Last Thursday, AIGA kicked off its hugely popular Gain Conference in New York City. Moderated by IDEO's Tom Kelley and with a speaker line-up that included Brian Collins and Malcolm Gladwell, the three-day event emphasized "innovative approaches to generating greater return on investment, fostering emotional connections, and providing positive brand experiences for customers." Fostering connections and promoting positivity proved difficult for one speaker, reports Benjamin Kessler of Graphics.com. In a presentation entitled "Girl Market Relevancy. Rethinking Creativity," Heidi Dangelmaier, founder of all-girls marketing firm 3iying, aimed to convey new ways to "achieve deep emotional connections with the consumer."

The 3iying team claimed that design professionals can sometimes settle into an "I Am God" mentality, according to which design skills alone are enough to create a genuine connection with an audience. Dangelmaier's view, however, is that "there are some things you just can't fake." Without the ability actually to see the world through another person's (in this case, a young woman's) eyes, all the technique and hard work in the world won't help you get through.

During the talk, I sensed some resistance to 3iying, even a slow-building resentment of their message among some conference attendees. There were at least a handful of walkouts before the Q&A session, and a pointed silence greeted 3iying's joking description of their simultaneous collaborations with brands and agencies as "threesomes." Later in the day, Stephen Doyle of Doyle Partners injected an out-of-nowhere 3iying putdown into a talk about designing for Martha Stewart Living, saying, "I have one thing to say to 3iying: 'Like, oh my God.'"

Speaking of lousy finances (we know, you thought you'd be safe here from all this sad talk, but we have a job to do), we talk a lot about the what-ifs of the museums' money or analyze the troubles and/or good days architects are having, but heading over to check out the reports from this week's Reuters Global Environment Summit, a conference featuring the heads of companies and all with a financial tint to it, there's some interesting pieces of info to digest. Actually, too many to talk about here, and maybe a little more heavily 'green' focused than what fits into the scope of our little blog, but well worth checking out the whole rundown of speakers thus far (the event concludes today, so there's likely more to come). But related more to us, we found this discussion with Bill Valentine of the mega-firm HOK really interesting, particularly that he sees that big growth is right around the corner for architecture, once everyone starts building with more emphasis on environmental concerns. Something along the lines of that 'green collar' term we've been hearing about (which, incidentally, we've always thought sounded kind of lame), that new buildings will always need to be built, or old ones redesigned, and with more concern for greening things up, such will result in more people working on it, new job requirements being made, and an overall increase in business as the transition becomes the norm. He also seems to hint at the old 'early bird gets the worm' idea, which is why he's been pushing HOK for years to get heavily wrapped up in all things green. We shall see how it all pans out.

Back to the Summit real quick, we also recommend that you check out their blog, detailing some of the more recent events and speakers.

We love Frog Design, but not just because we dig their work. We also like them because they don't mind being honest on their miscellaneous blogs. Such is the case in a report from the field by Jon Kolko about a trip to the recent Industrial Design Society of America conference in Phoenix. While Kolko was speaking there with another Frog member, he also took in a slew of the other lectures and events, and while his report isn't all that negatives (actually, he was pleasantly surprised at how decent it all was, despite his tendency toward being "critical of the content at the conference," and was happy with their decision to move into less self-congratulation and more practical information), he also isn't afraid to call out some of the more absurd elements, such as the oblivious green-ness and things like this talk by a GM designer:

Perhaps the most obtuse talk I attended was by Bryan Nesbitt, from General Motors; Nesbitt, who claims responsibility for the design of the PT Cruiser, made an obviously artificial and self-defeating attempt to spin GM as a green and progressive company. His comment that "consumers aren't ready for a green car, so we tried to figure out what percentage of green they would be ready for" was met with a dull and blunt silence.

We heard a lot of this same talk from GM, particularly when we got to talk with the company's chairman, Robert Lutz. Though, when Lutz explained it, the position was made a little more clearly, because who really did care about gas prices and environmental concerns, at least in a big way, back in the mid to late-90s? Still, we concede how foolish it all sounds now, in hindsight.

Our anonymous tips box has been exploding with great stuff this week sent in and we're hoping this keeps up so we never ever have to do any more work again ever (you'll find it over there on the right). One such tip pointed our way to design:related's great coverage of the recent Pictoplasma NYC 2008 Festival, which just concluded this past weekend. It's a treasure trove of all the speakers and conferences held during this massive turnout of designers from all walks, including character artists, animators, and illustrators. The individual posts are short, sweet, loaded with photos, and you'll want to spend some time catching up, saying all the while, "Man, I have to go next year." Oh, and they've also posted a few videos from the event. So, go! Go now!

Our beloved former co-worker, Alissa Walker, has just put together a great piece over at her occasional stomping grounds, Core 77, offering up some advice: "Conventional Wisdom: Eight Ways to Save Design Conferences." If there's one thing Alissa knows, it's design conferences. In her two years here at UnBeige, she always seemed to be coming or going to one somewhere in the world, and would offer up top secret feedback to we co-editors like "Wow, did that ever suck!" or "Wow, did that ever totally rule!" (little known fact: she also begins every sentence with "wow"). So if you're a planner person for any of the bazillion conferences that go on each month, or you've come from one wondering what exactly was the problem or why it worked so well, trust in this piece to provide great clarity. So go forth and read. And if you happen to see Alissa at that next conference (and you will), make sure you remind her that she still owes us $10 for that sno-cone in Aspen.

Between scarcity and abundance, there comes—you guessed it—a tipping point, and so who better to headline this year's "Scarcity and Abundance"-themed Pop!Tech conference than Malcolm Gladwell? The pop sociologist will be on hand at the twelfth annual ideas summit (October 22-25 in Camden, Maine) to preview and discuss the themes in his forthcoming book The Outliers, which isn't the sequel to Chip Kidd's The Learners but an examination of what separates extraordinary and average people (hint: it involves memorable hair).

Other speakers in the just-announced line-up include social media guru Clay Shirky, MIT media lab researcher and huggable robot creator Kelly Dobson, and New York Times fragrance critic Chandler Burr, who earlier this year opined that an eau de Lever House would be "an angular blend of black currant, verbena, and grapefruit." For those who can't make it to Maine, Pop!Tech tells us that Yahoo! will again be live streaming the event in its entirety, free of charge, from October 23-25. Unfortunately for Burr fans, Yahoo! has yet to perfect Smell-o-vision.

Some quick snapshots and info from out in the field. These are from our pals who ran the recently concluded, six day Sahre Victore Wilker Workshop at the Art Director's Club in New York. Here are photos from the project and a bit of info:

Created by Paul Sahre, James Victore, and Jan Wilker, the workshop exists as an annual gathering, freed of any commercial restraints or institutional ties, where experimentation and creative thought rule. This year, 40 participants from 8 countries gathered at the Art Directors Club gallery to spend 6 days. Each day was packed with design challenges, exhibitions, guest speakers, surprise trips, and one-on-one meetings. From the opening party Sunday night to the goodbye dinner on Saturday, the participants brought the energy and made the week an immersive and inspirational experience for everyone involved.

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In case you missed CNN's Principle Voices: Design for Good debate last night, you can catch up a little in this post on their site, to see what was talked about and who all participated. We'll be keeping an eye out for clips to post, too. Also, to get you up to speed a little, CNN also interviewed Mr. Design Like You Give a Damn, Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, who talks quite about about the subject of using design to help people. Here's from the intro to that:

CNN caught up with Cameron Sinclair in Biloxi and started by asking him what the difference is between design and design for good?

Cameron Sinclair: Design is about creating spaces for people to enjoy and of course, creating moments where you elevate the spirit, but design for good is figuring out a program that not only creates better spaces, but creates jobs, creates new industry and really kind of raises the conversation about how we rebuild.

Oh what a Circus, oh what a show. There were animal crackers, Panton chairs, a lime green-and-orange color scheme that extended to the M&Ms, and, oh yes, much discussion about what's working, what's not, and what's next in a media landscape that changes by the day, and often faster. Besides the event's aesthetics, we focused on the design-relevant presentations, from how it's done at Google and economist.com to a photo magazine with a worldwide staff of thousands and a robot that eats slugs! Read all about it:

For more on the Mediabistro Circus, check out the official Circus blog and FishbowlNY.

Writer Regine Debatty (pictured above, at left) tapped a key on her fluorescent pink laptop computer and the screens of the Mediabistro Circus were filled with the image of a metallic pod creature, its body an inverted teardrop of ribbed aluminum propped upon a trio of spindly legs. Design fans in the crowd immediately recognized the object as the iconic Juicy Salif citrus squeezer designed by Philippe Starck for Alessi and yours, gift-boxed, for approximately $75 ($200 for the limited edition gold version). Debatty asked the audience, "Have you ever tried to use Philippe Starck's juicer?"

While Starck has defended his creation, which he says he designed to get people talking rather than effectively eviscerating lemons, he more recently declared that design in general "is absolutely void of usefulness," a claim that was addressed in different ways by the second two speakers in yesterday's Circus session on user experience design: Debatty of we-make-money-not-art.com and Tjeerd Hoek (above, at right), executive creative director of frog design and a veteran of Microsoft.

In a talk that Circus host Manoush Zomorodi called "the trippiest presentation of the last few days...that only someone with a charming French accent could pull off," Debatty clicked from a youtube video of the nonsense machines of Nobumichi Tosa to Toshio Iwai's Tenori-On electronic music player for Yamaha to the shiny, happy, and ultra-slick world of Takashi Murakami, who she compared to Marcel Duchamp in reverse, "bringing artistic experience out of the gallery."

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