conference: day one

Today was the first official day of the conference. I didn't have to  go in til 12, which is a stark change from tomorrow, where I have to be there at 7:15 am. I manned a door for 20 minutes and then I got to sit in on the student symposium. The speakers were well chosen and inspiring. There was a professor from Portland that was extremely inspiring. Her energy, happiness and passion were outstanding. She talked about nourishing your personal voice, committing to doing "out of the box" things, even if they're crazy and BEING HAPPY. crazy thought, eh?
also, check out dresscode. Incredibly awesome guys and they made it in a way that tiptoes around the usual undergraduate bull. Being happy played a big role in their success too. I found this to be a pattern today. Also, no one talked about their undergraduate work. funny eh? So important to us now, but what about the big picture? what happened to our time to learn?

The general session was surreal. I was manning a door right up front so I had a great view. Most of the talks were inspiring, all were entertaining and Sagmeister's was, well Sagmeister's. Command X was the most exciting part of the whole session--considering our very own Monina was competing. Their first assignment was to redesign the Graceland logo. All but two were very well done, in my opinion and Monina's was beautiful. She was the only one to include the actual house in the logo and when asked about it she answered all of the judges questions without pause. Great job Monina!

She's on to the next round and is probably hard at work right now! Their new assignment is to redesign:

There are five contestants left, and they have til tomorrow evening to finish their design. Should be interesting!


Oh, I also made off with a good amount of loot.