A discussion with Leo Chan, founder of Abound Innovation, in advance of his keynote at MPI’s theEVENT, Sept 7-9, in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Can you tease some of what you’ve got planned for your keynote at theEVENT?

The keynote will be interactive and a blend of learning, building, sharing and reflection.

I’ll help you see innovation is part of your life and the way we’ll do that is also with my favorite business tool, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®! Yes, you heard me! LEGO®!

Get ready to have an engaging, memorable and fun time! It’s time to get your LEGO® on with Leo! And if you’ve never touched LEGO® before, not to worry—no previous LEGO® experience required.

What do you hope attendees take away from your keynote?

I hope attendees will see that they are innovators—and that they will believe it for themselves. While I believe this to be true for everyone, I especially believe this to be true for event planners and suppliers.

This is based on my real experiences and interactions with the event industry. I started interacting with the event industry in 2023. My friend was an event planner and told me innovation would be perfect for the event industry. She connected me with MPI and I ended up speaking at the World Education Congress in 2023. That was my first interaction with the event industry and I loved every moment of it! Since then, I’ve met so many wonderful event planners and suppliers who express so much innovation and creativity in their work. I see it at all the MPI events I’ve been at.

Event planners and suppliers are my people! And when I say that, I mean my innovation people! I believe, when you realize you can innovate, everything changes. It’s empowering. It’s liberating. And it’s powerful.

This will be the beginning—the journey to innovation is a lifelong journey, including for me, too. But I’m your coach and guide. I’ll walk with you every step of the way.

The other takeaway I want attendees to leave with? I want them to see just how powerful LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is. Not only to have an engaging, fun, connecting and memorable experience, but to see how deeply connecting it is, too. It’s literally my favorite business tool on the planet. There’s so much more we could do with LEGO® together, but I have limited time.

When and how did you originally recognize the potential usefulness of LEGO in adults for innovation and thinking?

In 2015, I attended the Front End of Innovation conference in Boston and there was a workshop on LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®. I was really curious about it. What on earth did LEGO® have to do with innovation and business?

I went for the three-to-four-hour workshop and I never looked back. I was completely sold on the methodology and knew I would integrate it in my work. I had never discovered something so powerful in my work…and plus it was so much fun.

I always loved having fun while working (they can be together and integrated) and I couldn’t think of a better way than to integrate it with LEGO®!

Actually, I never grew up playing with LEGO® as a kid. My first “play” with LEGO® was in that workshop. The other fun thing: My name goes perfect with LEGO! You can’t spell LEGO without LEO!

Are there other overlooked tools in which, similar to LEGO, you see value as helping to enable adult creativity and innovation?

There are lots of great tools out there, but LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is hands down my favorite.

I’ve actually amassed a lot of [great tools] over my career. Some come from the world of design (from my days as a graphic design student), design thinking and creative problem solving (Google these). Others come from meeting other amazing facilitators and learning from them.

I’ve also created tons of my own [tools] to help enable adult innovation and creativity. I have my own innovation curriculum, called the Innovator’s OS, where I teach all of them. These tools are hyper specialized to focus on different innovation mindsets and skillsets and really help you become more innovative. If you’re curious to learn more, please reach out!

In addition, if you have LinkedIn Learning, check out my courses there, specifically “Building Your Innovation Skills, How to Make Innovative Thinking a Habit” and “Practical Tools to Brainstorm and Innovate as a Team.” I teach lots of innovation and creative tools in them!