volunteering

I'm volunteering next month for AIGA's NEXT Conference in Denver. And I'm pretty excited! Not only because it's free since I'm volunteering, but also, honestly, because I will be volunteering. I like doing those behind the scenes make it work sorts of things. I know other people are planning and organizing and I'll just show up and do whatever they tell me to, but I like that. I like that I'll be involved with it and meeting and conversing with lots of designers. There will be a purpose to our interaction at a registration table, helping someone set up a workshop, help gather a speaker's materials, etc. So I expect lots of good conversations. My friend Liz from college is coming out for the occasion, too. Well, she's a friend from my college, not exactly a friend from college. If that makes any sense. We met after college and have lots of mutual friends. She was an RA and a design major and such. And she just drove across the country a few weeks ago, just for fun. I got a random call : hey can I stay with you? of course you may, random-friend. I more or less pulled the same line on her friend Kristin as I drove through Nashville fall. Anyway: hopefully the conference and connections will provide whatever design fix I'll be missing by skipping Design Camp in MN this year (gasp: you heard that. five years running and I'm skipping this year! eek!)... and perhaps the design infused environment will provide a dash of perspective on what it means in my life to be a designer: freelance, full-time, lifestyle, my paradigm of the world at large... etc.