10 Great Ways to Use AI for Brainstorming
A Library 2.0 AI Workshop with Crystal Trice
OVERVIEW:
Ask AI for five program ideas, and you will get the same five every library gets. That experience convinces a lot of library staff that AI brainstorming is a dead end, when the actual problem is that nobody handed them the techniques. AI turns out to be a remarkable creativity partner, but only when you know how to push it past the obvious.
This workshop offers ten distinct brainstorming techniques, drawn from decades of creative practice and adapted for AI. Rather than a list of things to brainstorm about, this session teaches methods: reversing the question, forcing odd combinations, borrowing perspectives missing from your room, and adding constraints that squeeze out genuinely new thinking. Participants will watch the techniques run live and leave ready to aim them at real problems.
AI will not generate your best ideas, but it does help you think outside the box. Used playfully and pushed hard, AI generates the volume, the odd angles, and the questions you skipped, while you supply the community knowledge and the judgment that turn a wild list into something inspiring and useful.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Apply ten distinct brainstorming techniques with AI, spanning idea generation, provocation, refinement, and synthesis
- Evaluate AI-generated ideas against real community knowledge, budgets, and constraints
- Implement convergent techniques that stress-test a favorite idea before it goes to a director or board
- Facilitate better human brainstorms by using AI to prepare, expand, and organize the group's thinking
ACTIONABLE WORKSHOP ELEMENTS:
Over 60 minutes, participants will move through ten focused applications, each illustrated with a real example or a quick demonstration:
- Ask for 30, keep 3. Push AI past the obvious with sheer volume.
- Borrow someone else's eyes. Rerun your question through the perspectives missing from your room, from a shy 8-year-old to a patron who stopped visiting.
- Flip the question. Brainstorm how to cause the problem on purpose, then reverse each answer into a fix. Silly on the surface, powerful in practice.
- Add a ridiculous constraint. Force new thinking with tight limits: zero dollars, one staff member, ready by Friday.
- Mash two things together. Combine what already works into something nobody has tried, from storytime at the farmers market to an escape room in the stacks.
- Steal from another industry. Ask how a hotel, an airport, or a game designer would solve your wayfinding, your lines, or your signage.
- Play idea ping-pong. Bring a half-formed idea and volley with AI, yes-and style, steering the whole way.
- Storm the questions first. When a goal is fuzzy, generate twenty better questions before a single answer.
- Stress-test your favorite. Let AI play the skeptical director and raise the objections you'll actually hear, while there is still time to prepare.
- Sort the pile. Turn the sixty sticky notes from your last staff brainstorm into themes, duplicates, and the outliers worth a second look.
The recording and presentation slides will be available to all who register.
DATE: Friday, October 2nd, 2026, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm US - Eastern Time
COST:
- $99/person - includes live attendance, anytime access to the recording and presentation slides, and a participation certificate. To arrange group discounts (see below), to submit a purchase order, or for any registration difficulties or questions, email admin@library20.com.
TO REGISTER:
Click HERE to register and pay. You can pay by credit card. You will receive an email within a day with information on how to attend the webinar live and how you can access the permanent webinar recording. If you are paying for someone else to attend, you'll be prompted to send an email to admin@library20.com with the name and email address of the actual attendee.
If you need to be invoiced or pay by check, if you have any trouble registering for a webinar, or if you have any questions, please email admin@library20.com.
NOTE: Please check your spam folder if you don't receive your confirmation email within a day.
SPECIAL GROUP RATES (email admin@library20.com to arrange):
- Multiple individual log-ins and access from the same organization paid together: $75 each for 3+ registrations, $65 each for 5+ registrations. Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.
- The ability to show the webinar (live or recorded) to a group located in the same physical location or in the same virtual meeting from one log-in: $299.
- Large-scale institutional access for viewing with individual login capability: $499 (hosted either at Learning Revolution or in Niche Academy). Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.
With over two decades of experience in libraries and education, Crystal Trice is passionate about helping people work together more effectively in transformative, but practical ways. As founder of Scissors & Glue, LLC, Crystal partners with libraries and schools to bring positive changes through interactive training and hands-on workshops. She is a Certified Scrum Master and has completed a Masters Degree in Library & Information Science, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and Psychology. She is a frequent national presenter on topics ranging from project management to conflict resolution to artificial intelligence. She currently resides near Portland, Oregon, with her extraordinary husband, fuzzy cows, goofy geese, and noisy chickens. Crystal enjoys fine-tip Sharpies, multi-colored Flair pens, blue painters tape, and as many sticky notes as she can get her hands on.
OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS:
September 18, 2026
September 25, 2026
