Scott Dikkers

Scott Dikkers' Disruptive Guide to Being Creative

In the age of AI, how can we still be creative?

It’s true, AI is on everyone’s mind — teams in every industry wonder if they are safe from job extinction, while leaders explore how AI will generate and save money. In the midst of programming, automation, and data points, the art of human creativity (using brains and emotions) is still the key to innovation.

Scott’s talk ISN’T about AI expertise, it IS using a proven creativity method (with other humans or in conjunction with AI) that he used to make The Onion a multi-million dollar company. Scott is a creative catalyst who used a process that leads to constant innovation, improvisation, and adaptability.

While The Onion may be all humor, it is a serious business that has traveled through highways of disruption (from the fall of print media to the rise of the internet, and more). The future of work has always been here. Everything is changing around us — so many disruptive forces and so much change in the way we work, interact, and accomplish anything. 

Creativity is how The Onion survived and thrived amid a market crash, digital transition, a hybrid office, and increased stealth competition. Scott’s talk provides attendees a clear method that teams and leaders can use while reminding them of their vital role in innovation.

Peeling The Onion

How did The Onion, a small college newspaper from Madison, Wisconsin, compete in the cutthroat world of entertainment marketing to become one of the most recognizable and successful comedy brands in the world? You may be surprised to learn it was done without spending a penny on marketing.

Scott Dikkers, The Onion’s longest-serving editor-in-chief who founded theonion.com, helped found the print publication that preceded it, and led the company’s effort to build the brand in its formative decades, tells the unlikely and outrageous tale of exactly how The Onion—now a multi-million-dollar company with tens of millions of monthly views online—thrived against all odds to achieve heightened brand awareness and a fiercely loyal fan base. He leaves corporate audiences inspired to do the same for their own companies.

The Funny Story Behind the Funny Stories

Scott Dikkers tells the tale of his beginnings in comedy and getting The Onion started, and shares funny stories about how he struggled in the early years, and then achieved great success. As a farm boy with no education, he’ll paint the picture of a starry-eyed kid who loved reading Mad Magazine and dreamt of one day getting his work published to improbably founding the world’s first humor website and heading up America’s longest-surviving humor publication.

Dikkers connects his experience to the college audience’s lives by pointing out how much more opportunity they have to start something new like The Onion today, explaining that this is a magical time in their lives when they can make just about anything happen for themselves.

The Real Story of Fake News

Scott examines the mayhem of modern media and politics, detailing the hilarious challenges he faces creating satire in a world that—especially lately—feels more like comedy than reality!