and workshops that will appeal to all web professionals, from some of the brightest minds in the industry.

This international web design conference welcomes graphic designers, website architects, usability specialists, project managers, marketing coordinators, web developers, website designers and any other online professional that's looking to elevate their craft and take their work and methodologies to the next level. Listen to challenging talks focused on the latest and greatest thoughts and ideas that are shaping the web industry today and get a chance to engage these experts in Q&A after each talk. As well there will be plenty of fun events to let loose and have some fun while connecting and getting to know other local experts as well as our friends from around the world.