CreateAthon: it’s a day in October, a full day (all 24 hours!), when we drop our work and pick up a cause or two… or three. Hopefully three, ‘cause this is one of those “the more, the merrier” things. We drop our everyday work and our everyday roles in an all-hands-on-deck, get-the-job-done-before-the-coffee-runs-out effort that takes us out of our comfort zones and squarely into new territory.
At 8:30 that morning, the clients are new to us, the projects don’t exist yet, and the challenges can’t even be anticipated. But by 9:00, we’re in it, and it’s a good thing, too, because the clock is ticking.
Three clients mean three teams, and everybody chips in. Ideas are pitched, written on white boards, erased, and written again. There’s a bit of nervous energy in the room. “Are we going to be able to do this?”
But then it happens. One idea to rule them all, if we want to be dramatic about it. Somebody underlines it on the white board and then somebody else sketches it out. “This could be it.”
And now we’re off and really running because the clock is ticking but we’re moving finally. It’s a fair race, now.
The next morning, it’s “pencils down, hand in your work, class” (and maybe a chance to nod off a little at your desk?). We present the ideas we didn’t have at the start of the previous day - to clients we didn’t know - alongside co-workers we didn’t know quite as well.
Good causes, good ideas, good people. It starts with a day in October, a full day - 24 hours' worth. But it continues far beyond that.