Hello design fans and friends! It’s that time of the every-two-years again where designers pack up their business cards and Moleskines, coordinate outfits based on how they look with a plastic name badge, and practice what they’re going to say to Stefan Sagmeister when they run into him in line for cocktails. Yes, it’s the AIGA conference Make/Think and this year we’re going to Memphis, home of BBQ and Beale Street, Stax and Sun, Elvis and FedEx.
This year is particularly exciting, and not just because of the headliners, although they’re pretty fantastic—David Butler, Jill Greenberg, Daniel Eatock, Marissa Mayer, Stefan Bucher, Carin Goldberg, Roger Martin, to name a few—and not just because of the hands-on workshops, affinity sessions and exhibitions, although they’ll be really good, too, and not just because of the parties—because, let’s face it, the Design Observer party is going to blow the neon off the New Daisy Theater—no, this year is going to be especially great because I’ll be live blogging and live videoing and live Tweeting and live whatever-elseing right there from the very conference of which we speak.
But I understand that many of you will also be doing much of the above (especially the live whatever-elseing) and so we’re hoping that we can gather all your coverage and all my coverage in one amazing place. First, so we can share this awesome experience with those who can’t be with us, but also, so we can have this vast compendium of everything we see and do and make and think, all in one location. And that location, my friends, is makethink.withgelatobaby.com
Of course I couldn’t have done this alone. First of all, thanks to all our tireless friends at AIGA for coordinating such a great conference in the first place. Co-creator of this bright idea, and handling design and development is Randy J. Hunt and his team at Citizen Scholar. Snapping photos (so don’t forget to smile) is the unequivocal Wheat Wurtzburger. And thanks to our good friends at Mohawk, who are presenting this fine experiment. Come see us in their booth, where we’ll have a place for all you bloggers and Tweeters to power up and hang out, right there on the Design Fair floor (I hope it’s close to the Rock Band stage—yes! Rock Band!).
For those of you in town in time for the Student Symposium, I’ll be moderating a mean lineup (of very nice people) scheduled from 1-3:45pm, then the conference kicks off with Kurt Andersen taking the mainstage at 4pm. Meanwhile, you can still sign up for the Mojo Memphis tours and roundtables with design luminaries. I still have a few spots open at my breakfast roundtable, which will be the morning of October 10 from 7:45-8:45am. Since attending such a thing at such an hour will practically require medical assistance, I will have a special treat for whoever signs up. And remember, it’s never too early for gelato.
So we’ll all see you in Memphis, but’ til then, start your coverage! Follow me @gelatobaby or Make/Think at @AIGAConference and to ensure that your content shows up here, be sure to tag your Flickr posts makethink and your Twitter posts #makethink See you there!
