Wow! 2024 is coming to a close and not only are we looking back at this fantastic year, we are now anticipating an amazing 2025.
Our year launched with the help and support of Dr. Kim Macuare in March 2024, at the Dalí Art Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.
A global lineup of speakers shared their knowledge and provided hands-on engaging activities:
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Dr. Kim Macuare The Dali Art Museum
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Dr. Tricia Garwood Disney University
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Sarah Moyle Intel Flex
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Sara Ramadoro Google London
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Paul Propster NASA JPL
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Dr. Astin Malschinger Ferdinand Porsche FernFH |
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Prof. Sven Poguntke Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences
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Dr. Andrea Grimm Ferdinand Porsche FernFH
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Robin Sather Brickville |
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Dr. Steve Ralph Pepperdine, Graziadio Business School
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Dr. Paco Suay CEU Cardenal Herrera University
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(left to right - Arturo, Dali, and Paco)
Our fascinating and playful friends joined us from around the world, coming from Austria, Germany, Chile, Spain, Panama, UK, Venezuela, Canada, and the USA—of course! And very excitingly, Dr. Stuart Brown joined us virtually to accept the 20204 Strategic Play Golden Brick Award for being a champion for play.
In April, we were fortunate to connect with our EU tribe at CREA in beautiful Sestri Lavante, Italy, where we presented Playsonality™. A big thank you to the team, including Laura, Tim, and Sylvain, who invited us to present.
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In June, we traveled to Niagara Falls, NY to present a week full of playful activities at CPSI, including Playsonality™ and Elements: The Nature of Innovative Leadership. We also had the fun of launching our new Now What the Duck activity book and our 3D Diagnostic Cards. A big thank you to Beth, Jane, Jamie, and Rosie.
(Super Hero and Villian)
August took us to the beautiful shores of Lake Huron for Mindcamp. A big thank you goes to Tim H. who gave us a wonderful keynote opportunity to present Playsonality™ to the fun folks who attended that amazing conference.
Also in August, we presented Playsonality™ at the Serious Play Conference at York University in Toronto. There we connected with some of North American's leading minds in game design.
In September, we traveled again—sensing a theme? This time we headed to the West Coast to Santa Barbara, California, specifically to the Music Academy of the West. Here we presented Playsonality™, Now What the Duck, and Elements: The Nature of Innovative Leadership, at the EPIC International Summit. A big congratulations goes to Dr. Steve Ralph, conference founder, and his amazing team for another successful event.
Following EPIC, we traveled up the highway to Malibu and Pepperdine University, Graziadio Business Center, where we connected with LSP facilitators and celebrated hands-on mind engaged knowledge with our newly minted LSP Master Facilitators.
In November 2024, Stephen traveled to the Netherlands to attend training. This time it was his turn to be the one facilitated. He joined Bronco and Dr. Liz Monroe at the School of Creative Thinking, and he was awarded his certification in Polarity Thinking.
Also in 2024, members of the SPG head office team traveled to Japan, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, and Alabama to train members of the USAF. Our global trainers proudly trained new facilitators in Hong Kong, Macau, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, USA, Spain, Germany, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Chile; and closer to home, they trained in Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City.
This year we shone the spotlight on three facilitators who are doing amazing work to spread the good news on play: Lauren Piana (Brazil), Roberta Pacheco Agostini (Brazil), and Gul Gursoy (UAE).
Also a big shout out to all our fiends new and old including Kari Campos who hosted us all in Florida - Amazing, Yvonne Groenen and Robin Sather and Dr. Steve Ralph who co-facilitated and /or co-trained and / or collaborated with us in 2024! And to Simon who tagged along and documented everything.
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We also want to warmly welcome all our newly minted trainers joining us in 2024:
Jeremy Neuner, San Francico Bay Area, USA
Laura Rentas, Puerto Rico, USA
Jeffrey Balesh, Washington DC Area, USA
Col. Jason "TOGA" Trew (retired) New Orleans, USA
It's truly amazing to reflect on just how much our community has grown and accomplished since we started over 20 years ago in Thunder Bay, Ontario. And this coming spring, we are keeping the trend of gathering, learning, and playing together going strong for another SPG Conference. Our theme: Play without Borders!
We have speakers joining us from around the world to spread the good news about the power of play! The speakers list continues to grow, so take a look at who is coming to play with us from Lululemon, Replay, US Department of Denfense, Purdu and Pepperdine Universities, and many more and yes, Health Care and even outter space with stories from NASA JPL.
We know it is a very busy time of year, and we are happy to share we have extended the Early Bird rate for the Conference until the end of December. Register Now!
At Strategic Play Global, we are dedicated to spreading the good news about play. We recognize the value of lifting each other up as we go forward to share our valuable tools and insights. We know that through our collective support and shared experiences, we can navigate any challenge and secure our wins. I hope to see many of you in Whistler in April 2025!
P.S. Ok one last photo - just in case you think all we do is have fun! Jacquie, Simon, Steve and Robin - the Canadian Coalition in Florida trying to get through security at the airport. Come join us in Whistler and we will tell you the rest of the story!
