Breakout session titles and descriptions: Friday
Business/strategic planning: Treating your chapter as you would treat a client project
See how stepping back from your chapter situation and putting your organization through the same process as one of your clients can be the changing agent in the direction and growth of your chapter. Putting in place such simple exercises as business planning, (short and long term), situation analysis, SWOT, long term goals and short term goals, can move you light years ahead and solidify your place in the community. Also learn how the distractions that jump up and the hiccups in the road can cause you to veer from your plan and set you back months and even years.
Moderators: Mary Deelsnyder, Jim Madson, Bo Parker
Community/Business outreach and PR
There is a growing interest in design and how it can make an impact in our communities. This makes selling the coverage of your chapter’s activities to the media and other organizations a bit easier... but how? We will go over how to develop relationships with writers, editors and producers as well as some of the specifics of writing press releases and using PR resources. In addition, we’ll also focus on more unconventional methods of PR through networking, cross-promotion and outreach to organizations and businesses that have like-minded interests and ideals. Our objective is to build awareness of the value and role of design to others in the community and in turn, create the “buzz” you chapter needs to ensure it’s known both inside and outside the design community.
Moderators: Joe Augustyniak, Wendy Quesinberry, Christine Taylor
Communications and Emma
So you’re ready to kick off a monthly chapter email to your members, but you’re not sure where to start? Then you’re in the right place, my friend. This session will introduce you to the Emma email system, as seen in your chapter workroom. We’ll cover a bevy of topics—opening your chapter account, sending out event promotions and chapters updates and walking through the nuts and bolts of list management and member privacy.
Current Emma users at AIGA San Francisco will be presenting campaign examples, sharing their tips and tricks and discussing how email marketing can benefit your chapter. Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned pro, bring your own tips, questions and comments and join us for a lively discussion.
Moderators: Jessica Gore, Allison Davis
Diversity
Diversity—we all know what it means. The bigger question is, how do you integrate our efforts to diversifying our chapter? Join in this discovery discussion session to reveal experiences with connecting diverse creative professionals in your local chapter. This session will address stereotypes, the chapter diversity roundtable results, how to successfully proceed with diversity initiatives at the chapter level and how get involved with the national task force.
Moderators: Tamara Pavlock, Albert Whitely
K-12 and mentoring
Learn what has happened over the last year with the formation and process of the AIGA Target K-12 Design Education Work Group. We’ll share the final report document, with focus on the primary recommendation of a student-created, designer-advised, website about design.
We’ll also solicit ideas from the group for how this site could be utilized as a hub for: engaging students with design; establishing relationships between designers, educators and students; providing educators with design curriculum ideas; as well as connecting chapters with programming ideas and celebrating and promoting existing programs.
Moderators: Maria Emmighausen, Steve Hartman
Extreme Makeover: Advanced sponsorship edition
As design is embraced by increasingly larger, more diverse corporate entities, the sponsorship challenges and opportunities are escalating to a new level of potential. The time is ripe for our sponsorship presence to undergo an “extreme makeover” that will allow our organization to better integrate into the mainstream marketing world as ambassadors of design. This workshop will discuss how our national sponsorship leadership can approach new business categories that go beyond the traditional relationships (e.g., partners from the print and paper industries) without disengaging our historic, core group of supporters. In an interactive dialogue, workshop participants will discuss how to create a compelling “makeover” message that enhances our business value without discarding those traits that have served as the foundation of AIGA.
Moderators: Agustin Garza, Gary Whitlock
Student groups
Get your students passionate about AIGA! Learn how to tap into their creative energy to benefit your chapter. Discuss how to develop effective relationships with—and programming that involves—student groups in your chapter’s vicinity. Brainstorm events for professional chapters to co-sponsor with student groups. Devise a plan for connecting faculty from various schools with each other and with practitioners. Share what works for motivating, nurturing, and retaining student members. Analyze the best way to structure a student chapter in the college setting. Outline the role and responsibilities of a student representative on your board. Plan now for your chapter’s investment in future leadership!
Moderators: Jennifer McGee, Heather Olson
Websites
This session will address how to best use your chapter website as an effective communication tool by covering the following issues: • Managing the content on the website.
• Assigning or finding contributors for the site.
• Assembling a team.
• The pros and cons of the Internet Kit or a custom solution.
• What solution is right for you?
• Using the website to engage/interact with the community.
We’ll also be discussing our experiences and our process, with our chapter sites:
• Ben Friedman, Atlanta, will report on his experience of using a custom solution for a site redesign. • Hanson Kenton, Minnesota, will talk about his experience with using the Internet Kit and working with and without a dedicated team.
• James Hobbs, DC, will talk about his experience managing the redesign, and the custom solution they are currently implementing.
Moderators: Ben Friedman, Kenton Hanson, James Hobbs