by Henry Kim, FORREC
In the attractions industry, blue sky thinking is the spark behind every unforgettable ride, immersive land, or wonder-filled moment. It’s the freedom to bend physics and dream out loud before anyone starts asking about budgets, operations, or feasibility. It’s where impossible ideas first take shape, long before reality shows up with its clipboards and spreadsheets.
And here’s the thing: blue sky thinking isn’t just a fancy way to say “brainstorming.” Brainstorming is a tool. Useful, sure. But real blue sky thinking is bigger than that. It’s a mindset. It’s the space you create where ideas can breathe before anyone tries to pin them down.
Look beyond your backyard
Some of the best breakthroughs come from looking far beyond your own backyard. Back in the 1990s, hospital emergency rooms studied NASCAR pit crews to figure out how to save lives faster. Surgeons and nurses stood shoulder to shoulder with mechanics, watching how they choreographed tire changes and fuel refills in under 15 seconds.
What came out of that mash-up? Safer, more efficient operating rooms. It turns out, sometimes the clearest ideas arrive when you lift your head and look at the whole sky, not just the corner above you.
The advertising world has its own story of blue sky thinking. When Toronto agency Taxi pitched for the Canadian launch of the Mini Cooper, they didn’t just show slides and charts. They rolled the actual car into the boardroom.
On paper, it sounded ridiculous. Who parks a car next to the conference table? But that “bad idea” made the pitch impossible to ignore. It was bold. It was playful. And it worked because the team didn’t start by asking what was safe or reasonable — they started by asking what would light people up.
Blue sky thinking needs time & space
At FORREC, that’s the kind of culture we try to build into every project. Blue sky thinking isn’t a meeting on the calendar; it’s the air we work in. It’s why we pull ideas from outside the industry. It’s why we sketch before we calculate. It’s why we let the messy, early ideas run wild before shaping them into something people can actually build.
Because here’s the secret: real blue sky thinking needs time. It needs space where curiosity outruns caution, where leaders hold off on the practical questions, just for a while, so that the wild ideas can stretch their legs.
In the end, this isn’t about dreaming for the sake of it. It’s about creating the conditions where imagination can soar high enough to see new horizons and stay untethered long enough to surprise us. That’s where the next unforgettable moment begins.
FORREC is sponsoring the Blue Sky category at the blooloop Innovation Awards 2025. For more information and to enter, please click here. Entries are open until 29 September.
