I'm putting out a challenge to the other District Conferences. Prove to me that your raffle is bigger and badder than the Southern District. These guys gave away some serious booty. Thanks to donated prizes from generous companies like Hunter Fan, Ryobi, Motorola, Bolt, and Eastman, everyone had a good chance of walking away with some sweet schwag.

I even got in on the action and walked away with a Ridgid Random Orbital Sander with a retail value of $180! I think I'll put it on my mantle for all to see...but first, I'll have to get a mantle.

By Sunday morning, everyone was blaming Beale Street for missing the 7am portfolio review sessions, slurred speech, and constant nodding off during presentations. Even a few of the speakers acknowledged having a bit of trouble getting the right words to flow. Here's a few snapshots of a really long street, large groups of people, long lines, and late nights...

These students, pictured with 2 Southern District Reps, showed off their version of Southern hospitality by sharing their award winning work over dinner and cocktails. From left to right:

Andy Loewy - IDSA Southern District Education Rep
Michael Hesterberg - North Carolina State University
Renaldo Alonso - Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale
Kurt Rampton - Georgia Tech
Tom Murray - Auburn
Brooks Vaughan - University of Louisiana-Lafayette
Ty Rarick - IDSA Southern District VP

CONGRATULATIONS to Kurt Rampton, who will be headed to the IDSA National Conference representing the Southern District!

One of the most interesting aspects of this conference was its format. The goal was to increase the interaction among the attendees, and to facilitate discussions with the speakers. After making it through the grueling Saturday schedule, I have to say it went off brilliantly.

The conference was keyed on the concept of a day long design charrette. We were all assigned to groups of 60 people, each named for Memphis rooted musical talents. (I was a member of "Tina Turner" and no, there was no "Team Ike.") Each large group was broken into smaller teams of 8-10 attendees; a mix of students and professionals.

The topic that the charrette was centered around dealt with the international sending and receiving of packages: a topic that is both very vague, and very open ended...

As you can imagine, with a general theme such as this, the possiblities were endless. Each group rotated through 6, 50-minute breakout workshops focused on things like materials and processes, trends, research, and creativity. Each workshop was led by a specialist in their respective field.

It was a great experience working with students and professionals from across the country. And without sounding too cliche I'll say that it broke out of the stagnant paradigm that tends to be the normal operative structure of these conferences. Taking a more active role in the weekend's events was a welcome change.

After our meat-centric dinner outing we were hangin' with some more of the IDSA crew at The Peabody. After hearing of our rib exploits from earlier, Marty Gage was jonesin' for some late night eats. Sadly the Rendevous was closed but he found a place open late and made a rib run.

Two full racks of BBQ Ribs, $40.
Eating ribs on the floor in the lounge of a 5-star hotel at 1AM, priceless.

After the final speaker of the day, a small group of professionals, along with 63 Georgia Tech students, and roughly half the population of Memphis, headed to Rendevous, one of the most famous rib joints in the US. One word: porktastic. Okay, so it was riblicious as well, but the best part was our surly waiter. He got a little fed up with us not knowing what we wanted. FYI: the MEATLESS Red Beans & Rice is indeed MEATLESS.

Bringing designers and manufacturers together is like pairing cats and dogs...or is it? Nypro and Radius coexist and create products for companies with an emphasis on decreasing lead time. Currently, the average lead from design concept to production, for most companies, is 14-20 months. Nypro and Radius have a goal of an amazingly efficient 4 months. Wow.

Today's companies want vendors with global capabilities, innovation, speed, low price, and accountability. Nypro and Radius want to engage these companies at the front end, with user focused design, but from a manufacturing standpoint. It's a really interesting business model, and one that Brian Jones and Steve Callahan spoke to extensively. Industrial design coupled with and outsourced manufacturer hasn't been done succefully...this relationship is unique. The challenge of this integrated scheme hinges on their brand promise: compelling design, manufactured anywhere in the world, for the lowest possible price.

To be very honest, I figured Richard Simmons was dead, or missing, or at the very least, out of the public eye. But thanks to the diligence of Auburn student, Andrew Thomson, we now know with certifiable precision, the exact location of the creator of Deal-a-Meal. It turns out he's making appearances at the Memphis Women's Covention. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes. But, as you can see from the pic, Richard is indeed a deity. In fact (and I'm not making this up) when he saw that I was going to take his picture, he reached out to me, and, surrounded by his worshippers and a beacon of ethereal light, said "You're too far away from me...come heeeeeere..."

He left a profound impression on all who witnessed his glory today:

"Pure, unrestrained elation." - Chelsea McLemore

"Seeing Richard Simmons made my day...no, week! Okay, more like month." - Bethany Klausing

"Short gym shorts. Black tank top with glitter hearts. Big hair. Kissing old men in suits. I think my life is complete" - John McCabe

"I'm emotionally drained..." - Matt Julian

"Purely inspirational" - John Rea

"Do the Pony" - Corin Ludwig

"Now I know how Columbus felt when he discovered the New World...Richard, thank you...for everything." - Andrew Thomson (at the right place at the right time)

We've all had trouble validating our design directions. Plain and simple.

Those folks in marketing are constantly throwing market research at us as a means to direct our design efforts. It's time to throw a little something back. By blending DESIGN research with market research, we can create touch points to insure product success. Marty Gage (RocketSurgery) and Chris Rockwell (Lextant) put together a stellar workshop discussion centered around the various processes associated with design research. It aimed to demystify the ways to reach out to users with a focus that provides beneficial results.

Design research allows us to get buy-in from the business side of our organizations by providing them with justification for concepts in areas like consumer usablility and product usefulness. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Extremely compelling presentation. Perhaps the best part of the session is yet to come...the attendees will all get a digital copy of the presentation as a reference for future projects!

Thanks to graduationg senior Eric Whewell, we got ourselves a tour of the CIA Industrial Design Studios. The studios are large, open, and have tons of pinup space for displaying all the superb work.

One of the biggest winners of the conference was Apple. You wouldn't believe the amount of coverage they had. I decided to keep a running total of the times Apple, or one of its products came up in lectures and discussions. There were 12 speakers total, and 9 of them worked at least one Apple reference into their presentations. I wish I had the final tally for you, but I honestly lost track somewhere around #24. And if I were to include the images present in the Merit Award presentations, that number would have been higher. I don't doubt the company's influence, but the constant references are becoming rather cliche. It was kind of a letdown that a community full of idea generators and free thinkers coundn't come up with more original reference material.

I'm hoping this spurs some discussion on the comment section. You've got a few days to weigh in before the wave of IDSA conferences begins at the end of the week.

What do think of this Apple-a-day world we're living in?

Matt Miller (the guy wearing the tiara) picks up some bling downtown at a Cleveland hotspot. I'm sure his coworkers will be loving this.

And moving on to represent the Mideast Region at the IDSA National Conference: CIA's Michel Alvarez! Mich's winnings include a 1-year membership in the IDSA, roundtrip travel and accommodations to the National Conference in Washington D.C. August 24-27, and a lifetime supply of...guys with letters on their chests!

Introducing the newest crop of top notch talent primed to turn the design world on edge. From left to right, this year's Mideast Regional School Merit Award Winners:

Bill Bernstein - Carnegie Mellon
Sugandh Goel - Columbus College of Art & Design
Mark Spoelhof - Kendall College of Art & Design
Kirsten Climer - University of Michigan
Sun-Jan Huang - The Ohio State Univerity
Tony Trentacosti - College for Creative Studies
Ben Purrenhage - Western Michigan University
Brandon Lynne - University of Cincinnati
Michel Alvarez - Cleveland Institute of Art

NOTE - I haven't recieved the contact info from of all the Merit Award Winners yet, I'll update them as they come in...

Two words can sum up the lunch experience today: tiramisu cake.

Based on the evidence gathered here at the Mideast Conference, I've come to the conclusion that the historically male dominated field of ID is in for some overdue changes in the coming years. How do I know this? There is a line out the door for the women's restroom. I don't think I need to say any more. Much thanks to Lindsay from OSU for the insider info...I swear I'm not eerily keeping watch over these kinds of things. Honest.

Robert hasn't given another lecture, but I'm weighing in with a little more info and my take on things as bonus coverage to what Yanni posted earlier...

Brunner says that going with the flow is not failure, it's just reality. That's not to say things can't, and won't change, it's just that change takes time. Design means something different to each company's culture. He says that in order to find out how to move forward, you have to ask yourself, and your clients these questions:

Where did the company come from?
How did it start?
What are the core competencies?
Whay and how has it been successful?
What is valued most?
How is design perceived?
What is considered blasphemy or failure?
Who's opinions really count?
What are people rewarded for?

If you can ask yourself these questions regarding your clients, you will be able to address their needs. He makes comparisons to Dell and Apple, showing how these corporations operate in totally differnt markets, and are trying to reach totally different consumer mindsets. To put it simply, what works for an Apple product, will not meet the needs of a Dell product.

Some post-conference unwinding took place at the nearby...well, the name escapes me. As soon as someone emails me with the info, I'll fix this post. Needless to say, good times were had. Students from the Kendall College of Art & Design and The Ohio State University were on tap to duke it out across 8 foot tables covered in green felt. Notice I made sure to include the "The" in that last sentence. I know those OSU people get all touchy about that. I'm kidding, of course. Not. Seriously though, everyone I talked to was way cooler than I remember being when I was in college. I know I talked with some University of Michigan kids earlier in the day, but they were MIA, as were the local CIA students. Saturday night is already shaping up to be something special though. For now, these debauchery-free shots will have to do...

UPDATE - The bar was called The House of Cues

Dale Murray, Professor of Industrial Design from the University of Cincinnati, led a breakout discussion session focusing on Sustainable Product Design and Development. Because of the 30 minute time constraints general concepts were discussed rather than specific problems, but the topic seemed to pique the interest of the group. One of the issues that was touched upon was that Americans don't take green design seriously. Because we have vast amounts of land that can be set aside for waste disposal, we don't have to deal with the refuse we generate every day. Until it directly affects our lives, we may not see a change in policy, not only at the governmental level, but on the individual's level as well. "Out of sight, out of mind" never seemed more appropriate.

Um, my computer crashed as I was saving my last post, leaving me with nothing to salvage. Minor hiccup to the day's events...I'm running out of hours to get some rest...it's an early start tomorrow with student portfolio reviews at 7am. With that said the next few posts will be brief...

With the conference's focus on Design Business, it was appropriate that the first speaker of the day was Bill Taylor, a great businessman himself, and President of the full service design consultancy, Kaleidoscope. It was refreshing to listen to a "non-designer" talk about the design biz. He makes a believer out of you when he speaks. He treats his clients as partners, and expects the same relationship out of them in return. He also looks at the much talked about Chinese ODM's as an great opportunity, not as the imminent threat that so many designers believe them to be. Perhaps the aspect that I enjoyed the most though, was that he wasn't up there selling himself, or Kaleidoscope, or a new book...he was just sharing his experiences and the choices he and Kaleidoscope have made in order to get to where they are today.

Apologies for the lack of a picture of Bill, the lighting in these conference rooms is terrible...

On on unrelated note, I find the lack of people sitting in the front row to be an kind of amusing. It doesn't matter how old people get, no one wants to be called on by the teacher...or in this case, the speaker.

While my blogging partner in crime, Yanni, may be biased, I am not. I normally hate anyone under the age of 25 who attends art school in Cleveland. But thanks to their efforts the sign-in table was a silky smooth experienc; Matt, with his name finding know-how, Eric and his calm, cool delivery of the schedule, and Kim, she had 3 colors of markers with which I could write my name. You read that right...3 colors! Brilliant.

After taking a cab out to the Cleveland Institute of Art this morning, I decided that I had missed out on a city's greatest experience: its mass transit system. With some time to kill before lunch and the conference kickoff I found the nearest bus stop to see if I could navigate my way back downtown to the hotel, roughly 6 miles away. Lucky for me the 9X bus driven by Ed (RTA employee for 13 years) was headed straight for it. What luck! With the burden of navigation and bus-hopping out of the way I decided to snap some photos of the trip Westward down picturesque Euclid Avenue.

Sorry for the played out title. I'm finished playing up the CIA, ha-it's-a-government-agency thing, but I just sat through a bunch of speakers and I'm out of brain cells. I'll be swinging back over to campus on Sunday after the conference is all wrapped up to bring you some more in depth coverage of the facilities, the students, the campus, etc...

After the Claxton talk this morning I headed off across the CIA campus to meet up with another blogger covering the conference. The directions I was given were as follows:

"Take a right at the McGehry building, left on Euclid, go past McDonald's, and the building you're looking for is the McCullough."

I didn't realize that there was such a strong Scottish heritage here in Cleveland. I'm pretty sure that the "McGehry" was really a Frank Gehry project though, so maybe it's just a weird coincidence. I can't seem to recall ever seeing Frank Gehry in a kilt...

Bruce Claxton, Senior Director of Design Integration at Motorola, spoke to a room full of excited attendees this morning at the Cleveland Institute of Art. It was the first in a series of lectures at the CIA entitled Making Art Work. His presentation centered on creating a model for innovation within companies in order to create "WOW" products. One of the more compelling concepts touched on referred to the "joy" of using a product. Too often we hear of designing for the consumer's "ease of use" in today's design world, but that is a requirement all designs should address. The "joy of use" factor is a powerful differentiator. It's something that can really make a product stand out from the crowd...

If you're in Cleveland, and it's after midnight, and you're jonesing for some good eats, I MUST recommend you put in an order to Rascal House Pizza. Granted, I don't think there were too many options at that hour, but the Pizza ala Greco hit the spot. Much thanks to Shirley from Marriot's At Your Service for the hookup.

Okay, so I'm here in Cleveland. After a 3 hour flight to Newark from Fort Lauderdale, and another 1 hour jump from Newark, I have arrived. And it's just a tiny bit windy. And that's a tiny bit of sarcasm. I thought I'd stroll around the downtown area, get the lay of the land, see what I could see, but I decided after about 5 minutes that maybe I'd just snap a photo of the hotel and retreat inside...so here you go. More later.

I'm Nate. I'll be covering the Mideast Conference. If there's anything you readers want to know, drop me a line. My goal is to make this as interactive as possible. Questions can be addressed to me, to a headlining speaker, to your design colleagues who made the trip and left you to do their share of the work on top of what you were already doing...

Send your query, along with your name and location. I've got answers: nate@thenate.com