IDEA Association

History of the IDEA Association.

Where the IDEA creativity model was born.

The roots of the IDEA Association go back to 1979 when our founder John Wren and his co-worker Barry Fiori at Mountain Bell Telephone Company (now Quest) hired Dr. David Fletcher to help them develop a seminar for the Bell System called "Creative Marketing in a Recession." Bell clients were taught the four-step creativity model the three had developed, called IDEA. The seminar was a great success, and it was the first seminar for which Bell charged customers. It was written up in Bell's Long Lines Magazine.

TV Show Hosted by Wren Leads to Association.

On February 26, 1993, John Wren aired his first weekly talk show for small business, "John Wren's TV Journal." To promote the show, several experiements were held with small business support groups. Early meetings were held at the law offices of Robinson & Robinson, Cornerstone Bookstore, and the Westminster Dinner Theatre. At every meeting, those who attended were asked for suggestions about how to make them more helpful (a practice that continues today.) These informal group meetings gradually evolved into the way the meetins are conducted today.

Many Hands Make Light the Work.

Important in the beginning of the IDEA Association were Stuart Bechman, a CPA and co-host of Wren's business talk show; Larry Washburn, the first group coordinator who found the first permanent home for the first group at the Universtiy of Phoenix DTC Campus; Erle Lewis; and Jack Kunish. Barbara Ford was very important, and served as coordinator from the Fall 1998 until Winter of 2000.

Email us
JohnSWren@AOL.com