LINCOLN— A new conference will bring designers and makers together in Lincoln Nov. 7-8.
“Recess is a conference that recognizes the importance of learning through play. We believe that taking a break is paramount for creative growth,” the site says.
Toby Schroder, a product design lead at Hudl, organized the conference and says the magic of conferences is spending time with peers and learning from each other.
“The Midwest is just so heads down and hearty when it comes to work that you almost need to have events specifically to get us out and meet each other,” Schroder said. “I’ve been a designer in the Lincoln–Omaha area for more than a decade and there’s people I follow on Twitter and I still have never have met them face to face.
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“That shouldn’t be the case.”
While there are plenty of opportunities—hackathons, Startup Weekends and more—for coders, Schroder hopes Recess can fill a niche for designers that has largely been void in the Midwest.
Speakers include several well-known creatives from the area, including co-founders from youth marketing firm Archrival, managed WordPress hosting company Flywheel and dog-lover social site Pack.
- Clint! Runge, managing creative director at Archrival
- Tuesday Bassen, freelance designer and illustrator
- John Henry Müller, design co-founder at Pack
- Kyle Murphy, VP of user experience at Hudl
- Rick Knudtson, design co-founder at Flywheel
- Greg Gibilisco, director of visual design at Maya
- MC is Mike “Donuts” Williams, product design lead at Hudl
Recess will be held at Vega, a music venue in Lincoln’s West Haymarket. The $60 admission includes a pre-party, breakfast, lunch, drinks and snacks during the conference and a T-shirt plus a chance to win giveaways throughout the day. AIGA members can look for a discount code in an upcoming newsletter.
Schroder was inspired to create a conference after attending Barcamp in Omaha, but a similar unconference, Awesome Camp, in Lincoln had been taking care of that area until it didn’t produce the event this year.
He got advice from Runge, who told him a design conference was needed, but had to be done right.
Schroder attended the Made by Few conference in Little Rock, Ark., and found a perfect small conference model to emulate. He even found two Nebraska natives, Tuesday Benson and Greg Gibilisco, who offered to speak at Recess.
Speakers who will hopefully inspire both designers and makers. Schroder said he doesn’t want to leave anyone out because the industry is moving to a more hybrid role.
“At Hudl, all the designers code and all the developers are pulled into user interviews,” he said. “Creatives need to become more well-rounded and product-minded and so hopefully this helps them get in this mindset and on to the next step.”
For now, Schroder hopes he can fill out the 200-person venue. In the future, he hopes to make it an annual event, but hopefully get a little more help.
“It’s a lot of work,” he said. “But it should be worth it.”
