2017 Midwest Conference | Schedule

FRIDAY April 28

Workshop Session 1 | How to Break into the Design Industry While Maintaining your Integrity, Pride and Emotional Stability
Michael Kahwaji, IDSA, says getting a job in the design field is becoming exponentially more competitive every year; it can break you down! He will share soft and hard skills needed to put your best foot forward when seeking an internship or full-time employment. Kahwaji will review what works and what doesn’t during your student years and during the job hunting experience. Whether you’re a student or a professional in the market for a new job, this is a must see presentation. Come for the cold, hard truth of what you’ll need to get your dream job. There won’t be any sugar coating or shoulders to cry on in this workshop, during which professionals are encouraged to join and share their thoughts.

Speaker: Michael Kahwaji, IDSA, Whirlpool

If you are risk averse, don't come to this presentation. If you value your career growth, don't come to this presentation. If you want to learn something meaningful, don't come to this presentation. If you have better options on how to spend your time, don't come to this presentation.

But if you have decided to be yourself because all the others have been chosen, then DO come to this presentation.

Join members of the GE Healthcare Global Design team for an interactive and immersive experience using design thinking and maybe some other tools.

Speaker: Lawrence “Murf” Murphy, IDSA

This workshop will be powered by PARK, which guides design managers, design directors and vice presidents of design across all industries. We support design leaders in advancing design into their organizations. With almost 20 years of experience in design management consulting, we consult on design strategies, design organization, design processes and tools and design culture. 

Natalie Schraufnagel, IDSA, will lead participants through an introduction of design management and design leadership then explore some PARK case studies from the design industry. She will wrap it up with a hands-on activity based on a case study for participants to collaborate, create and share-out learnings.

Speaker: Natalie Schraufnagel, IDSA, PARK USA & Grow USA

Workshop Session 2 | How to Break into the Design Industry While Maintaining your Integrity, Pride and Emotional Stability
Michael Kahwaji, IDSA, says getting a job in the design field is becoming exponentially more competitive every year; it can break you down! He will share soft and hard skills needed to put your best foot forward when seeking an internship or full-time employment. Kahwaji will review what works and what doesn’t during your student years and during the job hunting experience.

Whether you’re a student or a professional in the market for a new job, this is a must see presentation. Come for the cold, hard truth of what you’ll need to get your dream job. There won’t be any sugar coating or shoulders to cry on in this workshop, during which professionals are encouraged to join and share their thoughts.

Speaker: Michael Kahwaji, IDSA, Whirlpool

HOT Sketching: A Hands-on Drawing Workshop *note bring paper and prismacolor pencils to work with
Joe Ellice, adjunct professor at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, demonstrates how to create hot sketches that grab the viewer’s attention with verve, energy, style and excitement! Various mediums will be used through a variety of subject matters including transportation.

Workshop | Joe Ellice, MIAD

See inside Milwaukee Tool’s process for designing new to world products. Learn about Milwaukee Tool’s history—identifying key points in time that helped shape the company we know today.

Through the newly launched Cheater Pipe Wrench, learn how the design team discovered unmet user needs through observation and empathy. See the process unfold from a radical wrench concept into a fully functional product that disrupted a stagnant plumbing category. Get hands-on with product demos to experience the innovation with Steve Hyma, industrial design lead.

Speaker: Steve Hyma, Milwaukee Tool

Provocative Thinking: Why and How Do We Embrace It?
More than grasping the practice and implementation of the the fundamentals of industrial design, we need to exercise the often-overlooked critical skill of probing and intentionally uncovering the massive layers of “noise” surrounding the object. The onus falls squarely on our discipline to be able to go deep to the core and connect a direct statement of relevancy to the primary need for the very existence of that object in the macro market. Jeevak Badve, IDSA, finds this involves the capacity of being able to project the state of being uncomfortable and more importantly—the ability to suspend everyday accepted traditions and beliefs—onto your client, boss, sponsor or maker of the object. Provocative thinking may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but it’s a skill that has to be understood, experienced, calibrated and mastered for rightful and meaningful impact.

Speaker: Jeevak Badve, IDSA Sundberg-Ferar

• Picking partners. So many of us spin our wheels in failed relationships. How do we pick good partners?
• Celebrating designers. The industrial designer name and personality has been generally hidden from the public. See how we as designers are a valuable component of product marketing and the product success.
• Fast paced design. The market moves fast. Designing at a quick pace makes design more relevant.
• Ignoring the critics. Some of the most successful products were shot down by the critics.
• Global thinking. Tough to manage but worth the risk.
• Education and Industry. Key to success but most often ignored.
• Balancing personal life and career. Without support you can hit a brick wall.
• Big Bets. When to take the big steps that will catapult you ahead.
• Offshore Manufacturing. The risks and rewards.
• Favorite hack. Playing harmonica at a lecture.

Speaker: Paul Rowan, PaulRowan.Ca

SATURDAY April 29

With Passion
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou

In today’s increasingly complex world, our products and brands are so much more than an idea. Julia Burke of Whirpool asks, “How can we—as designers—use stories to create passion and make believers to drive radical change?”

Speaker: Julia Burke, Whirlpool

Empathy in a Narcissistic World
Dan Peterson dives into the who, what, when, where, why and how of empathy for design thinkers living in our narcissistic world. There are inherent biases hardwired into people and we need to overcome them before we can even begin to exercise our empathetic mind.

Speaker: Dan Peterson, EDog Consulting

The good news for designers is that by honestly pursuing all available possibilities, and bringing our audiences along, we can naturally uncover and deliver radical new solutions others have missed, by default.

Liam Hawry, director of ID—packaging at Studio One Eleven, will offer specific advice on best practices for navigating constraints to discover, develop and communicate radical ideas that stick.

Speaker: Liam Hawry, Studio One Eleven

University of Wisconsin-Stout’s ongoing partnership with Moscow’s FABLAB National University of Science and Technology (NITU) MISiS has educated and improved the industrial design faculty’s knowledge of digital fabrication—inside and outside the classroom environment.

Learn how UW-Stout Associate Professor of Industrial Design Jennifer Astwood infused the design process within digital fabrication while teaching a two-week lighting workshop at MISiS in November 2016. This overseas partnership has emboldened her knowledge on digital fabrication. Astwood will share examples of student and faculty work.

Speaker: Jennifer Astwood, IDSA, University of Wisconsin-Stout

Radical Departures

As designers, we're wired for curiosity and born to hunt down interesting problems to solve. But what happens when those traits lead you outside the traditional walls of the design industry?

Joey Nakayama, director of product development at the American Medical Association, will trace his journey from industrial design to innovation consulting to in-house non-profit work—and discuss how the designer’s skill set creates unique value outside design-centric environments.

Speaker: Joey Nakayama, American Medical Association

Uniquely You
Nick Savidge, IDSA, will reflect on his whirlwind experience of graduating from design school at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC); winning an IDSA Student Merit Award 2016; and landing a dream job as an industrial designer at LUNAR.

Speaker: Nick Savidge, LUNAR

Lessons from a Recovering Sustainability Hopeful

Designers often have a love/hate relationship with packaging. There’s love for innovative, creative, unique and authentic ideas to execute a brand, but hate—that once the product gets home, most packaging ends up in landfills. Are you sick of feeling like you have to look the other way when starting a new design project?

Laura Flanigan of More from Less has spent 10 years working with consumer goods companies to better understand what sustainability really means to them and how to bring it to life in their products and packaging.  “Stand on my shoulders:  start your career with insights on what I wish I’d known about sustainable design when I was starting out.  If we put our heads together, perhaps we’ll square that circle,” she says.

Your key takeaways: What you can do to prepare the way for a more sustainable design and How you can make a business case for incorporating sustainable attributes?  

Speaker: Laura Flanigan, More from Less

For design managers, this means creating and defending the team to facilitate deep work while eliminating distractions. For design makers, this means focus—sanctuary rooms, mock ups and exploration of themes to trigger the best and most meaningful ideas.

This does not mean disconnecting from the critical critiques and collaboration with business and engineering teams—merely structuring it. James Caruso shows how Newell Brands has synthesized approaches and pragmatic plans to emphasize deep work and flow in the global design studios.

Speaker: James Caruso, Newell Brands

This occurs when there is a lack of understanding and empathy for what the different members are trying to achieve within the project. From his observations, if individuals in the team can achieve true empathy through more supportive and truly collaborative interaction for their team members—then a synergy is created that provides value to the outcome.

Watkinson finds that this, tied with individuals’ understanding cultural communication—will provide tremendous value throughout the development cycle.

Speaker: Chevis Watkinson, IDSA, Georgia Pacific

Manufacturing 2.0
How do we rethink manufacturing beyond the traditional sense? Patricia Miller, CEO/owner of Matrix4, examines how advancements are redefining the rules and definition of manufacturing and the new ecosystem. What are the implications to physical product space—from design to full scale manufacturing?

Speaker: Patricia Miller, Matrix 4

But, Zachary Paradis of SapientRazorfish finds, with the continued evolution of the market and the world, design’s intent must continue to change to create new conditions for maximum creativity. 

Speaker: Zachary Paradis, SapientRazorfish