Blog McGuffinanother what, not a who

Been a little busy. Been meaning to talk about the HOW conference I went to way back in May (it followed a Vegas trip I took with my brother that that I won’t talk about). Overall the conference was great. Held in Boston, cool town, good people, mostly top-notch speakers (David Baker may be my new Hero). HOW does a great job. I guess there were 4,000 attendants, mostly designers. From this I have two topics to discuss:

side note - I ate a Wrigley Field dog and a Fenway Frank within a 2 day period. Wrigley’s dogs are better.

1. On the first night there was an opening speech given by Jeremy Gutsche, founder of TrendHunter.com, I was running late, finishing off a drink with Mig Reyes, who put together a worth-while blog about the conference. I walk into a packed auditorium, didn’t think I’d get a seat, and start walking forward towards the stage. I then notice that the there are more and more open seats towards the front. It turns out that the first three rows are pretty much empty. Then I put it together, I know most designers are introverted and self reflective - therefore most will do whatever they can to not be noticed without a mighty mouse and strong concept in hand. This of course teaches me that I can grab front row for every speaker throughout the conference, which I do. I can’t sit in the back anymore, I did in Junior High, but now I find too many ways to distract myself: other people talking, e-mail, any shiny things. So if you’re going to a conference with a bunch of designers - the best seats in the house are available.

2. which brings me to: If you are going to a conference to speak:

PLEASE think about what it took for everyone to get there. The cost of travel, the cost of hotel, the cost of being out of the office and  not billing, then multiply it by every single person in your audience. This is what your talk should be worth. Do not misrepresented what your discussion is about. Do not use the stage and every-ones valuable time (read money) to try to further your own cause. Yes. this happened, not often but yes this happened.

Overall - Yes, I’m going back to the HOW conference, and I’m definitely going back to Boston.

It’s earth day! At McGuffin we’ve been building up to this day for a few months now with our distribution of green notebooks (100% post consumer waste) and saving a local plant in need “Lisa.”

Lisa, the Dracaena Lisa, was rescued by Kiley O’Brien on the night of March 18 from an uncaring and neglectful home located at 566 W. Adams, Suite #400. As Lisa continues to pump more fresh oxygen into our office we plan to continue our preservation of mother earth. To be honest, we’re not going to do anything different because we’ve been rock stars since the establishment of McGuffin in 2004.

Now is the time when you have to ask yourself a very important question. “What am I doing to harm the earth?”

At McGuffin we believe that one of the worst things that you can do for our environment is to pollute the air with the exhaust from a vehicle. We do our best to minimize the use of any vehicle for transportation to work. Our smart location allows us to walk from place to place and also offers many varieties of public transportation.

We all have legs, and at McGuffin we use them. A little bit of work and common sense never killed anybody.

Love you mother earth -

Having noted how cool I thought it was for McGuffin to volunteer to speak at Northlake Middle School’s “Career Day” – I involuntarily volunteered myself. I was happy to do it though, after I rolled through my waves of overwhelming anxiety I really got excited. Attempting to remember what it’s like to be in a room full of middle schoolers can create a sense of fear within you like no other, especially since I haven’t been around a tween since I was one myself. But, the students of Northlake couldn’t have given me a warmer welcome.

I spoke about what it is designers do, played a “guess the logo” game with them, and even had a class brainstorming session to begin the design of their Boat Trip Poster and Graduation Program. The students were attentive and really full of energy, it was contagious. I even got a compliment on my dress. All in all, my first day back in a middle school was much, much better than my last.

Someone should build an on-line support group for those of us who have shattered the screens of our iPhones. Feelings of guilt, blame, anger and sorrow.

Cool - blogging from the iPhone.

Embarrassing - whipping out the shattered iPhone in public - makes you feel like you could be cool, but in reality are a complete douche.

Greatest fear - drunk blogging

Never been allowed in a Sky Box before. The chocolate cart was sick.

Thanks Harris!