What I’m thinking about today: Conferences

I had a meeting with the Service Design Fringe gang tonight. That’s their story to tell.

It got me thinking about conferences, design conferences specifically.

One of the things I’m most excited about at the moment is DOTI and the potential for a bigger, longer, greater DOTI. How do we embody the spirit of DOTI’s honest conversations and inclusive atmosphere at a wider scale? Probably not by running a conference! Or at least not one with a capital C.

We talked tonight about formats you find at other events but not usually at design events. Debates were mentioned. Nice. Which made me think about how the lovely We Are Sigma brunch had fireside chats at Camp Digital this year. A simple format but one that evokes a feeling of an intimate space for discussion. I believe there was no fire involved!

At last week’s DOTI, Jim Ralley read out his ‘story’ almost as a spoken word piece. I found it really engaging, quite relaxing and just a surprisingly good way to deliver an opinion. What about poetry or book readings?

Which makes me think of festivals. And making. And workshops where you create something not just deepen the pockets of 3M! Our lovely Charlotte and Maya ran a ‘Make a quick and dirty chatbot’ at Mozfest last year. How bloody great is that.

A clever, ex tutor colleague of mine recently said to me. I always thought of teaching not as helping people to learn something but inspiring learning in them.

I think that’s a nice goal for BIG DOTI (working title!)

Please note: The title of this piece infers that this may be a ‘style of post’ I’m trying out. Truth is most of my writing will likely be a continuous stream of consciousness. And my own personal ideas notebook!