Thursday, October 30, 2008
Who better to ask than actual Hyper Island Creative Social Academy attendees? Clara Burguillo and Nobert "Nobs" Rieger attended the course earlier this month. This is what they had to say:
Where are you from?
Clara: I am Spanish but currently I am working in London.
Nobs: I am from Munich, Germany.
What do you do in your home country?
Clara: I am a junior graphic designer in a digital agency (I mostly work on web pages mostly, sometimes I do banners).
Nobs: I am working here for Plan.Net. I work in the sector of online advertisement. I am allowed to create really cool innovative online stuff: unexpected online ads, banners and websites full with ideas.
How did you find Hyper Island?
Nobs: My Creative Director told me to meet him in his office. Then he told me about the Master Class and Hyper Island.
What expectations did you have before arriving in Sweden?
Clara: To learn more about digital industry and get more confident in my work.
Nobs: One quote from Roger of course: "I can already now say that you will have long and intensive working hours from morning til evening." But I also thought of very creative tools to think out of the box, I thought about a program which probably will be extremely team player orientated. Furthermore I have to admit, that I also thought about having fun and parties with guys from all over the world. Fun I had a lot, party not really.
What is Hyper Island Social Academy about?
Clara: It is about mixing 12 people from different countries, shaking them and having a wonderful cocktail that you send back again. The taste is highly addictive!
Nobs: It is about global team play, about trusting each other. It is about solving problems you never thought that even could exist before. It is about changing perspective everybody is used to. It is about thinking out of the box, jump over the barriers in the head. It is about learning from each other and learning from mistakes (Roger and Åsa are no teachers, they only direct the way you go). It is about to be a psychologist in order to succeed most effective with/in a team. You need a team to make something really big and great.
How did the course change you?
Clara: I am better person (hehehehe). Well, I realized that I can be resourceful and get inspiration from everyone and everywhere. I also learnt to think big all the time: it is a good exercise for the brain!
Nobs: I learned a lot of things about myself, which I never could learn anywhere else. I had a chance, to see my reactions and behaviours in tasks from a new perspective. I had time to watch different personalities working together. I now know more about my psychological skills to push people, to motivate teammates and to bring my ability into projects - exactly at the right time. I even often catch me when I am reflecting about some projects. :)
What do you think the experience gained by the attendees being from different countries and cultures?
Clara: It helps to see different ways of working but also many things in common that make us feel "in the same boat": it unifies energies and strengthen motivation.
Nobs: There were insights into all types of agencies. There were a lot of different personalities and approaches. Because of a few guys from non-english-speaking countries the language barrier was not so high. It is a very valuable network we created all over the world. We all will keep in touch and will be able to collect experience in different countries much more easier.
Did the course exceed your expectations?
Clara:I knew a little bit about Hyper Island's pedagogic system but I never expect that it could be so rewarding: I left physically worn out but emotionally full of energy.
Nobs: Yes. I didn't expect that so much psychology is necessary to be a good teamplayer. I did not know that a team can be so powerful. I expected hard working days but shorter ones. I was very surprised to learn without teachers. The whole thing was much bigger i could imagine before.
If you were to recommend the course to someone, what would you say?
Clara: Probably once in a lifetime opportunity.
Nobs: Take the big chance and give your best. It is not only a creativity course. It is a big life experience, it is a program to solve all kinds of problems and even chaos. It is a program to hold out and never give up. It is working as a team player and living as a person in relationship, it is about learning to give feedback, about motivation. It is about trusting each other and manage it TOGETHER.
Thank you Clara and Nobs!