ANN ARBOR – The Ann Arbor IT Zone will kick off its fall programming after Labor Day with its brown-bag lunch Creativity Forum followed by Rob Pasick?s LeadersConnect Breakfast series.

The Creativity Forum is a lunch event that explores the mind’s power to create. Moderated by Jan Nichols, of Market Arts, the program combines audience participation, fun games and conversation with guests who have something to say about the power, the process and the payoff of thinking creatively. The Creativity Forum takes place during lunch, from noon to 1:15 p.m. at the Ann Arbor IT Zone, 330 East Liberty Street in downtown Ann Arbor. Free to members of the IT Zone, the cost is $5 for non-members.

The September 9 Creativity Forum Industrial Strength Imagination and the Most Improbable Boat Ever to Float. John Pollack, who fulfilled a childhood dream by building a 22-foot Viking ship from wine corks and sailing it down Portugal’s Douro River, will discuss, with attendees, the pursuit of dreams, the joys of whimsy and the power of imagination. He recounts this odyssey in his book Cork Boat – which he will sign following the program. Pollack is a native of Ann Arbor who now lives in New York City.

The September LeadersConnect Breakfast Series, co-sponsored by the Ann Arbor IT Zone, Inner Circle Media, Nicola Books, Pfizer, Univ. of Michigan Ross School of Business and Zingerman’s, is designed to bring together business leaders, consultants and educators in a dynamic learning forum. Registration starts at 7:15 a.m. and program from 7:45 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the Ann Arbor IT Zone. The cost is $15 for members and $25 for non-members and students for pre-registration or $30 at the door and includes a Zingerman’s continental breakfast.

The Sept. 13 program is called Becoming Your Best Self. Gretchen Spreitzer, professor of management and organizations at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and a faculty affiliate of the Center for Effective Organizations, will introduce to attendees, the Reflected Best Self Feedback Exercise (RBSF). As recently profiled in the Harvard Business Review, the RBSF Exercise creates an opportunity for people to receive feedback regarding who they are when they are at their best. In this exercise, attendees will request positive feedback from significant people in their lives (best self stories), that they then synthesize into a cumulative portrait of their “best self.” The RBSF Exercise can be used as a tool for personal development in leadership, organizational change, and career and team development.

For more information, click on AnnArborITZone.Com