As I mentioned yesterday, I just returned from Nisswa, MN where I attended AIGA/Minnesota’s annual Design Camp® from October 5-7. About a three-hour drive north of Minneapolis, Design Camp takes place in the woods on a lodge, where everyone stays in cabins, only a stone’s throw away from a big lake rimmed with a beach. This seclusion is what offers Design Camp much of its charm and, ultimately, its success.

As I came to learn, Design Camp has been going strong since 1980—one of the founding members who started the chapter and the Camp was even in attendance. Which goes to show that Design Camp is one where attendees continue to return year after year—even as the age of many attendees continues to get younger (about 1/3 of the attendees were students, surprisingly).

But, as an out-of-towner, I never felt left out, and I think that’s because of the nature of the Camp. All attendees (there were about 300 to 350 total) sit in the same main sessions together and all that stay on the lodging grounds eat every meal together, so you get to know familiar faces over the course of the Camp. There was a networking dinner the first evening that helped attendees mingle (although after a couple days of buffet-style eating there, I did get in the habit of feeling the need to eat dessert after every meal...).

Plus, being set off in the woods, there are activities scheduled from 7am (whether it’s a morning run or a tasty buffet breakfast) until the lodge bar closes at 2am (which proceeds design trivia games or karaoke or roasting s’mores or listening to a bluegrass band—complete with a washboard). That was a welcome departure from most conferences that, come 5pm, send you on your own merry way to come up with something to do. Making it a good conference for designers to consider if they have to go solo.

Also, important to any design event, the Camp’s materials were well designed and well branded. They were created by Ryan Meis, a designer at San Francisco’s Hatch, who also attended the Camp. (Fittingly, Hatch’s principal, Joel Templin, was a speaker.) Speaking of speakers, I'll update later about each session I attended. But for now, consider this a snapshot...