5 Top Creativity Conferences in 2021

Looking for a spark to ignite your creativity? Here are five inspiring creativity conferences that are sure to do the trick. From design, to leadership, to entrepreneurial insight, you’ll find a little bit of each—and a whole lot more—at all of these exciting events.

1. Creative Problem Solving Institute Conference (June 7-24) Virtual

Hosted by the Creative Education Foundation, CPSI focuses on deliberate creativity, innovation and change leadership. As the longest-running creativity conference in the world, CPSI has been teaching people how to access their creativity, improve collaboration, adapt new ways of thinking and arrive at unexpected solutions for more than 60 years. Attendees can expect to stretch their creative limits in hands-on workshops while gleaning inspiration from renowned and respected speakers.

Seed Strategy is pleased to sponsor this world-class conference again this year. If you attend CPSI 2021, be sure to check out the presentation by Seed’s Cherri Prince and Corey Beilstein.

2. Creativity & Cognition (June 22-23) Virtual

Since 1993, this conference has brought together artists, scientists, designers, educators and researchers to more deeply understand how people engage individually and socially in creative processes and how computation and other technology can affect creative outcomes. This year’s conference will explore the themes of creativity, craft and design. The conference will be held virtually in 2021, but organizers plan to host a weeklong in-person version in Venice next year.

3. Creativity Conference at SOU (July 8-11) Virtual

This year’s conference will take place remotely, so while you may miss out on basking in the beautiful surroundings of the Rogue Valley and Southern Oregon University, you can still enjoy a rich and rewarding experience aimed at those who study the science of creativity, seek to leverage research on creative thinking or simply consider themselves to be creative.

4. The Creativity Conference (August 4-6) Virtual

This free conference invites people from around the world to embark on a three-day journey full of inspiring participatory experiences that explore the essence of creativity in all its forms. Attendees will learn about the impact of technology, the purpose of poetry, inspiring environments and extraordinary creative tools.​

The event features 72 live online presentations and panels with musicians, dancers, designers, photographers, filmmakers, fine artists, authors and more. Speakers choose a unique angle through which they explore creativity with some presentations being more philosophical, some practical and others describing personal journeys to find an authentic creative voice.

5. CREA Conference (September 22-26) Tuscany, Italy

Europe’s premier conference on creativity, creative problem solving and innovation has been designed by and for professionals from all over the world to meet, network and share their learning. CREA Conference holds a core expertise in Creative Problem Solving and offers teachings on design thinking, polarity thinking and a variety of other cutting-edge methods, tools and techniques linked to creativity and innovation. The theme of this year’s conference is re-creation—with a focus on helping attendees re-create their lives, energy, skills, relationships and businesses. Did I mention the conference takes place on a beautiful campus nestled in a WWF-affiliated oasis in Tuscany?

So, which of these conferences has what it takes to light your creative fire? Are there any others you think we should add to the list? I’d love to hear from you—connect with me on LinkedIn.

Interested in learning about more inspirational conferences? Check out our guide to this year’s top innovation conferences.

Adam Siegel is the Editor of The Accelerator and VP, Creative at Seed Strategy where he draws upon his diverse experience in advertising, research and innovation to craft breakthrough creative and winning concept copy.

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