Join social media pros, brand marketers, entrepreneurs, and VCs at Social Curation Summit on December 12 in Los Angeles to get the scoop on social news, brand loyalty, and next-generation storytelling platforms. The summit is the must-attend event for anyone interested in the emerging technologies that are transforming the way we share, follow, and engage online—Pinterest and Tumblr, anyone? Connect with expert speakers, including those from StumbleUpon, Tumblr, Storify, and Snip.it. Check out the speaker lineup and program here. Time is running out to save, so register now. Register before midnight to save $100.

(Photo: UnBeige)

Among the highlights of this weekend’s inaugural Designers and Books Fair was Debbie Millman’s on-stage conversation with Steven Heller and Louise Fili. Perched on a Florence Knoll two-seater in an auditorium at the Fashion Institute of Technology, the pair discussed everything from the difference between a logo and a brand (“about $500,000,” according to Fili) to the joys of miniature mannequins (“I love these things,” enthused Heller, who credits the couple’s 2002 book on the subject with nearly pricing him out of the mini-mannequin market. “These are sculptures of commerce, raw commercial art.”). Millman’s well-constructed questions touched on many aspects of their nearly 30-year union, including Heller’s marriage proposal. It will come as no suprise that books played a critical role in his popping the question.

Picture it: summertime, Italy, the early ’80s. Fili and Heller were staying in Tuscany, and kept bumping into two of their design-savvy friends, Paula Scher and Henrietta Condak, who were staying nearby. “It became this game, because we were all on a search, out to get the best stuff in Italy–the best books–before anyone else did,” explained Fili. One day, she and Heller arrived at Florence’s Centro Di with just 30 minutes to spare before the bookshop closed for lunch. They noticed that Scher and Condak had also just walked in. “I saw the look on Steve’s face, because he knows this is not a good thing, when he has competition,” said Fili. “So he had to get away from them as fast as possible and get to the books.” A bit of small talk ensued: How’s the trip? What’s new? Heller saw an exit strategy. “Oh, we’re getting married,” he told Scher and Condak, before making a beeline for the books. “He left me to explain,” said Fili. “I didn’t even know what I had to say about it yet, because I didn’t really have any details.” But all’s well that ends well. Added a grinning Heller after Fili had told the tale, “I got the books and I got the dame.”

This year’s TED Conference was a doozy, in large part due to “The Design Studio” session organized by guest curators Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell. Among the engaging creative types they convinced to take the TED Stage (temporarily adorned with Maira Kalman illustrations for the occasion) was Thomas P. Campbell, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In his TED Talk, now available online, Campbell reveals why an orgy is preferable to a bacchanal, his eureka moment with tapestries, and why nothing compares to the presentation of significant objects in a well-told narrative: “what the curator does, the interpretation of a complex, esoteric subject, in a way that retains the integrity of the subject, that unpacks it for a general audience.”

Dwell is looking inward for its latest partnership. We hear that the shelter magazine-turned-bicoastal media empire will announce tomorrow that it’s teaming up with the American Society of Interior Designers. With a membership that includes around 18,000 practicing interior designers and 10,500 students, the trade group will move its national conference to Dwell on Design, which caps off Dwell Design Week in Los Angeles. The leaders of 500 ASID chapters nationwide and board members of the organization will join the eighth annual installment of modernism-infused home tours, product demos, and presentations, set to begin on June 21, 2013 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Whether you’re a design firm principal or just a wildly ambitious design star-in-the-making, you’ll find news you can use at HOW magazine’s Mind Your Own Business (MYOB) Conference. The three-day event, which kicks off on October 17 in Nashville, promises a program chock full of business advice geared to the challenges faced by creative-, design- and marketing-firm pros. Speakers such as David C. Baker (ReCourses), Julien Smith (Trust Agents), and Mark O’Brien (Newfangled) will fill you with ideas on “how to improve corporate positioning, grow the bottom line, and achieve your company’s full potential,” the organizers promise. UnBeige readers can save $100 on full-conference registration by entering discount code UB12 at checkout. See? You’re already saving money!

Ready your tympanic membranes, design fans, because the fall runneth over with auditory delights. Mere weeks after the publication of David Byrne’s How Music Works (McSweeney’s), the Yale School of Architecture will present “The Sound of Architecture,” an interdisclipinary symposium exploring the auditory dimension of architecture (you may recall that Byrne himself is a pioneer of the building-as-musical instrument mode).

Yale professor Kurt Forster and Ph.D. candidate Joseph Clarke have lined up a veritable orchestra of experts—from fields as diverse as archaeology, media studies, musicology, philosophy, and the history of technology—to address the largely unconsidered aural dimension of architecture. Sessions include a keynote lecture by Elizabeth Diller (Diller Scofidio + Renfro), who will reflect on the role of sound in her firm’s early media artworks and its more recent architectural interventions at New York’s Lincoln Center; Brigitte Shim (Shim-Sutcliffe Architects) on the architectural calibration of a house designed for a mathematician and amateur musician; and John Durham Peters of the University of Iowa on the “theologically embedded soundspace” that is the Mormon Tabernacle. Also not to be missed is Yale professor Brian Kane’s discussion of “Acousmatic Phantasmagoria,” which only sounds like the affliction of a doomed Edgar Allen Poe protagonist. The symposium, which is free and open to the public (pre-registration will be available soon here), takes place October 4-6 at the Yale School of Architecture. Fingers crossed for an opening Frank Sinatra medley by Bob Stern!

How is the business of design changing around the world? What are the real innovations shaping the design industry? Why is it important to play and dream? Answers to these questions and many more are on the agenda at the Global Design Forum, a new one-day event from the people that bring you the London Design Festival, which begins in a couple of weeks. Mark your calendar for September 18, when an incredible line-up of design stars will take the stage at the Central Saint Martins campus in London to debate the issues and pressure points that are affecting the design industry. “The aim is to set the global design agenda and inspire positive new directions for the sector,” say the organizers, who have convinced everyone from Alberto Alessi to Zaha Hadid to speak at the inaugural confab. Among the other design minds on hand at the forum will be Thomas Heatherwick, Yves Behar, Tom Dixon, Artek’s Mirkku Kullberg, and Design Business Association CEO Deborah Dawton. Peruse the full program and then reserve your ticket.

The Social Curation Summit kicks off tomorrow, July 31, in New York City, and time is running out to register (full-access passes go up $100 at the door). Join social media pros, brand marketers, entrepreneurs, and VCs for sessions revolving around brand loyalty, next-generation storytelling platforms, and filtering. Attend expert panels, including “Inspiration for DIY Communities,” “Leveraging Community for Curation and Commerce,” “The Social Media Mixtape,” and more. The summit is the must-attend event for anyone interested in the emerging technologies that are transforming the way we share, follow, and engage online—Pinterest and Tumblr, anyone? Connect with more than 40 expert speakers, including Derek Gottfrid (VP of Product, Tumblr), Scott Belsky (CEO, Behance), Oliver Starr (Chief Evangelist, Pearltrees), and Steven Rosenbaum (Author and CEO, Magnify.net). Check out the full speaker lineup and program here. Time is running out to save, so register now and save $100.

Ready to build your brand or generate revenue for your business? Make sure to check out Mediabistro’s Social Media Marketing Boot Camp online conference and workshop, starting tomorrow, Thursday, June 7. Over eight weeks, you’ll learn from social media pros how to launch a social media marketing campaign and measure its results as well as implement a social media marketing strategy, from Facebook and Twitter to content management and data analysis. Keep reading for a list of the innovative types who will present live keynote speeches via video and practical how-to sessions. Read more