Bayer Material Science
Color Competence Facility Tour
Friday, April 11 - 11:00AM-2:30PM

Mix Art and Science into a Colorful Array at Bayer Material Science's Design Center

Tour the wonderful world of color and special effects, interact with material experts and bring your colorful questions on April 11. IDSA Mideast District Conference attendees are invited to explore Bayer Material Science's Design Center at the company’s Color Competence Facility in nearby Newark, Ohio. There you'll tour a design gallery filled with innovative applications, learn how custom colors are mixed for high-tech thermoplastics and witness actual injection molding of sample parts. During this interactive tour, see how Bayer’s customers move from color concept to final application … and enjoy some lunch as well!

Buses will depart from The Columbus, A Renaissance Hotel according to the following schedule on Friday, April 11:

Printable Information: Bayer Material Science Facility Tour

To RSVP, please e-mail wayne.carringer.b@bayer.com. Please indicate your desired departure time.

If you’d like to head out on your own, Bayer’s Design Center is located at:

1111 O'Neill Dr. SE
Hebron, OH 43025

If driving on your own, please RSVP to wayne.carringer.b@bayer.com so we can have an accurate count for lunch.

For driving directions from The Columbus, A Renaissance Hotel, please click here.

Lextant
Studio Tour
Friday, April 11 - 8:00-10:00PM

At Lextant, we're passionate about people and design. We offer our clients a unique "design clarity" that uncovers new truths and opportunities from a deep understanding of customers - their experiences today and desires for tomorrow. We are proud to be recognized as design research and user-experience partners for industry leaders such as Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Samsung, American Eagle, and our other valued clients. We look forward to seeing you all at IDSA Mideast and hope you enjoy what we have in store. So come, relax, and get inspired here at our place.

Priority Designs
Studio Tour and Social
Sunday, April 13 - 12:00-3:00PM

Priority Designs is an industrial design firm located in Columbus, Ohio. Among our specialties, we have a love for designing sporting goods and wanted to reflect that in our environment. Luckily, we stumbled across a racquetball and health club facility for sale which we bought and renovated into 32,000 sq. ft of sports themed office space.

Former racquetball courts became wide open studios without cubicles to promote open conversations and brainstorming. The 20ft. ceilings also allow for the occasional Nerf gun battle. White boards are abundant - even incorporated in the tops of coffee tables for sketching ideas and thoughts. The former juice bar became our kitchen area and is a great place for the staff to relax, meet for discussion, and play racquetball, foosball or “wii” on the large screen TV. Food is a critical part of our creative process – so breakfast, lunch, ice cream and refreshments are also frequently brought in for brainstorming and meetings. Our culture is based on creative and non-traditional methods of problem solving and innovation so we wanted our environment as relaxed and comfortable as possible. It’s also not unusual for a designer to bring in their dog for a day at the studio – a little canine therapy.

Recycling is a big part of our culture too and we reclaimed used store fixtures for shelving and re-used some of the building’s glass racquetball walls to make conference room tables. We found a used rock climbing wall from another facility going out of business and installed it in one of our studios. Lastly, we kept one of the original racquetball courts which double as a basketball/volleyball court. Our space is attractive to our clients, too! It is quite common from them to take a break and join us in the basketball court!

We have worked hard on our office space and we believe it is a true reflection of our product development work and culture. We’re celebrating our 17th anniversary this year. In that time our staff has grown to 48 and our attrition rate is negligible. Employees come here and stay and we think our environment has a lot to do with that.

Please check out our website for more info our company. www.prioritydesigns.com.

Design Research Workshop
Research Section and Columbus Chapter Event
Friday, April 11 - 2:30-4:00PM

A workshop conducted by the IDSA Central Ohio Chapter

"Benefits and Basics:
Design Research that Successfully Translates Insight into Innovation"

Design research has become standard practice at many design firms and companies. It is also an activity that has a proven history of leading to new product innovation. Yet, many professionals, students, and educators remain unsure of best practices, the basics, tangible
benefits, and how to effectively translate insights into innovation.

The workshop includes instructive presentations from Lextant, Sonic Rim, and Procter & Gamble; industry leaders in design research. Successful methodologies and ways to overcome the challenges of design research will be addressed. The presentations will be followed by an interactive panel discussion that will focus on addressing client,
consultant, in-house, and student needs.

The workshop is open for all conference attendees. Those not registered for the
conference can also attend for $20.

Imaginit / Alias Workshop and Demo
An Autodesk Event
Sunday, April 13 - 10:00AM-12:00PM

Details on this workshop are coming soon!

Portfolio Review @ DWR
Sponsored by Continuum, DWR, and Autodesk
Sunday, April 13 - 10:00AM-12:00PM

Calling all Students and Professionals!
This is a great opportunity to share your work and learn from each other on how to best portray yourself and your work in an interview! You’ll get feedback on your presentation style, portfolio layout & content, etc. from top professionals in your field. What an
opportunity!

DWR is holding this private event for us; rearranging their showroom into small pods of furniture to create comfortable settings for personal portfolio reviews. Not only has DWR given us their space to use, they will also be raffling off designer furniture at the end of the event!!

This is guaranteed to be a well attended event, so plan to come to the conference with your portfolio in hand. You don’t want to miss out!

Check the box when you register to let us know you’re coming!

Student Merit Awards Presentations
Saturday, April 12 - 5:00PM-6:30PM

Banquet Dinner and Student Merit Awards Ceremony
Sponsored by Procter and Gamble
Saturday, April 12 - 8:00PM - 10:00PM

Opening Reception: Lextant Soiree & Mideast "Throwdown"
(a Pecha Kucha-esque event)
Sponsored by Lextant
Friday, April 11 - 8:00PM - 11:00PM

To kick off the 2008 IDSA Mideast conference, Lextant is pleased to host a Mideast ‘Throwdown’ (a Pecha Kucha-esque event). For those of you not familiar, this is an event that’s part show and tell and part open-mike night -It's your chance to let people know what’s on your mind!
 
The rules are simple: Show 20 slides and talk about each for 20 seconds. Then sit the hell down. You can talk about anything that inspires you or you are passionate about …you can even tell us about your trip to Istanbul.
 
So if you have a point of view and 20 power-point slides, email Lauren by April 4th to reserve your slot.
 
lauren@lextant.com

(btw it’s pronounced `peh-chak-cha and is Japanese for “chatter”)

Banquet Dinner Happy Hour
Sponsored by FITCH
Saturday, April 12 - 7:00PM - 8:00PM

Saturday Night After-Party
Sponsored by Autodesk
Saturday, April 12 - 10:00PM +