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.