Pittsburgh has already stumped me. Determined to authenticate the statement of our taxi driver that there are more bridges here than anywhere in the world except Amsterdam, I've found official Allegheny County figures between 1400 and 2000+, depending on classifications of length (most agree anything less than 8 feet is not a bridge). But I can get no definitive answer versus Amsterdam or even Venice, Italy, mentioned several times as a front runner as well. I'm going to go ahead and rule that a footpath over a canal will not count as a bridge, so Pittsburgh wins, hands down.

It's widely agreed that Pittsburgh has the most beautiful bridges of any U.S. city, many of them architecturally significant. Pittsburgh's claim to be the center of the Industrial Revolution is also undisputed; it was during an introduction by our hosts Thursday morning we learned Pittsburgh was once so choked with smoke from nearby steel factories that streetlights stayed on all day.

So this is Pittsburgh: commerce, connections and confluence. The city's key themes crossed neatly into the first day's session, a comprehensive overview of the national board's agenda. This was a staggering list of initiatives, programming and events, many of which I had never heard about before. Beyond the national convention, there are dozens of smaller conferences and programs mentioned that sent me digging through the national AIGA site for dates and locations. Most notable from last year, and this year part of the Boston series of events, is the Design Legends Gala. A video clip showed dozens of legends gathered on stage together in what I found to be the best expression of how the AIGA community not only supports, but celebrates its members.

Reports from the board's various task forces were similarly inspiring. Mentoring and scholarship programs are thriving through partnerships with other foundations and the dedicated time committment of designers. The particularly exciting Design Ignites Change program will challenge chapters to take on a sustainability issue. Shel Perkins spoke about how AIGA continues provide support for our practices, picking through the messy matters of contracts and intellectual property and organizing the findings into cohesive documents.

One of the most far-reaching national programs is the Design for Democracy initative, making voting and other civic responsibilities easier to facilitate and comprehend. This was later noted as a perfect example of how to illustrate the social relevance of design, and ties in to one of the most critical goals of AIGA: the ongoing quest for design advocates, those who can help us to educate our audience about the importance of design.

Energized by a restorative cocktail hour, each chapter presented a one-minute skit to close the evening. Although often irreverent (udders, showgirls and Mardi Gras beads were prominently featured), it was inspiring to see how many new chapters were in attendance. Out of 52, 12 chapters had been started in the last two years. That means we're doing something right.

Dinner at Eleven introduced us to members of the Boston delegation and the downtown dining scene (mostly deserted at 10pm). We have yet to truly taste Pittsburgh's cultural hub. But with a full day of programming today, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. And in this town, we're sure to cross it soon.

First of all, I stand corrected on the bridge record. It's Venice, not Amsterdam, that beats out Pittsburgh. That's what happens when you take your cab driver's word on things. No offense to cabbies, you know, it's just the whole "check your sources" thing.

So, this morning we started the day with a presentation by one Vicki Clark, of BoardSource, who talked about the basic roles and responsibilities of nonprofit boards. Fascinating topic and well delivered, too. We learned techniques for building a more effective board - something we can always use a little help with.

After that, we broke into small groups for lunch at various places throughout the city to discuss common topics. I joined the business outreach strategies session and we ate at a greasy chinese place called Mandarin Gourmet. Despite the lipstick on my tea cup (not mine), the service was a bit better than we had at Eleven last night ("Yes, as I mentioned twice earlier, I would like another beer, thank you"). Sorry, I don't mean to whine - the Pittsburghians have been kind and friendly. So, at this breakout, I participated in some excellent conversation with a handful of people from around the country discussing ways to have effective outreach to business and community. We came away with a list of shared ideas that I'm sure we'll be working on here in LA in the coming year. The group included: Alain Frank and Jenny Profy, Philadelphia; Jose Nieto, Boston; Stephanie Cunningham and Tana Martin, Miami; Andrew Ladson, Maryland; Lori Zarate, SF; and, Brian Felgar, Las Vegas. There were a few more people, but those are all the cards I have. Check us out here.


Back at 2:30, sharp! Broke into other groups to discuss more common ideas and this time I sat at a table with another group (sorry, no cards or video) to discuss strategies for increasing membership. Tomorrow morning one of our team will present our brainstorming results.

Currently, I'm enjoying a small break before we head over to the Andy Warhol Museum for a cocktail party hosted by Adobe. Can't wait for that.

Oh, by the way, this article/blogh was mentioned and shown to the room this morning and everyone was encouraged to come on by and post a comment. Apparently, everyone is very busy, probably digesting all the content we reviewed today and getting ready for tonight.

It's Monday morning and I'm back at my office, 2,477 miles from where I was 24 hours ago. What an amazing event. Sorry for the lapse in posting here from Friday night until now, but it's been a little busy. This was my first leadership retreat and it was really nice to meet so many other people from around the country who all share the common cause of contributing to and improving this organization, and ultimately the direction of our collective careers. I'll try to summarize the rest of the weekend from my point of experience and maybe a few others will chime in with theirs.


Thanks to Adobe for their great party at the Warhol Museum and for their ongoing partnership. It was a great party and really cool venue. The action picked up a little more afterwards, down the street at Finnigan's Wake. After that, I won't even mention how far down we spiraled in our search for blowing off a little steam, suffice to say "who was that dancing with his shirt off, bumping with the locals"?

Saturday morning started with presentations from our Friday "Meet the Challenge" breakout sessions. This content actually serves as the foundation for continuing to achieve our organization's multiple ongoing goals. I sat with a group of others from similar size chapters and we discussed ways to increase membership, with an ultimate goal of doubling it by 2014. Lofty aspiration, for sure, but certainly not unreachable.

This was followed by more breakout sessions and I was back downstairs to discuss websites, again. Moderated by Marty Hall, Seattle, we had a productive session discussing many items related to starting and maintaining a website and how it all relates back to the Internet Starter Kit that Liz Danzico is spearheading. It seems to me that there is so much to cover here, that we could probably use our own mini-conference. Great stuff, though, and Liz demo'd more of the starter kit functionality that Third Wave (mostly Thomas Sychay) is developing for us all.

Back upstairs for one of the most inspiring presentations I've ever seen, given by Bill Strickland, President and CEO of the Manchster Craftmen's Guild. He showed us how he's been making huge strides in attempting to rescue at-risk school children by using art to teach them life skills.

We followed this with a general session where Rick Grefe outlined local and national initiatives for the coming year and Bill Grant spoke of his upcoming vision as national President.

Despite our strong desire to nap, the LA crew met in the lobby to discuss how we will be bringing this all home. Definitely some exciting things to come here in LA.

Of course, we followed this up with another party, this time sponsored by the San Francisco chapter, where SF president Christopher Simmons and his team brought a little west coast style, including Anchor Steam (my favorite beer, thanks guys) and fog machines. Followed this up with the exploration of the Southside of Pittsburgh bar scene. We found a place called the Laughing Moose, where someone found a beer bong hanging on the wall and, well... let's just leave it that.


What an inspirational and informative few days. If anyone who attended is reading this and has photos to share, please post links here or send them to me and we'll add a slide show.

Pictures just in, courtesy of SF.

Thank you, Erin Wells from Boston, for sharing these photos.

Eric Heiman from San Francisco sent these photos.

I, too, apologize for the lapse in communication. So sleep deprived by the time San Fran doled out our convict tattoos, I knew I’d be doing time that evening unless I took a nap.



Besides, I needed my sleep to focus on the programming and communications workshops. Programming varies greatly from chapter to chapter but it seems like we all have similar problems. Low attendance (no attendance), the question to include students, finding series that are relevant to practice, fundraising. It was interesting to speak with smaller chapters to learn what worked for them, and share our more effective events—I noted the great response to our BusinessMatters and Shop Talk series. Another idea popular with many at the conference was a cultural exchange program with another chapter.



In the ultimate brainstorming exercise, we broke into groups by size of chapter, divided again into groups focusing on different areas of membership, and created ways to grow AIGA. I contributed to the community awareness and outreach presentation where we consolidated the non-AIGA population into groups like educators/students, media, other non-profits, corporate partners, sponsors; all of whom could be connected through the programs and initiatives of AIGA. We wanted to shift the focus away from designers, and towards design, concrete benefits that can be utilized and shared by the greater public. This is the cause I've been trying to dedicate myself to as a writer, and I'm looking forward to implementing some of the methods we discussed in my quest to place thoughtful and accessible articles about design and designers.



Back out in the humidity again, on our way to the next event, I realized how much I heart Pittsburgh. Bright, gracious, clean and green. A few of the public art pieces I noted: urban Easter Island heads at the entrance to an office park, 3D city maps weaving with ADD like Howard Finster sculptures, a killer watercolor gallery, bridges in green and yellow and orange, a huge Aztec fortress/sea urchin fountain complete with street performers—as a trio in black tube tops and biker shorts prepared to remove their clear raincoats and umbrellas, a women on a bench called them out: "Must be Carnegie-Mellon students."



The Andy Warhol Museum is a reason in itself to venture here –seven floors of glitter and hot pink. Time capsules and every issue of Interview he art directed take up almost an entire floor themselves. Most surreal were the Silver Clouds; about twenty pillows of mylar inflated with a balance of helium and oxygen so that they twirled sleepily from corner to corner like dying supermarket balloons. We laid on the floor, staring up at our drifting reflections.



We also went kayaking, yes, kayaking on the Allegheny River. Kayak Pittsburgh rents 'em right in front of PNC Park. We paddled upstream to the island named Washington’s Landing (yes, that Washington, passing through during his General days), crossing under 5 bridges in about 30 minutes. We would have headed down to the confluence, but there was a Jimmy Buffett concert about to start at the stadium and waters were churning from the high number of Parrotheads making a beeline for the best slips.



I spotted public staircases—something I'm obsessive about here in Hollywood. They've got 712 of them ascending the huge hills that frame downtown Pittsburgh. It’s an urban canyon.



Wandering the maze of green and clean, the words of the best speaker I've ever heard—just hours before at the conference—stuck in my mind. Inspired by the local Frank Lloyd Wright house Fallingwater, Bill Strickland set out to create a community center that focused on bringing light and good design to urban kids. "Remember," he told us, "there’s nothing that sunlight and flowers and gourmet food and art and music can’t cure." He is phenomenally and brilliantly correct. Couldn't even take notes because I couldn’t divert my focus enough to dig through my bag for my notebook. Yes, he's that good. Please, I beg of you, take a look at him and his work at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild.



We closed the conference by doing something remarkable. Rounding up the top, say, 12 issues of the weekend, we were each given AIGA 'dollars' to allocate our preference for what were the most important initiatives to pursue. Of course my obsession with community awareness sent me stumping for communications and the importance of valuable and informed design writing. It was exciting to see the agenda for the next year calculated in a matter of minutes, in a most democratic and seamless fashion. Congress should take a cue.



I've been keeping track and I've mentioned the word design 62,556 times in the last five days. I still don't believe I've fully discussed all the issues that AIGA has committed itself to investigating on our behalf. Read your Communique, check out the national site, and stay tuned here to find out what AIGA is doing to promote your career. I left on Sunday feeling pretty confident that our discipline is about to be radically reformed. And I'm 100% dedicated to the cause. Yes, I heart Pittsburgh, but I really, really heart design (62,557).

Rob, Alissa ::

A great synopsis of the week(ends?) events. Feels like I'm still there in many ways, and now I have your documentary to help keep alive what was by far the most personal, epiphany laden national leadership retreat that I've been to in the four years that I've been attending these things. Pixburgh, and your Pittsblog Rock. Thanks for sharing.

Now, who else has pictures?

moo.

Marc

Hey, did anyone else notice that a google for Pittsbloghyields this page. Go figure.

Back to Los Angeles by noon on Sunday and back on my mountain bike by sundown. Sunset rides are the best. Sunset rides with my dad are better. Being able to share the passion. Making that connection. The leadership retreat to me is about making that connection. Filling a room with 200+ people and knowing that we all have that immediate connection. Instant friendships, inspiration and pure excitement. Its a great feeling... a natural high. I was buzzing all weekend. Now, how can I bottle all this good stuff and bring it to others? Any ideas?

The AIGA Austin photo set is up on Flickr, and for the other people who use Flickr, Liz set up a AIGA Leadership Retreat group. Anyone can join and add photos to the group pool.

It's been a week since Pittsburgh, and still all I can say is WOW! I struggle how to bring the passion and excitement I feel back to the membership. You know, the ones who are cynical, ambivalent, etc. I'm working on a summary of the weekend for our web site and hopefully, it will be eloquent enough to move people to action. I'll be happy to post it here when it's done.

Emily Carr, from DC, sent these photos. Watch out!

So glad you all had fun in the 'Burgh! Thanks for visiting and making it such a great weekend on our neighborhood! I still have the broken skateboard in my trunk...will get it back to Mr. Brady sometime soon with a thanks from the LA Chapter!

Hey gang,

Still recovering from my whirlwind tour to Pixburgh and the Aspen Design Summit. It is great to hear all of the positive comments about the retreat. From my perspective, I have never witnessed such an energetic, enthusiastic and professional group of chapter leaders! This is very exciting, and I am confident we are going to accomplish a great deal over the next few years. I look forward to working with all of you to advance the design profession. Keep up the great work out there! While you're at it, keep using your restraint and discretion when posting those retreat pics! Now, everyone go and register for Boston and buy your tickets to the Gala! The conference is going to rock your world!

Your humble servant,

Bill Grant - a.k.a. the Party Prez!