This year's IDSA Northeast District Conference at the Rhode Island School of Design and as always I was blow away by the speakers, content and the energy of the conference. Throughout the conference, more than anything was this feeling of excitement to influence and change the world by everyone in their own way. In all the years I've gone to conferences and industry trade shows I often found the most inspiring and forward leading individuals populate this space the most. Of course there's a variety of reasons that people attend conferences. Those that are promoting their brand or company, those that are looking for new business or career opportunities. But many are there to either share best business practices and connect. I often find those that attend industry events tend to be more current, and leading the industry trends, the ones that are most connected and connecting others. It's especially interesting during times of economic challenge when you notice the few that push ahead while most stay in safety mode.
One impressive talk John Maeda moderated was a collection of the leading young creatives pushing the boundaries of innovation and business. Several of the other speakers, like Scott Wilson of MINIMAL, Mike Branson of PearlFisher, Richard Watson of Essential Design stuck around to stay around and talk to the local professionals, students and other speakers.
The students and young professionals I meet year after year are also the ones that I notice tend to find their career opportunities through the connections they make at these events. I also know companies that track the attendance list to seek out talent and to see who's out and about in the industry. It's so impressive to meet people like Sam Aquillano who was a merit award winner many years back quickly swept up by Bose Corporation and now the Co-Founder & Director of Design Museum Boston as well. And Sami Nerenberg I met a few years ago at the IDSA.NED conference as a budding graduate and this time she was a speaker sharing her new initiative Design for America that's sweeping the universities across the US. This is where you meet the new leaders of an industry.
For Yeh IDeology I have to attend various industry events, conferences and organizations. I have to admit many are dry and boring yet necessary. Few have the collaborative atmosphere of sharing best business practices I find at industry events like IDSA and DMI. Here I feel like the community is collaboratively trying to advance and improve. Collectively we can do so exponentially faster and better.