Next year!

Hi all!

Next year is Seattle! I'd like to encourage all of you to think about what you want to hear next year. Got ideas for speakers and the like? You can post your thoughts under the comments or email me or Randy, either way. Right now, he's gathering names and ideas and soon, the committee will meet and come up with a plan. So ... ideas? Names? Issues? Wanna speak? Let us know now!

Why did I do this?

Now that conference is behind me, I'm down to writing some well-deserved thank you notes and doing some evaluations and follow ups. I find myself mulling over the role of the conference chair and why I did it. Lord knows it was a lot of work. That said, it was completely worth it. When you think about it, you get to design an entire conference. You get to decide (OK with a lot of input from the board and the home office) what the conference will be about. You get to talk to major designers and thinkers. When I got home, I realized I got to dine with Glen Sheehan, drink a beer with Ross MacDonald, spend time with Ellen Lupton and fetch yogurt for Brian Collins. I'm just a lil' ol' designer down here in Clemson, SC. Those things don't usually happen in my world.

So what is my point here, you might be asking. My point is that UCDA can really change your life, if you want. Am I the kind of person who would just call people up and ask them to come speak to us? Not until now. I never dreamed I'd do that sort of thing.

So maybe you didn't like what we had to offer this year or you think you can do better. Or maybe you were totally inspired and want to give it a try. Perhaps you're ready to face new challenges too. Get involved. You can start small, by helping out at the national events. Or you can hold a regional event as well. Those can be anything you think might be of interest to designers in your region. It can even be a hands-on workshop. If you want to learn more, get in touch with a board member. We'd love to hear your ideas.

THANKS ALSO

DUH. I totally forgot Savannah College of Art and Design and the city of Savannah, all who were just wonderful hosts to our conference. SCAD, and specifically Quentin Curry and Florence Bryant, were just wonderful to us and I'm so glad we worked together. I hope you felt we brought you something special for opening night.

And speaking of opening night, Jeannie Davis helped us with the eco-tour and the big event. So much more than food goes into an event like that so I hope you felt it was worth it.

As for the conference, I have much to mull over myself. Trying to think beyond the page and more towards the entire experience. I think we have a unique opportunity to grab onto this and create newer, bigger roles if we want them. All very exciting and scary all at the same time.

So I hope you can come to Seattle. Randall Cole will do an amazing job for you. It will be uniquely UCDA, but different all at the same time. He's been thinking long and hard on it already.

What did you think of the conference? I've read the evaluations, so I can take it!

Christine

THANKS

Gonna quickly shout out to some specific people now that it's mostly over. All that's left is some sweeping up and that includes thanking some folks. So ...

First a big shout out to Tadson who does a ton of work behind the scenes. He's the one that understands the room contracts and books all the flights and rooms, works with all the vendors and communicates with the AV guys. He's the logistical guy and the logistics involved, especially when you have 400 people show up, are just HUGE.

And now one to the board, who was there if I had a need to bounce ideas and most importantly, were also huge behind the scenes people. Those fabulous goody bags? Your UCDA board put those together. They took care of speakers, they took each other to the emergency room, they worked the registration table, they ran little errands. We have a fabulous board. And I'd say that if I wasn't on the board too.

OK, down to the ones who you really might not know. RANDALL COLE will put on a whale of a conference for us next year and he was really Tadson's right hand man. He put together the dailies, ran errands, you name it. He got done whatever we'd ask. Heck, he even stood in front of all of you, which might be the thing he hated the most. PENNY FRANK rocks. If you volunteered, you know Penny. She was terrific in getting volunteers and then checking to see they were getting it done. MARLYS WEST put together the publication reviews, a tough task. Her house flooded the week before the conference, so she didn't come quite as prepared as she needed, but it worked out just fine. Great job. The UCDA FOUNDATION is always awesome with the auction. (BTW, thanks for the contributions!) The people that are the heart of UCDA Foundation are the heart and soul of UCDA. They are the core and the reason the rest of us are here.

CHERYL DESELLIER, DALE COCHRAN, WINSTON VAN DER HOOF and others, including board members, put up a beautiful awards show this year for us and you can't understand the amount of energy, blood, sweat and tears involved. If you didn't see much of them at the Saturday night party, well, they were there briefly before heading back to work on the show ... after working most of Saturday and Friday on it. I hope you had an opportunity to see it because it was wonderful.

OK it's sounding like an Oscar speech ... so I'll thank anyone I'm forgetting and you know who you are. Continue to share your photos. We love to see them and maybe we'll put them in print, even.

And now those that aren't UCDA members and that would be our speakers, who were just fantastic this year. I've said it before so I'll say it again ... one of my greatest pleasures was that not only did we have knowledgable, impressive people with amazing things to say, but they were all so pleasant. Genuinely nice interesting people. So a thanks to all of them for coming to our party. Our exhibitors this year were fabulous, whether they were able to come onsite or just do the goody bag. Support them, please. They believe in the college market.

And finally the hotel. There were bumps and bruises, but overall CATHY BAXTER and her team worked hard for us and I appreciate all they did. They had a great facility in which to host us.

OK! Gotta finish packing and showering but thought I'd get the thanks done while I was still warm and fuzzy.

Bye for now!

Lulu's Chocolate Bar

So Michelle and I convinced folks to go to Lulu's Chocolate Bar (not that there was much arm-twisting on that one). They had some seriously decadent chocolate desserts but boy that martini list! Holy cow. I went with the Raspberry Truffle Martini OMG. Like drinking a liquid chocolate truffle with liquor. Except you have an entire glass of it. And you feel really awesome when you're done.

We then went to the Bistro Savannah and had a lovely meal. Quite unusual. Ran into some UCDAers too! So fun. The guy went around afterwards and asked if we wanted dessert ... when he got to me I was like "uh, we had a drink at Lulu's Chocolate Bar bf we came here" and he was like "oh Lulu's is FABULOUS!" I love that about Savannah. It's like a small town, except it's really cool too. Small towns are cool in their own way, but not like that. All the businesses just love each other, it seems. Oh I'm sure there are people who know that isn't true at all. Just like people would say to me "oh the conference went so smoothly!" and I'm thinking "omg were we at the same conference??" but it makes me feel better as I know that means we must be fixing things as they flare up.

SO ... if you're still in Savannah, you should try to get by there. They open at 5. I had a totally different vision of Lulu's but it's definitely a night kind of place. Me, I've got some board meetings and then I meet up with Dale and Cheryl and we stop by Tybee for lunch then home. See you soon, Keith and Bella!

Conference ends

WHEW! We made it to the finish line. Day 4 was hitch-free, short of the missing jacket never picked up. I was finally able to relax and enjoy it all. The first thing Tadson and I said to each other when we saw each other was "OK. We know all the speakers are here today."

So not only were the speakers all here, but I heard many happy things as well. All of them felt to me like they were discussing our futures, what to expect next. Digital Storytelling got a huge amount of interest, so much that many more came to the afternoon session. Fascinating stuff. Adobe showed off their new toys. Garrick Chow from lynda.com was great and many said great things about Propeller Communications too. A little something for everyone, I hope.

So I'm so totally thrilled, well, that it's over, but even more so that we had such a great crowd. And not the size, necessarily, but the enthusiasm and energy was as good as I remember at a conference. When you plan one of these babies, you can only control so much. You can ask people to speak, but then they have to be the ones to put in the time and energy to give a great talk. You can book a hotel, but if they aren't up to the job, well, you can't fix that all the time either. And you can invite people to the party, but unless they come ready and willing to see the speakers, participate in the activities and willing to mingle and meet and converse (and I know you designer types could lock yourself in a room and say, blog all day), unless they are willing to play, well, you don't have a great conference. So, again, getting sappy here, but it truly is the attendee that makes the conference.

So all I can hope is that you give Randall Cole the same enthusiasm and energy you brought to Savannah. He's a great guy and he's been thinking for a long time already about next year. So tell him what you want to see. Shoot him an email with your thoughts. Again, sappy here, but UCDA really does belong to the members. So help UCDA be what YOU want.

See you in Seattle! And I'll continue to blog as long as I have conference news to blog.

Keep in touch!

Christine

Some links

Hi all, thought I'd post a few Ross links for everyone, esp if you missed him.

He sells some of his posters at www.illogator.com, which is a cool site that sells lots of illustrator work directly from the illustrators. I found his books at Amazon, but boy you have to dig. The two children books are "Another Perfect Day" and "Bad Baby" and I also came across "The Noisy Alphabet" which looks so cool and has lots of hot type in it. And his personal website is www.ross-macdonald.com.

Thanks to the more than 2/3s of you that returned for the session and I know it was worth it. He was a lot of fun and it's so great to see all that old "technology."

OK! Last day. Hopefully today goes super-smoothly. Seems like everyone is having a blast. I'm having a blast when I'm not completely stressing out, and believe me, I'm not stressed out to that point much. Just around 3:20 when we had no speaker!

Monday a whirlwind

Wow, Monday is officially come to an end as it's exatly 12:00 pm as I type this.

So we started with the Resource Center. I'd love to say I had tons to do with making the resource extra-special this year but alas, it wasn't me. Chalk that one up to our fearsome executive director Tadson Bussey, I do believe! Anyway, terrific turnout on the part of the exhibitors and the hotel outdid themselves with breakfast. (And yeah, they had yogurt, thanks for that one too Tadson!) We had a nice stream of people the entire three hours and there was a great deal of mingling going on. I think I even saw one of my coworkers, who normally would prefer to avoid any sort of awkward small talk, conversing with a complete stranger! So this conference has been a friendly, happy one. I can only credit that to our great icebreaker reception as well as the layout of the hotel. Whatever the key was, it's been a wonderfully friendly conference.

Breakouts were up next. I went to see Scott Boylston and boy he is incredible. The session he led about packaging and sustainable design was so inspiring ... and I don't really design packaging! But it did make me think about how I could approach things differently. To add to the fun, Scott is an amazingly nice guy too.

A quick trip back to the historic district for some honey at the brand new Savannah Bee Company as well as to Nourish for some soap was well worth it. I recommend dropping by and again, don't tell my husband, but I think he will enjoy the honey that is especially good for sweetening tea. Some of our attendees got to go on the historic tour. I heard it was excellent, even if it was walking around for 2.5 hours! Well worth it, most agreed.

The only downer on our day was realizing at 3:20 that there was a problem with our 3:30 speaker. Fortunately, our UCDA members rolled with the punches and went back out to the city. Most returned in time for round 2 of breakouts, grabbed a quick dinner, then returned at 8 to hear Ross MacDonald. Ross is a funny, funny man who first shared some great cartoons, then moved to his letterpress work. The letterpress work is beautiful and he talked in length about how he works on the press. Fascinating stuff, actually and just gorgeous to see. He then talked about how he's moved towards working in movie props. The amount of work that goes into these is absolutely incredible. The research is so tedious, it's amazing. So to the ones that returned, I can only say you got a terrific show, I hope. I know I enjoyed it.

We then took Ross out for a drink and ran into that crazy Gamecock crowd. What a rowdy bunch those guys proved to be! Larry leads a great team and they clearly are fond of each other. Looking at this picture, it's kind of amazing that Larry is still standing up, to be honest.

See all you folks in the morning!
cp

So much fun, I've fallen down on the job!!!

Monday afternoon, and I have to say this conference has been a whirlwind. Since I'm a first-timer, I'm meeting lots of great people - and everyone has a story to tell me about things they've been doing here in Savannah. Yesterday morning, I met a lady who was going to check out the First African Baptist Church a few blocks away from the hotel. I haven't had a chance to ask her how it went, but I know she was looking forward to hearing some gospel music and experiencing a culture different from her own. 

Last night, I enjoyed Scottish food for the first time at Molly McPherson's on Congress Street - Scottish Eggs (hard-boiled eggs with a sausage crust), Shepherd's Pie, Meat Pie, Highlands Salad, Potato Scones with raspberry sauce and a decadent chocolate/raspberry dessert. Now, I know everybody is thinking, Rebecca... that's a lot of food for one girl! Good thing I was with some people who shared my interest in trying lots of different things. We also sampled a delicious Pear cider that was tart, crisp and downright delicious. I highly recommend stopping by there for dinner.

Tonight, we're eying the haunted pub tour for our evening entertainment - along with dinner at the Old Pink House. I'll be sure to let everyone know how that goes!

The Olde Pink House

A lovely dinner tonight at the Olde Pink House. It's a Savannah institution and the food is delicious but completely rich and decadent. The house is called that because they made it out of brick and then plastered it white, but the brick color bled through. And so now the house is ... pink. First it was a home, then it was a bank, then a refuge to Union soldiers (hey they didn't burn Savannah) and finally pretty much falling apart, it was restored in 1992. There's allegedly a ghost in the Planter's Tavern women's bathroom. Last time I was in Savannah, I went to see if the ghost would feel me up but alas, I guess I wasn't much of an allure to him. Nothing. I was a little affronted!

Anyway, a lovely evening with a group of people who have done so much for UCDA throughout the years. They are fun and interesting people and I'm glad to consider them friends. They come not only for the programming, but because these people have become some of their very dearest friends. UCDA can not only be a place of inspiration and rejuvenation and education, but a place of support and friendship. So I hope, you lurking blog readers, if you attended the conference, you found those kindred spirits amongst the attendees. UCDA does many things well, but those close bonds are one of the most amazing things we can share.

Alas, I'm full of chocolate and wine and getting a tad bit sappy. Anyway, I encourage all of you to not only attend as much UCDA programming as you can get to, but to also deeply participate. Such a wonderful way to meet people and make UCDA important in your life too. Find a board member and see how you can get more involved.

Tomorrow is the resource center, and we're expecting a good one this year. Hope you have lots of extra room in that suitcase! If not, there's a Kinko's on Broughton Street and they ship! We have some great programming lined up for you tomorrow and you have a lovely break in the middle to shop and eat. Me, I'm going down to the Savannah Bee Company and getting some honey. Don't tell my husband tho, it's a surprise.

A Sale at Filene's Basement?...

. . . no, but close . . . designers rushing to pick up samples of each other's work. Conference goers started lining up outside the doors of "Scarbrough 3" at 3:40 this afternoon. When the doors finally opened at 4:15 the sea of sample-hungry designers quickly filled every corner of the room. Hopefully all found the inspiration they came looking for.

Inspired Design on Display

Cheryl DeSellier, the 2008 Competition Chair, spent a couple of very long days setting up this year's Design Show. With 227 award winning pieces to accommodate, table after table were added to the show. When the annual design show opened today it featured a remarkable amount of "Inspired Design" from UCDA members produced over the course of the past year.

Day 2

Day 2 is almost done as well. Publication Reviews are going on downstairs as I write to all of you. Our breakout sessions provided a variety of topics. The swap shop looked like it would be nuts, but it went really well. A huge crowd gathered outside and yet when they went in, it was very quiet as everyone went around and picked up publications. I went in 15 minutes later and it was nearly picked clean. Silent vultures, you designers! A large crowd stayed in the lobby, talking and planning their evening meal. Oktoberfest is still down on River Street. My fellow board member Michelle snuck out at lunch to make a raku pot for the silent auction, which looks to be going pretty well. Today, I had lunch at Ambrosia with some former board members. Excellent curry pumpkin soup, delicious.

Sunday morning

Sunday morning has gone off with barely a hitch. Brian came in and entertained and inspired and excited everyone. We all know we need to tell our stories better and think bigger and beyond what the client wants. He was terrific and I appreciate him coming in. He's off somewhere in Savannah now, enjoying the city and the beautiful weather we have this weekend, leaving behind only two buckets of Hershey's kisses from the store his group designed in Times Square. So cool, check out what they did online.

We then had our business meeting and awards show. Some very impressive stuff and the show and presentation both look beautiful. Another kudos to the Clemson staff and Cheryl Desellier along with Dave Dryden and Dale Cochran. Award winners are shown above.

Off to lunch at Ambrosia ... pumpkin curry soup (yum) and a spinach salad then back up here for the required chocolate to get through the day and I'm off to the next session.

What to expect today

OK! Back at it today. Up early to meet Brian Collins for a sound check. He got in super-late last night, so it will be tight. Still, Brian is a professional and we've got great sound guys, so I don't expect any trouble. After that, we have our awards show. Clemson this year chaired both the conference (me) and the competition (my coworker Cheryl.) Cheryl's been a little panicked about the job she would do, but from what I've seen, we'll have a great display show (expect amazing things with foam core) as well as a nice job in Keynote. Keynote was a new program for her, but I've seen a bit of what she's done and of course, it is a quality job.

Then a chance for all of you to grab a quick bite. Zunzi's Express is close by and wonderful, Gallery Espresso isn't bad. Firefly Cafe, as all you dear readers know, is my top pick, but it's too far a walk to get to in the hour and fifteen minutes you've got to make it there. You can probably find anything that will work on Broughton Street and if you want to play it safe, you've got Starbucks and Panera across the street from themselves right on Bull and Broughton.

The afternoon brings us great breakouts from NJIT, Billy Howard, Kim Elam and Hank Richardson. Publication Roundtables tonight as well as the always popular swap shop, then we're off to dinner on your own. You'll have a tough time choosing; so many excellent choices in this town! We tried Ru'an on Broughton and the SCAD guys tell me it's the best Thai in town. Michelle tells me "I'm in love with the lemongrass chicken."

Saturday comes to a close

Hi all you blog lurkers out there! Hope all that are here in Savannah had a great time. I know I had a great time meeting many of you. So many new faces out there this year, which is wonderful. Thank you for coming and seeing what we are all about.

So ... since I last wrote, here's a recap. Ellen made it in and we all went to the beautiful Trustee Theater to get things set up. The SCAD people were amazing and wonderful to work with. The AV guy got everything up and running nicely for Ellen, as well as our presentation that followed. Once that was squared away, got to hang out in the lovely space of Red Gallery, where we mingled with the SCAD group. Kudos to Florence Bryant here, who has been amazing and helpful and getting the Trustee Theater ready for us as well as the Red Gallery reception set up. The food was sublime and the space was really unique. Back over to the Trustee Theater for Ellen's talk, which was terrific. She was funny and dry, and yet completely relevant, talking about how educating the world about design, making it an open world instead of a closed world, will only elevate our roles, not replace them. Not only was her talk very well received, she is such a warm, friendly person. The sort of person I'd love to hang out and have a beer with, in fact. It's always nice to find that a person so well-respected is a genuine, approachable, likable human being as well.

Larry Pearce received the UCDA Award this year. Even though Larry works for Clemson's biggest rival (University of South Carolina), we love Larry. Another truly lovely, likable, humble kind of soul. So it was such a treat to watch him realize that Dave was talking about him as he read the announcement. To add to the fun, two long-time UCDA friends had visited Larry and managed to scan in many photos of him while he went to work, so we had lots of funny and sweet and probably very embarrassing photos of him to show. His staff made an Office parody about him that was really cute. I doubt there was better recipient for the award this year.

And then the carnival! Beer! Pretzels! Cotton candy! You name it, even corn dogs and caramel apples and music and frog bog, along with a caricature artist and a card guy, well it was a party. Seemed like folks enjoyed hanging out in the square for the evening and we had absolutely beautiful weather for the event. We passed out our networking game, in which folks had to find 12 different people to fit 12 different Savannah-themed descriptions. I'm about halfway there, but others have finished. I think finding someone who has read Treasure Island might be the toughest thing. If anyone needs someone who has sold Girl Scout cookies, I'm the gal. I've sold them as a girl scout and now the mother of a girl scout.

And now I write to you about our first day, dear blog readers. Thanks so much to all of you that I met tonight that told me I wasn't just writing for my own amusement! I'll continue to write. And if you are here and want to add your own fun to the blog, I'd love to have more perspectives to it all. Write me and I'll invite you to contribute.

President's Reception

Getting ready for the President's Reception and the party as well as the amazing Ellen Lupton, so excited. But I thought I'd take a minute to write. I didn't get a chance to go on the eco-tour nor the computer workshop (got things to do, imagine that!) but I heard great reports on both events. Apparently dolphins danced along the boats as there had been shrimp boats nearby and the woman narrating was a real character and very knowledgeable. The computer workshops were described as great, even overwhelming with the amount of knowledge thrown at them. Michelle Baty told me, "I realized I'm doing things in a strange way."

People are bringing silent auction items and there are some fun things to bid on, so bring the checkbook! And the publications review is also going well. The inspired design wall is off to a fun start, so I can't wait to see that build.

So I'll get ready to head out and I'll see everyone at Red Gallery and then the party tonight.

Registration has begun!

Registration kicked off with a bang. We put 65 people on a bus for an eco-tour, and another 30 on a trolley for the computer workshops. Saw many new faces and some old friends.

When you come to the hotel, come up the escalator and find the registration table. We'll get you started. You can bring your silent auction item as well, you can contribute to the inspired design wall, and you can pick up a personalized calendar from Kennickell Printing. It's a pretty crazy little item they're giving out. I'll see some of you at the volunteer meeting and the rest I'll see at the Trustee Theater.

I've included a picture of the shopSCAD next door to Poetter Hall, where we took our computer workshop participants.

Big day tomorrow!

Tonight, it's Oktoberfest on the town, which means River Street is nuts. Kind of fun, kind of nuts. Lots of drinking cheap beer, serious flashbacks to college! You can see they even shot fireTomorrow we start the conference! You'll come up the escalator and see the inspired design wall. We hope everyone contributes and makes it fun. We also have postcards for everyone to send home as well as the board vote. And, there's also the flickr site to go to as well.

Getting ready

We're getting ready for registration right now. Registration materials are set, goody bags have been created. We're working on signage and the competition show right now. If you're here in Savannah already, go enjoy the town! The weather couldn't be more beautiful. In fact, not sure I'd wear shorts now if I had them.

We're not ready to register anyone until tomorrow at 8 am. If you're in one of the preconference events at 9 am, just check in before 8:45 am (shouldn't take too long, it's just picking up your material) to get your nametag and ticket to the event.

Met with the charming people in the graphic design department. We're set for the computer workshops. The spaces are very nice. Enjoy the artwork in hallway; there's student work and it's inspiring, for certain.

See everyone tomorrow! Can't wait!

Goody bags!

Just finished assembling the goody bags. They are amazing this year. That said, there is a limited supply, so if you really want one, come early. If you want to travel home lightly, come a little later!

Remember, you get them at the Resource Center. They don't have any at the registration desk nor can they get them for you. You gotta come by the UCDA booth, show them a ticket or no bag!

Getting Close!

Hi all!

This is my first blog entry for the UCDA Conference. I'm an editor who works closely with Christine at Clemson, and this is my first UCDA Conference ever - so hopefully I can provide a unique perspective for this blog.

I'm warming up for a few days before the conference at Hunting Island. I know, rough life, huh? Hunting Island is an hour and a half north of Savannah, near Beaufort, S.C. I'll be going out on the boat this afternoon, so hopefully I'll have some great coastal pictures to share later on to give everyone a taste of the beautiful area Savannah calls home. If you're not already excited about your upcoming visit, you're in for a great surprise!

Until next time,

Becca

Conference opens tomorrow!

Sitting here writing all of you a quick note before heading downstairs for a few more board items. Then your dedicated board starts to work. Lots to do to get ready for all of you. I'll write more once I see the Trustee Theater and the computer work spaces. My speakers are all excited to present and so far, so good! Can't wait to see everyone!!

Here's four of your dedicated board members -- Dave Dryden, Connie Peterson, Michelle Baty and Micheline Heckler -- all enjoying a little pizza after a long day of meetings. Another affordable and tasty meal within walking distance of the hotel, this one at Vinnie Van Go Go's. You can get the biggest slice of pizza on a tasty thin crust and add the ingredients as you like. Michelle went with broccoli, spinach and feta. I remember Dave and Micheline and Dave adding pesto. I had sundried tomatos, feta and mushrooms. Yummy!

See everyone tomorrow! Today we furiously get ready.

Savannah Hyatt

Hi all, a quick note as we break from board meeting. Tadson and I (Christine) met with the hotel people this morning and they are wonderful. So, if they treat you with as much courtesy as they've treated us, we will have a great conference. Food looks great, rooms look wonderful and we're set for a great time. If you're driving, just be aware it is valet parking only.

During the break, I ran up to Zunzi's Express (York Street, near Drayton, you'll get a map when you check in) and YUM. And cheap too! I had the veggie wrap, so it was the extra bonus of being healthy too. But they also have some really decadent looking mac and cheese too.

See you guys soon, real soon!

New photos

Just walked around the area and uploaded some new pix for everyone. They are at the flickr site.

We're here

My fellow board member and director Dave Dryden and I made amazing time down to Savannah and we are here! Yeah! And guess what ... it is H-O-T, so make sure to pack a few pairs of shorts. Right now it's about 87 outside, yikes. We're off to walk up to the Firefly Cafe for some crab and corn chowder yummy yum. Board meeting tonight and tomorrow, then we all prepare to greet all of you fine folks on Saturday. Can't wait!

Christine

On my way!

Well, we're set to cruise to Savannah today. Lots of board meetings and then prepping for our big crowd to show up on Saturday. I'll continue to blog from Savannah, of course, and am looking forward to being onsite and having more to report. So I'll leave you with the story of the 17hundred90 house. It's considered perhaps the most haunted house in America's most haunted city. You can go there for dinner or a nightcap in the basement. It's easy to find; just look for the intersection of PRESIDENT and LINCOLN streets.

I wish I had a recommendation on ghost tours. I've been on two; they are fun. There are almost 30 companies doing tours to a wide range of quality. You can even go on one that will cart you around the historic district in a hearse. I'll probably skip the ghost tour this year; hard to be scared when you're running into other ghost tours. Still, if you've never been, it's a good opportunity to hear some of the old stories of Savannah.

See everyone on Saturday!

Travel Advice

Travel Advisor's weekly e-newletter just listed Savannah as number three on their "Top Ten: Most Underrated Destinations" that should be on everyone's must see list. Click here to see Travel Advisor's Savannah overview page.

Jingle Bells

Another interesting story about Savannah to share with everyone. Savannah is home to the Jingle Bells Church. While Jingle Bells wasn't written in Savannah, it was published as "One Horse Open Sleigh" in 1857 by James Pierpont, which he was the church music director and organist. He left the church in 1859 to pursue the insurance business instead. The song was originally written for a Thanksgiving pageant, but it quickly became a Christmas song. Debate still rages as to whether Savannah or Massachusetts (where many believe he wrote the song), but the UU church calls themselves the Jingle Bells church nonetheless.

Juliette Gordon Low

That name will mean something to you old girl scouts. If you've ever been to Savannah in the middle of the summer, you will notice two things. First, it's hot as blazes! Second, there seems to be a ton of young girls walking around, frequently in green. Why? Savannah is a Girl Scout mecca. Juliette Gordon Low was one cool lady. She founded the Girl Scouts in answer to the Boy Scouts. Having been a girl scout and now the mother of a girl scout, I can say it's a program that is great for girls. If you get the chance, the house is about 4 blocks from the hotel. You can take a tour or just visit the Girl Scout shop.

The house is famous for other reasons; it's haunted as well. Her parents were very much in love until the end and apparently beyond. Juliette came from an old, important family in Savannah. Her family were major railroad entrepreneurs, which helped put Savannah on the map. They shipped iron and cotton all over the southeast. Savannah, in fact, is the Pittsburgh of the South and that's why there are so many manholes that say "Savannah" on them. Look for the amazing ironwork in town. In fact, some of my favorite ironwork is disguised to look like marble; check out the columns of St. John the Baptist Cathedral, also in the historic district.

We'll see everyone on Saturday!

Bring your camera!

Don't forget to bring your camera! You'll find lots of others who love photography just as much as you do. If you're like me (MOM, NO MORE PHOTOS!), it's just wonderful to hang with people who don't mind that you need to take the time to frame that shot of the ironwork on the house just right. Or that you took 30 photos of THE SAME STATUE. And when you're done, we want everyone to upload their shots to the Flickr site. Not only are they fun for everyone to see, we even used them in last year's registration brochure for this year's conference.

Down to the wire!

I (aka Christine) leave for Savannah in a day and a half. Which means I'm still getting things together to be gone for that long, but it's so going to be worth it. Not only is Savannah just such a fun town, but our speakers are putting together some bang up presentations for everyone. Everyone I've talked to is just such an interesting person. I know the town will be a lure, but I really recommend you get to know the speakers too. I personally can't wait to meet the ones I've only talked to on the phone and I look forward to seeing the ones I already know too.

We have lots of first-timers to the conference, which is really exciting. I hope they come to this event and find UCDA to be as inspiring and energizing as I do. I always come back with new ideas. It can be so difficult to liberate yourself from your desk, but I always know the conference is worth the days away. And the best thing is to find out there are folks just like you, with the same problems and headaches and perhaps some ideas and thoughts about solutions for you. If nothing else, you'll find professional soul-mates.

So we'll see everyone this weekend. And I know some of you designers will try to hide behind a tree than make conversation. Just remember you're there with folks just like you, so don't be shy ... introduce yourself and you'll find you have a lot in common.

What Not to Wear

Or rather, what's the dress code? Well, anything goes, really, but if you want to fit in I'd recommend smart tshirts or nice shirts or polos, along with a pair of khakis or jeans. That and a pair of shoes (socks optional) and perhaps a jacket for those that freeze in the hotel AC and you're set. We're a fairly casual bunch and why not. The first night is an outdoor event, with a carnival theme, so I'd keep that in mind for the dress. If you dress for a cocktail party, you're going to feel silly eating a big pretzel and getting your fortune read.

And now the weather report ... Savannah is expecting dry weather with lows in the low 60s (BRR) and highs in the high 70s or low 80s. So some of you I suspect might be bringing shorts. Me, I'll be bringing a jacket!

Inspired Design Wall

Don't know about the rest of you, but I realized yesterday that in 5 days (now 4) and 2 working days, I'd be headed to Savannah. Time to think about what to bring. Me, I'm making a list so I'll remember my samples, my silent auction items and a knitting project or two to bring for the drive down and back. I'll also hope to drop by Wild Fibre too, to pick up another project.

Another thing to think about is to bring a drawing or a swatch of color for our Inspired Design Wall. Let this be whatever you want. It can be about your school, about Savannah or even better, just about you. We'll have postcards for you to use, but if you prefer to work ahead, create a drawing or color or something that inspires you and maybe others. Just make it 4" square. We'll have a wall to hang them. The more that take part, the more fun it will be. So bring your ideas!

Vote!

You've heard it all year long and now you'll hear it from us: vote! UCDA members who haven't cast their vote for the Board can do this at the conference. Look for the ballot in your registration material when you get to Savannah. We'll have all five board bios for you to read. Voting for the board may not decide the direction of the country, but it has a huge impact on the direction of UCDA. So be prepared to vote twice this year!

Volunteer room move

Teeny change to the schedule for all you amazing volunteers. Instead of meeting in Scarbrough 1, the meeting (which is super-quick and easy, but important) will be in the Verelste room. You don't have to say it, you just have to be there! When you register, we can point you in the right direction. If you're one that likes to plan in advance (good for you!), you can download the floor plan from this page.

Haven't volunteered? Why the heck not? We have loads of easy, fun jobs for people. You can ring bells, guard doors, guide people to locations, hand out our way cool goody bags or even be brave and introduce people. If I can stand in front of 600 people and do it, you can do it to 50 people, piece of cake! Plus we have a cool little item for our volunteers that you can only get by helping out and coming to the meeting. Penny's your gal and she's putting together the schedule. Drop her a line.

Your To Do List!

Wondering how to get from the airport to the hotel? What the weather will be like? What you should bring with you and what you should not bring on the plane? We've compiled all that information for you. We have lots of first-timers, so you'll find information on the Swap Shop and the Publications Review table, the Silent Auction and all the other optional events we have going on as well. Hopefully it will answer a lot of questions for you, but if not, shoot us an email.

Ride-sharing

Interested in sharing a ride from the airport, saving you a couple of bucks while feeling properly environmental? We've set up a group email. Send a message to the group when you will be arriving or departing and see if you can find someone to share that cab.

Even more shopping and eating

From Florence Bryant, my fabulous contact with SCAD.

RESTAURANTS
- Good food and elegant: Vick's on the River, Elizabeth on 37th, Sapphire Grill
- Casual, on the marsh: The Crab Shack, Bonna Bella Yacht Club
- Ethnic: Taste of India, Juarez
- Local with big band music (old 30's bistro, food is so-so but atmosphere is great): Crystal Beer Parlor
- Fun, young, good pizza: Mellow Mushroom
- Fun, very casual: Huc-a-poo's on Hwy in Tybee
- Artsy, fun lunch place: Soho Cafe
- Gryphon Tea Room has some great dishes, the building itself is worth having a lunch there
- Lulu's Chocolate Bar

FUN PLACE TO HANG OUT
- City Market, live music and touristic hangouts at night and weekends

TO DO
- ShopSCAD
- Museums (check out the Visitor Center)
- Bonaventure Cemetery
- Ghost tours (Savannah is one of the most haunted cities in the US)
- History tours
- Oatland Island for nature and animal lovers
- The beach on Tybee
- Kayaking on the marsh (available in Tybee)
- Wormsloe Plantation for a great nature walk

Swap shop

Hey all! Don't forget about the swap shop. You'll want to have your samples ready to land in your fellow attendee's hands! If you're new to the conference, the swap shop is a 45-minute, run and get 'em sample exchange. The doors open and it's a free-for-all. Sort of like the bride's bargain basement sale, only with publications instead of dresses, designers instead of brides and the publications are free!

So bring your samples! The more samples we have, the more fun the event is. Send them to:
Hyatt Regency Savannah
UCDA Conference (Oct. 4-7)
Swap Shop (HOLD for UCDA)
2 West Bay Street
Savannah, GA 31401
912-238-1234

More shopping and eating

Some more possibilities of things to do in Savannah ...
Try yelp.com
Seems to have some places I recognize and approve.

Try chowhound.com
Mostly a chat board, but some good places are mentioned.

Try this site too: Savannah off the Beaten Path
Looked through this and it lists a bunch of cool places that are not so touristy.

Don't forget to visit us at the conference too, lol!

Places to shop!

Tracy just asked about places to shop, so I'll add it to the blog. The Hyatt (and the Inn on River Street and the Hampton) are all right on the edge of the Historic District, down on River Street. River Street is, well, on the Savannah River. You can watch many ships, usually carrying lots and lots of cargo, come in. River Street is very old but it's mostly ... touristy. There's some really nice restaurants on River Street, but I'd recommend going South and heading down a couple of blocks. Broughton Street is my favorite street in the district. Lots of shopping and galleries. There's a fun art store called Primary Art Supply (if you live in the Clemson area, your arts store is Michael's, so it's a treat for me.) Last time I was there, they had a coupon for a brand new store that I've forgotten the name. It's a mix of consignment and new stuff. Lots of fun clothing up there and I ended up buying a used wallet that I'm still using. There's a store called the Paris Market that has all sorts of fun stuff, from books to candy to jewelry to furniture. They gave me the rec on Back in the Day Bakery, yummy. They are starting their Happy Hour cupcakes just in time for us! Take a new buddy and get 2 for 1 cupcakes. Check out their site for their cupcake schedule. I am definitely trying a California Buttercream.

Anyone else got any recommendations to share?

160over90 and Wilkes

Hi all! Well it wouldn't be a conference without a slight tweak to the schedule. So, a big congrats to Mark Golaszewski on getting a new job! He'll be back as a corporate member in January and still contributing on the listserv. Sadly, however, this means he can't join us in Savannah. However, Wilkes will still send a representative and I'm happy to say they are sending their director of admissions, Melanie Mickelson. Mark says, "She has worked very close with both me and 160over90, and could speak very well to the relationship we have. Additionally, she is probably the main client most of the designers would be working with anyway, so she does seem to fit well here. For the four+ years prior to hiring 160, it was pretty much she and I handling all the undergrad recruitment materials, so she is well-versed in the projects."

So don't be alarmed if you see the change. It should still be the same great session you signed up for.

Seattle in Savannah

Office Monkeys--just one of the oddities you can bid on in the Savannah Silent Auction. Plan now to add something fun or inspiring to the event.

Couldn't resist an opportunity to use this year's Silent Auction in to plug next year's conference in Seattle. Archie McPhee's Seattle superstore is home to one of the oddest collection of toys and gifts you're likely to come across. Check them out at mcphee.com and in person next year in Seattle.

Volunteers

Hey all! A note to let you know if you didn't sign up to volunteer, you can always help out. We have tons of little jobs for people to do and it's such a great way to get to know people. We have door guards, session helpers, gofers, heck, even the always popular bell ringer. This year, we even need some volunteers to help lead people to the Trustee Theater and then to Johnson Square, as well as some people to help greet at the big party in Johnson Square.

Don't see anything up there you want to do? Tell us how you think you can help out and we'll see if we can find a role for you. Ask anyone who's volunteered in the past and they'll tell you it only made their conference experience better. Plus, you get the swanky "volunteer" ribbon on your nametag, making you a UCDA VIP.

Wanna volunteer? Get in touch with Penny Frank or with me, Christine Prado.

A mere 15 days to conference, can you believe it? See you all in two weeks!

Quark speaker

Details on who is speaking at the Quark session!

Dan Logan is a chief product manager at Quark, Inc. Dan has worked on and shaped Quark's benchmark graphic design application — QuarkXPress — for more than 10 years.

Dan came to Quark in 1998 from Erbe Design in Pasadena where he served as Studio Manager working on design and photography projects for a variety of clients including Wired magazine, Chronicle Books, Toyota, Sony, and Samsung. Exposure to technology diverted Dan's attention to other schools of design, such as animation and interactive authoring, and in 2000 he was recognized in HOW Magazine's 57 Hottest Interactive Designs Annual for producing a CD-ROM promoting Blasto Media.

In his current position as product manager at Quark, Dan is designing the graphics and layout features for future versions of QuarkXPress.

InDesign speaker

We now know who is speaking for InDesign and she should be great! Here's her bio:

Noha Edell was an Adobe enthusiast long before joining Adobe Systems in 1996. With over 20 years experience in the prepress and graphics industry, her background includes operating her own training and consulting business, managing the educational services department for an Apple reseller, and working as an instructor at Parsons School of Design in New York. She is an Adobe Certified Expert in InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, PageMaker, and Acrobat.

At Adobe, she has pioneered the development of the InDesign User Groups throughout North America as well as advancing the growth of the international User Group community, fostering relationships and vitality among InDesign users.

Noha’s knowledge is great, her enthusiasm infectious, and her unique ability to deliver the message of the power and accessibility of Adobe creative applications inspiring. An unflappable, engaging presenter, she is a frequently requested and popular speaker at Adobe-sponsored events and industry and professional organizations’ conferences.

Breakout Sessions

If you signed up for a session and were told it was closed, you can now attend it if you like. With some hard work between Tadson and the hotel, we were able to juggle some things around and you should be able to attend those previously closed sessions.

Flickr

Last year, we had a group on Flickr for all attendees to upload the pictures they took while in Toronto. Wow, did we get response! People posted so many fun shots, we ended up using them in the 2008 Call for Registration for Savannah. So we're doing it again! So, if you've already been to Savannah, upload some pictures! And if you're coming, bring your camera!

To see last year's collection, visit www.flickr.com/groups/ucdaroots

To see what the folks who attended last year's InSight workshop in Savannah photographed, visit www.flickr.com/groups/insight

And to see what's going on in Savannah this year, go to www.flickr.com/groups/ucdashift. Right now, it's a handful of shots I took while visiting this summer.

Registration is closed

Our big conference news today is that we've officially closed registration. We had right around 290 people at the early bird deadline and thought we'd be able to keep it open til the end, but you folks just kept on registering anyway. Anyway, you lucky folks who have registered should look forward to a great 4 days. And those that didn't make it, well, UCDA has all sorts of great programming and remember next year's conference is in Seattle, another great city!

UCDA Listserv

I saw that someone commented on the dining post that he'd like to get a group together to go to Lady and Sons. (I tell you though ... so many other wonderful places to eat!) For those new to the UCDA conference, there's always friendly, fun people looking to dine out. Still, if you are looking to get a group together, you have a couple of options, besides this blog. One is the message board at the conference, which is just a big board to post open messages. People use this a lot to put out dinner requests. Another option is to post these to the UCDA listserv. If you haven't discovered the listserv, it's a very active place. Whenever I call new members, I always tell them to sign up for that, because it has the most interesting discussions. One of my favorites? Worst mascot. Green wave, a tree, horned toad ... there were lots of picks for that title.

Also, feel free to add your favorite Savannah eatery under the dining post.

Write for the blog!

Hey, are you coming to the conference? Email me to let me know if you want to write for the blog. I'm looking for 3-4 other folks to post stories of their experiences online, that they are happy to share with attendees as well as those watching the game from their computers.

Other than that, things are zipping along. We finished up some of the details with some new vendors to the resource center this year and I must say you will definitely want to nab a goody bag this year. Don't ask the front desk; come to the resource center and find the booth where they will be giving them away with your ticket you get at registration.

Sort of amazing to think that in three weeks, we'll be furiously getting ready to welcome a large crowd to Savannah. I've looked at the attendee list and I see lots of names. Some of the names I know and can't wait to see, some I recognize from phone calls, emails and the UCDA listserv and can't wait to see in person. There's also a lot of names I don't know at all but am excited to think they could one day be planning this conference themselves. Looking forward to shaking a lot of hands then!

Silent Auction

I'm preparing the information document that goes to all attendees. I hope everyone reads it because it's got great information in it. I'll share some of these items on the blog as we get closer to Savannah. To start out, I'll mention our Silent Auction. What a fun event this can be. We have so many talented members who do such beautiful craft work. I myself will be bringing a couple of hats, one which board member Connie Peterson is modeling in the photo. I'm sure competition chair and coworker Cheryl DeSellier will bring some of her beautiful jewelry. And former board member Pam Fogg will certainly bring another latched rug item. Last year's was a hot auction item. So, a friendly reminder to not only bring your checkbook, but to share your handiwork as well. And if you don't create, don't let that stop you. Other popular items are odd knickknacks and books.

Dining in Savannah

Sure is hard to find a bad meal in Savannah. Of course, you can stand in line at Lady and Sons with the other tourists, but why? Savannah's full of great places and charming restaurants. Check out our recommendations, mostly from Michelle Anderson, who works in the e-Learning admissions at SCAD. You'll get a chance to meet her at the Resource Breakfast, so make sure to say hello.

Breakfast
J. Christophers Michelle's pic: Goddess omelette
Huey's on the River: Christine says: Near the River Street Inn. Beignets will give you a sugar high, but they're worth dropping the diet for the day.

Lunch
Vic's on the River Michelle says: Great pulled pork and mac and cheese
Firefly Cafe Christine says: everything here is great, but I always get the corn chowder and the cranberry salad
Zunzi's Michelle says: Homemade South African cuisine! Order as take-out or eat on the patio (outside seating only)

Dinner
Sweet Leaf Smokery Michelle says: Lunch or dinner, spicy barbeque. Great burritos!
Vinnie Van GoGo’s Michelle says: Great pizza/salad, great location, cash only
Pink House Christine says: we ate here for dinner in the bar and it was a fun evening

Treats
Leopold’s Ice Cream Michelle's pic: Smores!
Savannah Candy Kitchen Go for the overall feel of the place and find candy you haven't seen in years. Christine's pic: the farm fudge. There are two: one on River Street and one in City Market. The River Street one is bigger, but both have pretty much the same stuff.

Coffee shop
Gallery Espresso Michelle fav.: Chai Tea & Iced Thai Coffee

Do you have a favorite place to eat? Let us know!

Opening night is coming

Conference is coming up really very quickly. I looked at the calendar the other day and realized that in less than 4 weeks, I would be packing up and heading to Savannah. Gulp. Still, we're in great shape and very excited about not only our programming but everything else we have planned too. The first night event should be truly unique. Our first session is held in the Trustee Theater, which is this very cool theater about six blocks from the hotel. It was built in the late 1940s and ran movies until the early 80s, when the district fell on hard times. Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), as they've done with so many of the buildings downtown, bought it, renovated it and now uses it for lectures and shows. The people at SCAD have been truly wonderful to work with and everyone is excited to have this shared event with them. I'm also happy to have an icebreaker party outside in one of Savannah's famous squares. Whoever built Savannah decided it would be a civilized city with some city blocks reserved as open spaces. The idea was to have gardens or community spaces. It's worked so well they are in the process of converting one square they made a parking garage back into a city square instead. I can't imagine Savannah without the squares. I think it would probably be unbearably hot and muggy without some green spaces.