Last week was spent at Icograda Design Week in Seattle. For the past year, I was on the organizing committee. I wrote most of the materials. I spent many Friday mornings on conference calls discussing event details. I made some good friends with smart people and got what I wanted out the event, which was promixity to my primary market of designers and design firms.

However, I’m disappointed with the experience. I’m not a designer, so I wasn’t the primary target audience. I won’t rehash the blow-by-blow. You can read a critical analysis from designer Marian Bantjes at the design blog Speak Up. But I will say that for the most part I was bored with the speakers and the event structure. On more than one occasion I caught myself looking at my hangnails and thinking, “I have no idea what this person is saying” or “So what IS the solution?”

That said, I have some ideas on how to make the next Design Week the passion-stoker it could be.

1. Radically rethink the structure.
Make the international conference like the student workshop. Put practicing designers in small groups with a leader, make them solve a problem and then present the solutions. Participants would spend one day workshoping a topic. The next day the leader would present the ideas to the entire conference.

Two of the big themes in the speaker presentations were cultivating design leadership and lifelong learning. Ironically, few suggestions on how to be a design leader were presented. One of the workgroup topics could be Teaching Young Designers to Lead. How would they develop curriculum? What resources would be available? And what better way to encourage ongoing professional learning than to actually have to think, listen and design while attending a conference.

2. Treat the show like a live performance.
Have a dress rehearsal. Coach the speakers. Time them. Plan ahead. Get them interpreters, if needed. Please. It’s not good, or respectful, when three people in the front row fall asleep while someone’s speaking. Or for speaker after speaker to run past their alloted time, cutting in to the question-and-answer session.

3. Take a stand on the theme.
One thing I regret about my role on the organizing committee is not speaking up about an idea we presented for the promotional materials. Designer and organising committee member John Close and I suggested an image of a land fill, basically a big heap of trash, with the headline, “Our Legacy?”

Icograda’s stance was that the idea was too controversial and strayed from the theme of “Design on a Changing Planet.” So we went with a safe NASA satellite image of Earth. I’m happy with the work John and I did, but how can a conference stimulate discussion if the organizers are not courageous enough to confrote the theme with a compelling idea?

“Design on a Changing Planet” was too vague, or it was never simplified into a compelling argument, hence none of the speakers really nailed the emotional core of globalization: What hurts more than anything about design and marketing is that what we produce likely ends up in the dump. There’s a destructive system in place to create the products and things that are the root of many of this planet’s problems. How do we combat this with design? How do we improve the experience of living on this planet?

4. Refuse to spend money on items that will end up in the trash.
Again, read Marian Bantjes on the topic of goody bags.

Why not rally the sponsors to pony up for a cold, hard cash reward for the designer or team that solved the conference’s big question in the most creative way? The team could even donate their award to a charity of their choice. Maybe their could be a tie-in with Sappi’s Ideas that Matter campaign.

5. Have sponsored stretch breaks.
Bring in yoginis to lead a mini-yoga session in between speakers. If you’re not stretching you’re body, you’re not stretching your mind. Besides, yoginis generally have taut bodies and are pretty to look at. Designers love to look at pretty things.

So there you have it.