Recap: Community Meeting #2

Uniting Designers, Creating A Place Where Design Thrives

Guest post by Leah Quinn

With another community meeting under our belt, AIGA Orlando has already made some small changes with big results! With the new model of “doing away with traditional board meetings and instead inviting EVERYONE—AIGA members, non-members, designers, and non-designers—to join in on these monthly gatherings,” there has definitely been a shift in energy and the overall involvement and willingness to participate.

This week we had Lenny Terenzi of HeyMonkey! Design join us via Google Hangout. I first met Lenny at Creative South in Columbus, GA a couple of years ago, and then heard his full story when he was a featured speaker at the conference this past year. At the conference, he not only blew everyone away with his amazing story and life lessons, but he also made it known just how much his AIGA chapter in Raleigh has had a positive impact on his life. He really expressed his love for his chapter and how they continue to inspire him everyday.

After soaking it all up (and wiping away the tears) I couldn’t help but want that for our own Orlando chapter. And I’m not the only one who felt that way. To make a long story short, Lenny’s talk at Creative South is one of the reasons AIGA Orlando revamped the way it functions—to be more inclusive and tear down walls of exclusivity. So it was only appropriate we have him as a guest speaker to further share his takeaways and insights on his AIGA Raleigh chapter, so our community can see what we’re trying to achieve.

Lenny openly discussed the events his chapter puts on and how they continually get the community involved. He even had a Q&A at the end going into even further detail. After his talk we all split up into small groups and wrote down specific ideas for future events and workshops.

New ideas that were suggested:

  • More creative events: galleries, “drink and draws”, social gatherings
  • More workshops and classes relating to: UI/Web, Animation/AfterEffects, Font Creation, Best Freelance Practices
  • Special guest speakers either in person and via skype
  • Designers Potluck
  • Wall donation/Street Art Event
  • Pop-up Design Event helping local small businesses with their branding

…to name a few!

And AIGA Orlando already has a few events in the works:

  • Continuing to keep ALL future monthly board member meetings completely open to the community.
  • September Indesign Workshop (more details coming soon!)
  • Re:Solutions—a one-day conference

AIGA Orlando continues to welcome new ideas and invites your participation at the monthly meetings or through social media!

There are so much wonderfully talented and passionate creatives in Orlando and I’m excited at the amount of potential we have to make it a great social and inspiration hub for the whole community.

Stay tuned on upcoming events and to get involved follow AIGA Orlando on Facebook and Twitter.

To learn more about Lenny and the awesome work he does visit here or send him a tweet @heymonkeydesign.

By aigaorlando
Published July 20, 2015