Over Coffee® is on hiatus as we continue production on a special-edition episode! Please enjoy this reposting of one of our top episodes from 2025.

“Wow” is one of the most exciting reactions any creator can hear, in response to their work.

Tech pioneer, human-centric AI consultant and author/speaker/podcast host Elizabeth Bieniek knows exactly how to evoke that response.

In her book, Cake on Tuesday: 25 Lessons to Unlock Corporate Innovation, Elizabeth explains the steps involved in creating something amazing.

In 2021, Elizabeth built and led the team that created the groundbreaking Webex Hologram holographic collaboration system.

This is a project that sounds like a cross between science fiction and magic. Webex Hologram is a real-time meeting technology which allows collaborators from all over the world to appear and interact, holographically, in the same space.

(Wow.)

“Cake” and creativity

While her book explores corporate innovation, the lessons Elizabeth learned, leading her team of technological innovators, could easily be applied to your next creative project.

Among those lessons: keeping the project simple, keeping a plan flexible, and persisting through the middle of a project–which no one tends to like.

And most of all, having fun.

The title of Elizabeth’s book–and of her podcast, comes from one of the ways she incorporated the fun element into her team as they created Webex Hologram. Be sure to check out her “Cake on Tuesday” podcast, as she and her guests discuss entrepreneurship, tech leadership and innovation!

In this discussion, recorded in 2025, we apply some of the principles from Elizabeth’s book to a hypothetical educator’s experience of creating a mini maker faire!

On this edition of Over Coffee®, we cover:

• How Elizabeth first became inspired to work in human-centered technology;

• The story of Webex Hologram;

• How the principles covered in her book, Cake on Tuesday, can apply to a creative project;

• How to get started on a creative project;

• Ways to keep that project simple!:

• How to keep a team focused and on track;

• Keeping the “fun” element in the project;

• How Elizabeth maintained the “fun” element as she and her team created Webex Hologram;

• The story behind her book’s title;

• How to plan the “wow” factor into a creative project;

• One reaction to Webex Hologram that showed Elizabeth that her team had achieved that “wow” element;

• How to get through the “middle” part of a project;

• A quote which Elizabeth especially likes, which keeps her going through the challenges;

• Her current work as a consultant, as well as her public presentations and podcast;

• How to communicate with a team effectively, without micromanaging;

• How to develop your success into a “system” for future projects.