We were lucky to have Frank Newman from Mish Mash Museum lead us through an interactive workshop at SydDT #118 on Thursday night.
We learnt new fun creative thinking and innovative methods with a heavy focus on collaboration to lower creative barriers and resistance.
The fun included a collaborative intelligence activity that started with closing our eyes and drawing our faces… building from there by working in groups… through to a lesson in impermanence and letting go.
Frank then outlined the design challenge for Mish Mash Museum to get the idea out in the world. Deviant thinking and wicked solutions that would get you arrested… then reframed to be beautiful and legal.
What’s any of that mean? You’ll have to watch the video 😃
Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a fun night. Couldn’t make it or just want to relive it? Watch it now.
A huge thanks to Frank for generously sharing your amazing playful facilitation.
Thanks to Jayce Jie Zhang who did the awesome graphic recording this month. This initiative is a collaboration with Sh8peshifters and their Think Visual Morning Meetups community. SydDT is a friendly environment for people to practice their live graphic recording skills.
A shout out and thanks to Bex Haar for another great write-up with her reflections and what she learnt.
Lucas was the lead organiser for this one, and a massive thanks to Sarah Stokes and Frankie Balfour from Atlassian, Alan Chen and Diana Ayoub from Sh8peshifters, and Dynamic4 for making it all happen.
Our next meetup is SydDT #119: Identify Your Superpower & Tell Your Story with Jacalin Ding on Thursday, 9 October… organised by Kylie and brought to you by Thoughtworks, Sh8peshifters, and Dynamic4. Grab your ticket!
Meetup Announcement
Thursday, 11 September 2025 @ 6pm. Atlassian, Sydney
We’re lucky to have Frank Newman leading us through an interactive workshop to learn new fun and innovative design skills that are so good (and WICKED) that they’re guaranteed to get you in trouble!
In his Wicked Solutions for Wicked Problems workshop, we’ll dive into a world of playful creativity and hands-on activities designed to spark your imagination and expand your designer’s toolkit.
Wickedly fun and full of surprises.
Don’t miss out on the chance to learn a groundbreaking design technique that will elevate your creative process.
What to Expect
What we’ll be doing… and how to get the most out of this workshop.
We’ll be attempting to solve a real-life problem for a social enterprise.
Bring friends, colleagues, and team members so you can work and learn together. By working in teams, you’ll be able to take these skills and apply them to your own design and problem solving practices.
New members are welcome! If you’re not already a member, feel free to join our community. Each meetup audience is curated to a degree to make sure we have a mix of new people, as well as the committed regulars.
We’ve been meeting monthly since 2015 to explore the world of design thinking as a human-centred design and living systems approach to innovation and solving complex problems – to help create positive outcomes for people, our planet, and business. We’re one of the top design thinking meetups globally.
Speaker
Frank is a theatre director, producer, program manager, facilitator and community arts worker. He’s currently a program manager at the City of Sydney, developing and managing programs with First Nations businesses.
He was Lead Engagement and Facilitator at the NFP – Sydney School of Entrepreneurship. Before that he was Creative Learning Specialist for the Sydney Opera House for 10 years.
From 2007-2012 Frank was Terrapin Puppet Theatre’s Artistic Director. During this time he won a Helpmann Award for Best Production for Young Audiences.
Frank’s shows have played in festivals and venues across Australia and around the world. He has a Bachelor of Creative Arts, Majoring in Theatre Technology, from Wollongong University and is partly through a doctorate at QUT.
Event Sponsors
This event is brought to you by Atlassian, Mish Mash Museum, Sh8peshifters, and Dynamic4.
We take photos and record our events for documentation and promo purposes. Just let us know if you prefer not to be featured.
