Conference
2 Conferences worth your time and money
This year I decided to finally swear off conferences for all the reasons I listed here. Like everything you swear off it means that as soon as you do it something comes along to pull you back in.
The first one came in April with the 99% Conference that was put on Behance. The conference concentrated less on inspiration, and more on how idea generation and organization come together to make ideas happen. I have previously posted two different video from two of the speakers that highlighted some of what they had to say and gave you a good flavor for the conference.
The second came yesterday with the Creativity and Technology Conference (CAT) which I think was the best conference I have been to in a long, long time. Not only for the fact that you could hear from and talk with the creators of some of the best online creative from the past year but because it is the first conference that was also attended by a lot of really top tier creative talents. The mix of the two made for a great atmosphere, great conversation and the first conference that I have actually taken notes at in a long, long time.
So mark your calendar next year for these two because they are both well worth the money.
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Obama’s Design Director of New Media talks about how design and interactive helped win the White House
Over the past year I wrote more than once about how much I liked what the Obama campaign did with digital design and media during their run to the White House. A few weeks ago I had the chance to meet and hear from the guy behind that work named Scott Thomas who spoke at the 99% conference. This video culls the highlights from his presentation at the conference and catches up with him afterward to find out more about his theories on simplicity and his plans for working in politics in the future.
I also have to give props to Scott Belsky who I am lucky enough to know, is the founder of Behance.com and one of the masterminds behind the 99% conference. I had sworn off conferences all together because of my previously documented conference coma but this one conference I will return next year. Also if you have a chance to hear Scott speak take advantage of it because he has a lot of great insights from talking with a lot of great creative minds and groups about how to make ideas happen.
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Behance Action Method – Making ideas happen.
I like all conferences, the HOW conference has been a mixed bag of sessions ranging from the really good to the just plain strange. The best session so far was by Scott Belsky who is the founder of the Behance Network which I have written about before. His session was called “Tips for Productivity: Making Ideas Happen in the Creative Community” which was more clinical than the content of speech. He talked about the hundreds of interviews they conducted with some of the world’s top design teams to come to the conclusion that creative project ultimately depends on organization, accountability and action. All of that rolls up into their Action Method that has a lot of interesting insights into the creative method based on that research. There is also a tip exchange where people post ideas about how they have improved their process and some of them are interesting.
They have also created Behance Outfitter where they sell things like the Action Book that let’s you bring their method to life in your every day work. I picked upa few to try out because I like that they were designed to aide in the creative process. I also picked up their Dot Grid Book that I already use and love. It is a more sophisticated paper for me than graph paper or vellum since it is just a dot grid that is just the perfect amount of reference for the types of things I draw.
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HOW Design Conference
For those of you who are interested, I am going to take a few days off work and head up the coast to the HOW Design Conference in Boston in two weeks. Anyone who wants to meet up to talk shop, grab a beer or just shoot the breeze drop me a line.
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