Incase you somehow haven’t heard, I’m currently in Boston, MA attending the HOW Design Conference thanks to the UCF Office of Student Involvement sending me here with my pal and coworker Kyle. My two good friends and coworkers Bonnie and Sarah also came along for the wild ride.
I’m writing this blog right now from my hotel room in Boston, after another exhausting yet amazing day. I must say it was a bit slower day today and felt a little awkward to be attending the conference since the past few days were spent out on the town. Since I had absolutely no idea that New England was still rather cold in late May (in my home state a degree below 90 is considered a cool day in May) I didn’t bring adequate clothing to prepare for the 55 degree weather, so I was a bit cold as well, but it was fun. I attended three sessions today and went in the sponsor expo again to pick up more swag. I have so much swag now I could probably fill another large suitcase with all of it. Amazing! So far my favorite booths to visit have been french paper, wacom and the “cougar booth” where I got to take this amazing photo w/ my friend Sarah & the lovely Cougar of course.
I feel like I’ve already done an entire vacations worth of stuff yet I know I’ve barely scratched the surface of all Boston has to offer. It’s an incredible city with such rich history. Some highlights have included walking almost the entire freedom trail, boston common, amazing fettucini alfredo in the italian district, “cheetah girl” in the park who taught Bonnie and I to run just like a cheetah (stay tuned for a video of our adventures) and a picnic at Harvard…
Overall, I’ve been a slightly underimpressed with HOW so far… I feel like it has tons of potential but that it needs to be organized more effectively. It’s too hard to tell what skill levels the sessions offered are for. One session I went to I learned a lot and it was fantastic, and another I felt like I was in design 101 being taught things that I learned my first day on the job. Another problem I find is having sessions at 7:30 am. Seriously? 7:30am?!! Ugh.
By far my favorite session was the last one I saw this evening, and it wasn’t even design related. It was given by a man who set out to clean all of America’s rivers, starting with the biggest, the Mississippi. His story was amazing and I had no idea that prior to his efforts and his organization, there had been no large-scale river clean-up effort in effect on these rivers… and it’s astonishing how badly they needed one.
You can check out his efforts & progress at his organizations website, and find out how you can get involved if you live near a body of water that needs help.