Industrial Designers Society of America Convenes in New Orleans Sept. 14-17, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 13, 2011

Industrial Designers Society of America Convenes in New Orleans Sept. 14-17, 2011
500 design professionals convene in New Orleans for convention focused on community

WHAT:           IDSA's 2011 International Conference "Community: You.Me.We."

WHERE:        The Roosevelt New Orleans, A Waldorf Astoria® Hotel

WHEN:          Wednesday, Sept. 14 to Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011

DETAILS: 500 members of Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) will convene in New Orleans for the International Conference titled "Community: You.Me.We." The conference will focus on how community is affecting the ever-changing world of design.   

Service and awareness events are scheduled for conference attendees with local organizations Make it Right Foundation, New Orleans Musicians Clinic and New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). Attendees will tour the newly-built Make it Right community, and experience first hand the work that is being done to revitalize and rebuild neighborhoods in New Orleans. Participants also will take part in a discussion to create ways to combat hearing loss in musicians, a devious problem in the music industry, at the New Orleans Musicians Clinics. In addition, members will spend an afternoon at NOCCA, New Orleans' premier creative arts school, facilitating brainstorming sessions with high school freshmen teaching critical thinking, conceptualization and creative problem solving.

Keynote speakers include New Orleans' own Andrea Chen, co-founder and executive director of Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans (SENO). Chen will speak about the evolution of social entrepreneurship in New Orleans which dramatically expanded more than six years ago, from residents painting street signs after Hurricane Katrina to the complex challenges involving governmental agencies, regulations and bureaucracy. Also, YouTube's director of user experience, Margaret Gould Stewart, will speak on the growing importance of designing computer software with an open system usability and how companies like YouTube, Twitter and Etsy are thriving as open source design has become a place to share human expression and creativity. 

IDSA members work in a range of designing fields-from designing experiences, to medical equipment, to consumer products.  IDSA is one of the world's oldest and largest, member-driven society for product design, industrial design, design management and other related design fields. IDSA organizes the renowned International Design Excellence Award® competition annually and produces two publications highlighting the latest headlines in the design world. IDSA's charitable arm, the Design Foundation, supports the dissemination of undergraduate scholarships annually to further industrial design education.

IDSA's largest conference set in New Orleans was in 2000 and this year's conference is set to generate $588,000 in economic impact.

WEBSITE: http://www.idsa.org

MAJOR EVENTS:

• Thurs, Sept. 15, 10 -10:30 a.m.: Keynote: Co-Creating with Humanity: the Design of Open Systems with YouTube Director of User Experience, Margaret Gould Stewart, Crescent City Ballroom
• Thurs, Sept. 15 & Fri, Sept. 16, 4:30 -6:30 p.m.; Sat, Sept. 17, 1-3 p.m.: New Orleans Musician Clinic, Frenchmen Street Music Venue
• Fri, Sept. 16, 3:30 -6:30 p.m.: NOCCA Design Day: Learn-Think-Do, NOCCA, 2800 Chartres St.
• Sat, Sept. 17, 10 -10:30 a.m.: Keynote: The Evolution of Social Entrepreneurship in New Orleans with New Orleans local Andrea Chen, SENO, Crescent City Ballroom
• Sat, Sept. 17, 1:30 -5:30 p.m.:  Lower Ninth Ward Tours with Make it Right Foundation, two tours leaving from The Roosevelt Hotel at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

DESIGN GALLERY: Roosevelt Ballroom

Wednesday, Sept. 14

5 p.m.-11 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 15

8 a.m.-10 a.m.

1 p.m.-5 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 16

8 a.m.-2 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 17

8 a.m.-2 p.m.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
IDSA: Roxann Henze, 703-725-8167, roxannh@idsa.org
New Orleans CVB: Tara Letort, 504-566-5019, tletort@neworleanscvb.com; Kelly Schulz, 504-421-0962, kschulz@neworleanscvb.com; Jennifer Day, 773-909-2514, jday@neworleanscvb.com

###