Uploaded to this blog post, you will find Lyn Heward's keynote speech from the 2007 Americans for the Arts Annual Convention. As they become available, Americans for the Arts will post the audio files from all six Innovators, the Annual Awards, and the AEPIII Plenary Session on the Audio and Video section of the website.  They will also be featured on the blog, and will be sent out via our RSS feed.

Cirque du Soleil is widely recognized as one of the most innovative and creative companies in the world today. As the President of Creative Content for Cirque du Soleil, Lyn was responsible for managing, guiding, and channeling the incredible creative force of the company's designers, performers, artisans, and technicians into a product that was both breathtakingly original as well as commercially successful.  In this talk Lyn goes behind the scenes of this global enterprise to explore the nature of creativity and innovation. She provides practical suggestions as well as the inspiration to find and develop the creative spark that lives within us all. Making brilliant use of images and video from Cirque du Soleil's groundbreaking shows, Heward concentrates on key issues-risk-taking, leadership, and teamwork-relevant to arts leaders and their partners in education, business, community, and government.