The University & College Designers Association delivered on its promise of providing educational and insightful resources for those in attendance at the 39th Annual UCDA Design conference in Seattle this week. I had the pleasure of presenting one of the three general sessions and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. My session on internal branding was intended to help college and university design and marketing professionals think differently about engaging their institution's stakeholders in the brand development process on their respective campuses. I hope I was able to do so.
The opening session was delivered by two representatives from the design team for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and Pralympics. The presenters shared with us several of the thousands of design elements for the upcoming Winter Games, as well as the process involved in tackling this monstrous project. I look forward to watching next year's games through a different lens. Methodologie delivered a great session on their work in developing the very innovative Brand Map, designed to replace old school brand manuals. Other sessions included numerous breakout sessions that stimulated the senses and motivated the attendees to take new ideas back to their institutions.
I want to thank Tadson Bussey and Randall Cole for staging a tremendous event and for providing efficiency in planning the conference. Too often a conference feels like a stale event, and in many situations does not enhance the brand of the organization hosting the event. Not so in the case of UCDA. This is an inviting, warm, contemporary, innovative and fun community. Their annual conference delivers on that promise. Thanks UCDA!
Rex Whisman
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