In April of 2003, Ori Fowler, Sam Aquillano, and myself saw a need for a student-centered design conference that focused on how to combine inspired thinking we learn in school with real world pragmatics.

Our idea was to create Thought at Work, an industrial design student conference, held on November 21st & 22nd, 2003 at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

From the outset our goals were to have lecturers whose work embodied “Thought at Work”, professional portfolio coaching, and a student design competiton. On top of this we had to budget the event so it would be affordable for students to attend.

In seven months we went from idea to reality. The three of us brought in eleven world-class speakers, organized a media campaign, obtained sponsors, accepted registrations and put on a design event that will not soon be forgotten.




Thought at Work’s strong lineup of speakers made it one of the top design conferences to attend in 2003. They represented an incredible cross-section of the design world and featured professionals from other disciplines to give the event a well rounded perspective. All were chosen because their work exemplified what Thought at Work was all about: Big ideas that actually happen.

Our speakers included: Yves Behar (fuseproject), John Christakos (Blu Dot), Stephanie Elias (Leapfrog), Chris Lenart (newdealdesign), Alan Mudd (Design Continuum), Steve Portigal (consumer researcher), Virginia Postrel (author of The Substance of Style), Duane Smith & Stéfane Barbeau (Vessel & release 1), Cameron Sinclair (Architecture for Humanity), and Claude Zellweger (One & Co.)




We had always wished we could have a review of our portfolios early enough in the school year so we would have time to add to and improve our work. Thought at Work was the perfect venue to have this happen. Industrial design professionals donated their time to sit down one on one with students and give their honest and friendly critique.




We felt that not only did students want to learn from professionals about how to make their ideas a reality, they were already trying to apply this quality into their own work. Thought at Work’s student design competiton sought to honor students who excelled at putting “Thought at Work."

Capping off the weekend, the gallery opening for the design competition and speaker's work, allowed for the initially shy students to go up to the professionals and talk one-on-one. It was the type of interaction that made Thought at Work such a memorable experience for everyone who attended.

Allan Chochinov of Core77 had this to say about Thought at Work: "With a crack team of volunteers, support from the faculty and, heart-warmingly, students' parents(!), the conference ran like clockwork, provided inspiring presentations and dialogue, and startlingly, served as a template for how to put on a design conference of any sort--student or professional! But this was advertised as an "Industrial Design Student Conference," and there was a sweet disconnect between the high-wattage presenters and the goofy students. ("What's your favorite color?" was the first question yelled out during the roundtable discussion). This made for a good-natured, serve-the-young'uns atmosphere, and the presenters did their best to indulge both naive and brazen Q&A while simultaneously talking up to the audience.

The organizers, in their own words, "wanted to create a place full of amazing designers with really cool ideas." And so they did."

For more information visit: www.thoughtatwork.com