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Conventional Wisdom: Eight Ways to Save Design Conferences

By Alissa Walker - September 2, 2008

in Featured Items

Jump ropers get air at Art Center's Serious Play conference

Show's over, kids! Design conferences have become exercises in regenerated, wasteful spectacle. A self-described conference junkie shows us how to bring back the magic.

"Have I died?" I swooned, gnawing my way into a third mound of chili cheese French fries. These were not your typical chili cheese fries, mind you. These fries came with a full condiment bar; overflowing, help-yourself buckets of offbeat fry adornment that included three--three!--varieties of mayonnaise. I nodded back at Bruce Nussbaum between large, ungainly forkfuls of cheese sauce swirled with so much ketchup that it had turned pink, too focused on deciding which flavored mayo I'd ladle over my next serving (chipotle or truffle?) to actually pay attention to a word he was saying. What I heard instead was my inner monologue shrieking over the mastication of fried potatoes: "Now this is what I call a design conference."

Art Center's third biennial conference, Serious Play, held this past May, was packed with such sensory overload. There were blinking Google martini glasses and sleek Steelcase seating; rockstar designers and rocket scientists. I made friends with Eames Demetrios. I talked physics with a Mentos-and-Coke fountain-making scientist. When I left I had two grand-slam presentations still ringing in my ears: The adorable John Maeda and a heartfelt Paula Scher.

But even after my fry binge, I found myself riding around Pasadena in a chauffeured Hyundai, clutching a bag overflowing with designed-for-all Target products, feeling oddly...empty.

Aspen Design Summit attendees take a break from high design thinking.

Conferences have been bringing designers together since Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke began luring the likes of Herbert Bayer, Eero Saarinen, George Nelson, Josef Albers, Charles and Ray Eames, and Buckminister Fuller to the International Design Conference in Aspen starting in 1951. In those days, Aspen was the only available fix for conference junkies like me. Lofty aspirations matched the altitude, and this meeting of the design superminds became an enlightened tradition for industry introspection.

But this model, born high in Aspen but widely replicated around the world, is now over 50 years old and as evidenced by the IDCA's own inability to sustain its annual gatherings, it's in desperate need of a reboot. Lately, design conferences have begun to feel less like intellectual retreats and more like conspicuous consumption. Albeit with excellent catering.

As an industry, we've become addicted to wearing our names on laminated badges around our necks.

Even without the soaring price of hotels and plane tickets to account for, registration fees have entered the realm of the ridiculous. October's Pop!Tech will set you back $3500. TED has ballooned to $6000--if you can get in (I can't speak to the condiment selection there since I haven't made the cut)--and will expand even more with a move to Long Beach in 2009 to try and accommodate a handful more people on its zillion-person waiting list. And still my inbox gets clogged with announcements for a new design/sustainable/eco/social media/innovation/business conference every week. Forget wearing our hearts on our sleeves; as an industry, we've become addicted to wearing our names on laminated badges around our necks.

I don't doubt the value of such person-to-person contact; dare I say conferences are probably the biggest reason I was able to launch my freelance career--I went to four in a single transient month in 2006! But the irony kills me. Today we're able to do so much of the traditional conference legwork on this little screen you're staring at right now--yet I haven't seen any great offers from the design world to improve on the Aspen model.

Majora Carter speaks passionately about the South Bronx at TED

For one, holding a conference is like the "sustainable skyscraper" conundrum. No matter how green you wanna be, you're still executing one of the most environmentally-devastating events known to man. From the EEE-sized carbon footprint generated by hundreds of people jetting to your locale to the amount of spent signage piled around your Dumpsters afterwards, conferences are beyond wasteful. Not even buying offsets on behalf of speakers or the most stringent cocktail hour recycling program can erase the fact that we just can't conduct these events in good faith knowing what we know now.

But recycling in another form is exactly the problem: Most speakers are tapped to appear at so many events and so sapped for content they simply deliver one repeat performance after the next. Live blogging about these speakers becomes as easy as cut-and-pasting the embed code for the YouTube video from their last stop. I don't blame them, really--who has time to prepare a new presentation when you're always going to conferences!--but organizers have also gotten lazy by simply poaching the rosters of other conferences, without considering that their audience might want to see something new.

Conventional convention mode for IDSA at last year's Connecting '07

If you think getting the speakers to the venue is challenging, try getting them to stick around. Face it, the real reason we go to conferences is to meet our heroes. Most attendees freely admit they're there to stalk one or two designers, and a "chance" meeting in front of the urinal might make the whole thing worthwhile. But many presenters, especially those world-class legends, adopt a "speak-and-split" policy so they aren't part of the conference community at all.

Of course, it's not really about the speakers. Conferences are all about building community with your peers and face-to-face interaction: Those hallway moments. Your best job all year could come from whoever you're standing in line with for the chocolate fountain. But when a place like Design Observer's Facebook group has over 3000 members (the number of a large conference) I'd say you could easily make an informed connection with someone who has similar sensibilities without having to haul it to St. Louis for the weekend.

Today we're able to do so much of the traditional conference legwork on this little screen you're staring at right now.

Not that you shouldn't go to St. Louis for the weekend. (Go up the Arch, eat some Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, and bring me back a Cardinals hat.) But especially for an industry that's all about designing experiences, we organizers, speakers and attendees have to start demanding more meaningful conference agendas. Together we can make a difference. And maybe without having to actually get together.

Eight Ideas for Design Conferences

1. Keep it in the 'hood This year's Dwell on Design conference, held in Los Angeles, tapped a wide range of speakers who mostly lived in the area and then rallied a very SoCal audience. While it was likely a conscious effort on behalf of the planners to keep its footprint small, it worked because they picked a city that was experiencing first-hand some of their major themes and knew that a great portion of their potential audience was in the area. This also allowed a large local community to fully participate without having to pay extra for travel expenses. But if you're planning a national conference and half your attendees are from New York City, why make them leave town? Can't pick one city? Divide a big conference into regional ones. The connections will be more appropriate.

2. Discover new voices How many times are we going to see the same old speakers plucked from the rosters of Pop!Tech? Look past the headliners and legends and make an effort to christen at least one new star at your conference. Gel (Good Experience Live) does a great job of not only corralling largely unknown speakers but giving them interesting things to do (scavenger hunt through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, anyone?). At last fall's AIGA conference in Denver, a live-action design reality show called Command X was the surprise hit of the event, and not just because of the comic stylings of host Michael Bierut (seriously, has CAA snatched him up yet?). It brought an oasis of fresh faces and vivid personalities to an otherwise tired lineup.

Paul Polak spreads his Out of Poverty gospel at Pop!Tech

3. Do something for a change We know some design leaders ascend to Davos, Switzerland and solve problems on a large scale at the World Economic Forum. John Thackara's Doors of Perception conferences are one of the few I know of which convene in the third world--assembling in New Delhi, India--so they can see first-hand the problems while exploring solutions. You can even stay home and work on big ideas: Aside from tackling some pretty hefty issues, IDSA's conference Polar Opposites this month has declared brainstorming about bicycles and biking as its key components. Industrial design, mobility and social responsibility--I love it!

4. Use technology more wisely TED's incredible video presentations on its website have convinced me I can give up my dream of ever having to be the one selected to be in that room. If people outside the technology-entertainment-design fields are emailing me videos of speakers they think are amazing, that tells me those ideas are disseminating at a faster rate than even the most speedblogging fingers of its regular attendees. Forget the once-a-year shmooze-fest--have membership money go towards finding, capturing and broadcasting more speakers like this on a year-round video channel so even more people can be inspired.

Live blogging about some speakers is as easy as cut-and-pasting the embed code for the YouTube video from their last stop.

5. Only have conferences in Vegas Okay, it doesn't have to be in Vegas. But it does have to have gambling. Instead of trying to spread the love to every Midwestern city with a convention center, why not only hold conferences in must-see destinations--and let people actually have fun? In the spirit of the sadly now-defunct Design Conference That Just Happens To Be In Park City, AIGA Reno/Tahoe is taking advantage of their location by planning an upcoming networking conference, Elevate, that will instruct attendees to spend exactly half the time on skis (or at apres ski) at nearby resort Heavenly. Detractors would say that the more off-topic distractions, the less likely that attendees will be attending, but I disagree. The conferences I've been to with plenty of extracurricular activities have been the most spirited and exciting, even if people were walking from the craps tables directly into the morning's opening session, still sipping their Beam & Cokes. Plus with gambling there's always the chance of winning back your registration fees.

6. Stop the in-swag-ity A fascinating expose occurred at this year's South by Southwest Festival, where astute bloggers at both CNET and Hustler of Culture photographed a disturbing sea of gift bags behind the curtain (pay no attention to the bags behind the curtain!). People, this is a conference that's one-third interactive and that bag was filled with the most ridiculous printed crap I've ever seen (in lovely reusable canvas bags--ha!). I often I see these bags tossed, in their entirety, in the trash. Organizers. I beg of you. We know you need sponsor money. How can you make these impressions more meaningful for everyone? At the Art Center conference this year, we could pick and choose the free products we wanted to take on the way out, the first time I'd seen anything like this done. Related: Replace inevitable trade show "altars to swag" with an American Idol-style talent show for sponsors. We swear we won't forget their brand names ever again!

Shining example Command X at AIGA's biennial conference

7. Quit while you're ahead If you're really hankering to plan some kind of get-together, don't! In all likelihood what you think you need to say can be accomplished in the form of a blog, a film, a book, a social network. If you want to make a big statement about your institution's policies--cancel the conference! Especially if your proposed conference title contains any of these words: eco-, green-, sustainable-, earth-. I'm not going to name names here, but does anyone else appreciate the irony of a press release that touts a "new sustainability conference attended by eco-savvy professionals from all over the world?"

8. Ditch the traditional model Why should we even have talking heads up there yapping between coffee breaks anyway? "Unconferences," loosely-organized, crowd-sourced and more spontaneous gatherings, have already started to spring up in the web community and need to spread to other industries. Like BarCamp, an interactive meetup that's exactly what it sounds like--people bring sleeping bags, laptops and food to share, as well as a bottom-up sense of organization. A new unconference called BIL (which can stand for whatever B-I-L combination you'd like) will make the trip to Long Beach with TED, the conference it shadows but with a decidedly more "open, self-organizing, emergent, and anarchic" perspective to wannabe TEDs. Take a hint from BIL. Source the crowd. Ban Keynote. Interview each other. Make installations. Surprise us. Please.

Alissa Walker once attended 21 conferences in a 12-month period, honest to god. She writes about design and architecture for a myriad of publications as well as on her blog, Gelatobaby.

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pat Taylor

15 years ago

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REDUCE THE COST!
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Mark Bendickson

16 years ago

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Interesting article. I would agree there is too much "sameness" in design conferences (both in quality and quantity), but I don't think lowering the costs, or doing them on the web are viable solutions. I like them to be priced to the value of the experience. If you lower the cost you either demean the experience (costs have to be cut somewhere) as you would need it to grow in number of attendees to make it pay for itself, and that would both greatly reduce any chance of meaningful interaction with speakers as well as greatly increasing it's carbon footprint.

I think the best way to reduce your carbon footprint as an attendee is to reduce the number of conferences you go to. Pick and choose. I used to be a rather promiscuous conference-goer and have cut down to a few a year. One I go to every year, and a couple others I pick and choose based on speakers or purpose.

As for the swag, I would rather be tasked with carrying a tote bag around than have actual commercials, or having the sponsors around at all, for that matter. I used to go to a conference that started having 'one minute commercials' for all the sponsors and demo area sponsors and it grew into an actual competition that took over more and more presentation time like some malignant growth. Sponsors put a premium on designers as an audience because we are great influencers, and we all tell everyone we know when we see something cool. And they realize tote bag goodies inevitably become great show and tell subjects. I think a nice mention in the program and the oppotunity to throw a little swag around is the best way.

If the concern is afforability for students I think a scholarship program would make sense, but lowering costs accross the board would just result in the ballooning of the crowd.

As for the online version, I think they may have their place, but the reason I go to a confereence is for the experience. Being able to network with peers and speakers is the main reason I go. Maybe if you prefer your sex via webcam watching a TED video is an equivalent experience to being there, but I like my conference experience live, please. There is one conference that I have made time for every year since it's inception, Gravity Free, and that one is unique. I was having a conversation in a bar with it's founder about four yrars ago and he was talking about how he wished there was a design conference that was a "why" conference instead of a "how" conference. It has turned into a really special event, themed in a unique and provacative way each year to drive diverse content with a unifying theme. I am feeling the same trepidation right now that one feels when they recommend a great restaurant, only to soon find it filled with noisy yuppies and with reservations in short supply.

http://www.exhibitoronline.com/gravityfree/intro.asp

This conference has tons of contact with speakers during breaks, at lunch (each has their own table) and at a rather lengthy cocktail party the second night. Last year I had lunch with Stefan Sagmeister and Karin Fong, coffee with Chipp Kidd and Mossimo Vignelli, closed a bar with Jim Gilmore, and was bumped into at the pasta bar by Karim Rashid, nearly spilling marinara on his Colonel Sandersesque suit. Which led to a rather lengthy conversation on a number of subjects in addition to why he wears a white suit. And those are only the ones I had an extended conversation with.

Maybe if your interaction with speakers is the awkward "hi, I really admire your work" at a urinal you're just going to the wrong conferences. This one is like a three day spa treatment for my mind. If anyone can figure out how to replace human interaction like this with a webinar or some text message virtual meet-up, let me know.
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Mike Koedinger

16 years ago

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How about 90$ for 3 days, approx. 20 hours of talks, exhibitions in 12 venues in a tiny, but international city? It's all about the independent magazine scene.

Colophon is a biennial symposium for magazine makers, experts, advertisers, readers and all creatives involved in the world of the independent magazine.

This international event celebrates excellence and innovation, and promotes exchanges between key players within independent magazine industry.

Launched in 2007, the second edition of Colophon will take place in Luxembourg from 13 to 15 March 2009, hosting exhibitions, talks, workshops, events and one-off publications, with more magazines, more attendees and a far more expansive programme than Colophon 2007.

Here's the tre-programme: http://www.colophon2009.com/program/
The 12 venues: http://www.colophon2009.com/partners/more/

And here's the movie from the first edition: http://www.colophon2009.com/videos/

Plus: registered visitors get access to a private social network months ahead of the event to start connection.
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Joshua Bloom

16 years ago

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Check out what Aral Balkan is doing with his Head conference.
It's entirely online:
www.headconference.com

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Georgiann Milan

16 years ago

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Thank you for your inspiration...I am very desirous of participation in environmental rejuvenation and restoring our planet planning.
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Alissa Walker

16 years ago

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Thanks Jason and Manuel for weighing in, I'm excited to hear from more conference organizers. Here's an update on the restructured Aspen Design Summit from AIGA. While not technically a conference per se, it falls into the "Do something for a change" bullet: "The next iteration from the Aspen Design Summit is Designing Water's Future, challenging every design college in the world to assign a fresh water assignment for the fall, to be presented at Aspen Environmental Forum, possibly Davos and at the World Summit on Climate Change. No swag. No venue other than nature. [and not a lot of people!]" http://www.aspendesignchallenge.org/
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Ben

16 years ago

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Russell Davies in London has held two unconferences which answer a lot of the problems you've raised here. Interesting 2008 and Interesting 2007. There's now an Interesting Amsterdam, Interesting South and Interesting New York.

Take a look at some of the stuff here to find out more: http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/interesting2008/
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Jason Rzepka

16 years ago

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Hi Alissa, you make many great points and raise some important questions in this thoughtful post. We at Pop!Tech have put a great deal of thought into these issues -- and I think you'll see some interesting news from us in the coming weeks that reflects that. Also, one thing to note is that anybody, anywhere can participate in Pop!Tech via the live stream of the conference we make available free on our website. We encourage any Core77 readers who can't be there to check out Pop!Tech '08 -- and ask questions of speakers -- in real time, free, from October 23 - 25th.
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Jw

16 years ago

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LOWER THE PRICES! Both of the designers in this household love design, own our own businesses, and simply can't afford 99% of these conferences... even when they are in our own backyard.
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manuel Toscano

16 years ago

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You can run a meaningful gathering on a small budget. But then size does matter. At our last Overlap gathering (limited to a total of 50 participants) the registration was limited to the cost of room and board ($490 for a single occupancy room for two night stay). But I think we all forget that a meaningful event is based on how the participants interact and what kind of experience they create together. Very few conferences have the courage to design an event where participants actually get to create their own experiences, conversations, ideas.
You feel like you are going to Disneyland because that is how the event is designed! It's meant to make you feel that got what you payed for. At the end most are a mix of self promotion, intellectual tourism, and design based entertainment.
If that is what you are paying for willingly you will be fine. If you are looking for more you will have to take more chances and look harder for the people and the events that will truly challenge you.
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Alissa Walker

16 years ago

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Besides the unconferences I named, I didn't find any conferences that had been successful in lowering their registration fees---most organizers are trying their best to keep their prices down but costs continue to rise. I think the key is smaller or regional conferences, or, like Prescott said, to make those high costs more "worth it" with meaningful interaction. Some conferences do offer scholarships or discounts, and if you're a diligent writer or blogger, many conferences give out press passes.

SXSW is extremely affordable (not quite $50 but if you register now it's just $375 for an interactive badge), but it's also part of a much larger and (I assume) well-funded program that's a year-round operation in Austin. But I'd love to know how they do it, too.
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niti bhan

16 years ago

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Amen to that! Recycle, reuse and repurpose !
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Prescott Perez-Fox

16 years ago

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All good suggestions, however the hurdle in my way at the moment is simply the cost. Freelancers, students, and those in-between jobs can't afford $1000 or more for a conference, even if it is a good networking experience. Throw in airfare and hotels and you're talking a months salary just for three days of potential connections, with nothing guaranteed.

SXSW has become the most significant conference for the Internet community and it costs about $50 to attend. If they can do it, why can't we?
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