DE5IGN Fridays is a semi-weekly creative-community-powered webinar-style virtual salon sponsored by the Boston Chapter of AIGA. DE5IGN Fridays forums will allow Boston community members to learn, share, discuss, connect, and grow. At the heart of DE5IGN Fridays is the number 5.
For each DE5IGN Fridays forum, a guest speaker will prepare a five-part 25-minute talk with five minutes dedicated to the following five categories:
People: Inspirations, collaborators, mentors, or rising stars
Places: Communities, spaces, and places that are worth checking out
Projects: Your work, other people’s work, or historical works
Predictions: Help attendees “skate to where the puck will be.”
Presenters can share slides or just talk. Presenters should never use more than 50 slides or fancy whiz-bang transitions. Following their 25-minute talk, the DE5IGN Friday presenter will answer up to five questions from the community. These questions will be moderated by an AIGA Boston appointed moderator.
The cost of attending an AIGA Boston DE5IGN Fridays event is five dollars, with 100% of the proceeds to support Chapter programming and events. First, we considered having a bake sale—but then we considered doing something a bit more interesting. Then we reverted to the bake sale, and then back to this. Chocolate chips aside, we hope we made the right choice.
Five notes for DE5IGN Fridays
Be nice. The speaker, participants, and all pets must adhere to AIGA’s code of conduct.
Be fair. To provide an equitable platform, DE5IGN Fridays will randomly select a nominated name from the master list for every fifth DE5IGN Fridays. We call this the “randomization rule.” Why? Because A) randomization rules (of course), and B) we hope this will foster a unique opportunity for new voices to emerge.
Be a connector. Upon completion of a talk, DE5IGN Fridays speakers may then nominate five future speakers. These speakers will be added to a master list maintained by AIGA Boston. Speakers who receive multiple nominations will receive more significant consideration (outside of the randomization rule [see #2]).
Make it worth it. We cannot rebate or return 25 minutes to our attendee’s lives. Please be thoughtful and, as much as possible, seek to be generous with what you share and who you choose to lift up. It should not be “bus dev” or “all about you.”
Be punctual. DE5IGN Fridays events should last no longer than 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, music will begin playing as to awkwardly but politely let speakers and attendees know that we are out of time. Then attendees should go make something awesome, eat something or (if safe to do so) both.
Schedule, Promotion and Information
AIGA Boston DE5IGN Fridays speakers will be announced no less than 5 days before the event. AIGA Boston will announce/promote the event on social media, and tickets can be purchased through our website. Our talks will be hosted on Zoom and will not be recorded. Tickets will be available up to 5 minutes before the event starts. Speakers may share promotional materials with friends, colleagues, and family however they see fit but large outdoor billboards and guerilla marketing are not presently encouraged. Our goal is to host at least 5 DE5IGN Fridays speakers per season. Since Fridays cannot be extended or cloned (yet), we will never host more than one talk per week. Any questions, speaker nominations (including self-nominations), or concerns can be sent to: info@boston.aiga.org.
Presenters Wanted for DE5IGN Fridays
If you’re interested in being a presenter for AIGA Boston’s DE5IGN Fridays, please let us know using the form below. We’ll reach out with more information about presenting and discuss when might work best.
