So, I didn’t see a thread talking about what people thought of the conference, just a “Who is going?” Thread.
I think there some things that should be talked about. As a student, I don’t know how much merit my comments will actually have, but I was extremely disappointed with some of the things that went on.
A lot of people were very excited about Maeda being a speaker, but what about that presentation did he think was going to work? I felt like it was a giant commercial for RISD and a complete waste of my time. Although I have never generally liked the guy in the first place, his TED talks are very inspiring and well thought out. This seemed like he didn’t want to speak at all and asked some kids to talk about nothing on stage so he wouldn’t have to. Does any one else feel the same way?
And the lack of RISD presence and RIT (I believe… correct me if I am wrong) was extremely disappointed to me as a student. The fact that RISD could not have shown up to its own conference almost devalued the experience, and after such a disappointing conference last year it didn’t help validate my time and money being there. I stand behind RITs decision to not participate because of the costs to students, but 90 percent of them not being there was crushing. I am already in debt as it is, and I go to these events to really get a hope of gleaming light into professionalism into the industry, but when I came home I felt horrible.
But don’t get me wrong, I met a lot of awesome people and it was 100000000 times better than last years event, but when I got back home from the 2010 event I was more motivated than I ever was. There was a different atmosphere this year that was full of negative energy. This, again, is just my opinion, and I would like to hear what others have to say about it. Especially the very last lecture from Pratt. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was completely offended by that entire talk. The way that they were talking about that girls farm workers was in such a different light that they should have realized.
On the good side though, lectures like Anthony from Continuum, the QuaDror talk, and almost the Design Meets Business speakers were really awesome. It just wasn’t enough for me to seem like it was worth going. The bad out weighed the good too much. This does not reflect on the conference sponsors, Ximedica was an awesome host and everyone from the other sponsoring companies were awesome to talk to.
What does everyone who went think?