2007 Conference Summary
"We See Happy People"
Speakers who incited and inspired, workshops that led attendees on deep dives through EGD's hottest topics, and the largest and most successful Expo day ever headlined the 2007 SEGD Annual Conference + Expo in Boston, from May 30 to June 2.
More than 725 attendees converged on Boston's Seaport Hotel and Trade Center-and destinations beyond-for the annual conference.
Early-bird Fun
The fun started before the conference even began, with two pre-conference workshops that attracted record-breaking audiences. "Finding the Patient Experience" focused on effective wayfinding in healthcare environments, and was led by a panel including Sylvia Harris, Sylvia Harris Design Planning; Virginia Gehshan, Cloud Gehshan Associates; Mary Grems, FMG Design; and Wayne McCutcheon, Entro Communications.
Participants in "Gearing Up to Go Green: LEED" added to their knowledge base about the LEED certification process. Barbara Batshalom, founder and director of The Green Roundtable, walked them through the LEED point system with emphasis on the areas where EGD could contribute to point accrual.
Booked-solid Backstage Boston Tours included trips to the MIT Media Lab, the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse, Boston's dynamic new Institute of Contemporary Art, the town of Salem and the Peabody Essex Museum, and the Public Garden, America's first public botanical garden.
All This and Popcorn, Too!
The conference officially opened with the First Annual SEGD Film Festival, including a premiere of the feature-length film Helvetica! and a short film, A Life by Design - Sara Little Turnbull. A Life by Design, created by SEGD member Paula Rees, celebrates the career of Sara Little Turnbull, the dynamic founder of The Center for Design Research and The Process of Change laboratory.
Helvetica! is a biopic on the ubiquitous-and sometimes contentious-typeface that turns 50 this year. It interviews a series of prominent designers about the typeface's influences on design in this century. Filmmaker Gary Hustwit and featured designer Paula Scher participated in a discussion after the film.
ReThinking Design
The conference program was bracketed by two mornings of thought-provoking general sessions. The opening-day session, entitled "Creative Rethinking: Rethinking Creative" included presentations by Brian Collins, chief creative officer for Ogilvy & Mather's Brand Integration Group; Sohrab Vossoughi, award-winning industrial designer and principal of Ziba Design; Ben Fry, MIT Media Lab graduate and information designer; and Paula Scher, Pentagram principal, teacher, artist, and graphic design innovator.
The closing-day general session, "Courage and Creativity," featured work/life partners Nancye Green and Michael Donovan on how they have continually rethought their careers and their client base; Ryan Chin and Susanne Seitinger, PhD candidates from the MIT Media Lab, who reported on their research explorations for the City Car and other projects; Kathleen Bowden, CXO Communications, on branding and communications; and Kyle Cooper, who has redefined film title sequence design through award-winning work for movies such as Se7en, Donnie Brasco, and Spider-Man 3.
Conference design tracks focused on museum exhibition design and visitor experiences; rethinking cultural icons such as McDonald's, a major NFL franchise, and a municipal building with sustainability ambitions; and winners of the 2007 Design Awards competition. A professional practices track included exploring green and sustainable strategies in EGD, copyright and intellectual property issues, and Chris Calori's new book, Signage and Wayfinding Design.
Gotta Love a Field Trip
Most attendees signed up for road trips as part of the conference's ever-popular Workshops on Wheels. Options included a studio tour of Design Continuum, Fenway Park, Brandeis University, Children's Hospital Boston, the LEED-certified Artists for Humanities building, The Big Dig roadway reconstruction project, and MIT and University Park's Stata Center for Computer, Information and Intelligence Services and the nearby University Park development.
"We See Happy People"
The SEGD Expo featured more than 70 exhibitors who welcomed attendees to their booths and held tech sessions on new products and techniques. The Expo was capped off with a cocktail reception and the annual Auction for Education, which this year brought in twenty thousand dollars to benefit SEGD's 21st Century Knowledge Initiative. Among other things, the funds allow SEGD to bring student design award winners to the conference.
But the Conference wasn't all workshops and learning. There were plenty of social events and networking opportunities, including the President's Reception on the first night, networking breakfasts and lunches, and Saturday night's closing event, which included a reception at the JFK Library & Museum and fun at Felt, a hip Boston billiards parlor.