DIALOGUE: A big fat success!

Special thanks to the creatives who joined us at last night’s DIALOGUE event at our studio. We had a great turnout, and unbelieveably great conversations. I got tremendously positive feedback from several of you! Here are just a few topics that were covered, in no particular order…

1. Social media pros/cons - facebook, twitter, myspace, etc. - Special thanks to Hernan (The Construct Creative), whose impromptu Twitter intro was really cool. You should be on their payroll, Hernan. Nice job. We talked about the launch of R+W-live.com for their new “siteless site” that takes advantage of real-time social networking under the skin of their own site. Pretty cool concept.

2. Spec work and crowdsourcing - I’m pretty passionate about this topic, and I talked to some creatives who are participating in some of the online spec sites. I can see their point, but I still think it’s ruining the graphic design industry, and the PR behind the sites peddling spec work is nauseating.

3. Membership Organizations - pros/cons. Some big fans, some not so much. I’m an AIGA member, and I fielded several questions that I’ll have to forward to the local board of directors, because I’m unable to answer any of them. AdFed was not represented last night, but the Addy Awards are coming up in a couple weeks, and it was discussed. IABC had some folks there, and we talked about the several Bronze Quill Awards Victor and the gang at eurie recently earned. Congratulations to the gang across the hall for that. Las Vegas Graphics Group and a few other Meetup groups and Yahoo User Groups were strongly represented, and brought some great folks. UNLV’s SAGA students came by, and it was a great pleasure for me to speak with some of the near-grads who are the future of our industry.  I’ll be looking at some of their portfolios in the coming weeks.

4. Myself, Krystal Hosmer (Spark Creative) and Martin Lapid (Pixel Pusher Media) plugged our upcoming UNLV Continuing Education Classes coming up this summer, and we were all glad to see that they all got considerable interest. More details on that next week.

5. Lots of buzz about who’s hiring and who’s laying off creatives.

6. Awesome impromptu showcase by the Rowlands from S2 and their insanely awesome fine art duplication services using 8×10 photography and high-end inkjet processing. Very impressive!

7. Third Thursday is coming up in Henderson. Thanks to photographer Nicky Watts for representing - and for bringing by some killer sweets!

8. Many of us felt that the event was a success, so much of the later part of the evening was spent discussing what’s next for the DIALOGUE events. Nothing is set yet, but I’ll be posting details on this blog and via Twitter. We’re going to build off the momentum and keep the “dialogue” going.

The plan was to connect, talk some shop and to fuel the fire of area creatives. I think collectively, we did that. Those who attended last night have my sincere thanks for being a part of a pretty special evening.

Thank you,

Nate