In Search of a Connection

Second day in Chicago.
Alyssa and I checked into the lovely Hyatt Regency around 5 PM, and were pleasantly surprised to find they had upgraded our room to a junior suite. It pays to have a social media savvy colleague, one who follows the hotel on her Twitter feed. About half an hour after getting into the room, we were gifted with drinks and popcorn, as a thank you for being actively involved in the hotel's social media world.
Points for Hyatt Regency.

Unfortunately, their internet connection has been anything but spectacular. Alyssa and I have tried numerous times to connect and the internet has loaded about as fast as Heinz ketchup coming out a bottle. Chalk it up to a large crowd of designers all converging on the hotel and swamping the free wi-fi. Instead of sitting in the comfort of our plush hotel room beds updating our blogs/twitter feeds, we opted for the speed and convenience of the nearest Starbucks.

Hopefully this explains the lack of activity in the last 24 hours. In that time, Alyssa and I have:
- gone through the Art Institute of Chicago (hello Gustave! You beautiful, beautiful artist!)
- visited the State Street Macy's, originally the flagship store for Marshall Fields & co.
- walked up and down Magnificent Mile, stopping for a banana split at Ghiradellis.
- walked through Millenium Park.
All of this in 24 hours!

But now down to business: we have just come from the opening keynote speech which was anything but design and interesting. Two women standing up on stage telling a room full of cynical, introverted graphic designers to "breathe in the second circle." The speech was about being creative in the moment but as I sat there half listening to the speakers, half watching the fierce twitter feed from designers in the room, I realized that I have developed ways of "being creative in the moment." Yes, of course there are times of great stress as a designer but I have figured out ways to balance out my life by doing Pilates, baking bread, reading books and being part of the "Crossword Crew" at work. Thank you HOW Design for telling me stuff I already know. Now, let us get down to the nitty gritty of in-house design issues. I am still optimistic that you can turn this conference around. I mean, come on—Andy Epstein is speaking tomorrow! I want to leave knowing something more than how to "breathe onto the person behind me."