Wow - what a fabulous weekend!

All I want to do is share it with someone, so they too can experience the fantastic vibe/feeling that was the Coolum Conference. So, being the type that doesn't do things by half, I decided to post it on the web site, so here is my electronic wish-you-were-here postcard. (And if everyone who went to Coolum did the same thing, wouldn't that be way cool!)

Being the AGDA Queensland President, I had a more intimate relationship with the Coolum conference this year, and I think that's the reason why I got so much more out of it than previous conferences. By being more involved and giving of myself, I experienced the same from others. And the reason for my experience - AGDA. If I had not joined AGDA, become El Prez (as I am affectionately know in this neck of the woods) and been involved in this conference, I'm sure I would not have had the same experience. So what am I trying to say? Get involved - 'cause you get so much more back than you put in.

So enough of the warm and fuzzy and back to the conference.

It is now 8.30 am on Monday morning (March 3, the day after the conference) and I've had time to sleep on it and formulate my ideas on what the conference meant to me. Common themes of the conference, ones not formalised or articulated until the close of the conference, in Andrew Lam-Po-Tang's closing address, were Collaboration, Culture and Communication. And, spookily enough possums, they are also themes in AGDA's current strategic planning.

So, Collaboration.

Between designers, between designers and clients and between friends in similar creative industries, collaboration is crucial. It is essential to our growth and improvement as designers. And it is the reason that the AGDA Design Conference came into being (as I said in my opening address) - to share our experiences, inspirations and enthusiasm, and rediscover the reason we became designers in the first place.

Ok, Culture.

At Coolum, that sense of collaboration soon became a strong sense of culture/community. A community of designers that had more than just a job in common - a sense of humour, a passion for design, a joy of giving (of themselves and of their design), a spirit of friendship, a love of good conversation, a sense of style (if you are male that means close cropped hair and facial hair!) and some way cool moves on the dance floor!

We all became aware as the conference progressed that we, as designers, have a strong sense of culture/identity and more in common than we realise. When you are working back late at night, spending more time with your Mac than with any one else, it is easy to feel alone, alienated and isolated.

The strength of this design culture bond was evident in the intense discussions between speakers and delegates over the weekend. Coolum saw international, interstate, local and student designers living and breathing design without boundaries or egos. It is hard to capture the spirit of Coolum in words, it really was a case of you had to be there. Perhaps the best illustration of that sense of community are the extremely collectible enamel Trickett and Webb badges Lynn Trickett gave us all during her presentation, and the URL Rick Valicenti gave us so his Aussie friends could download some fonts and groovy stuff from his web site.

And finally, Communication.

This was obviously an important part of the conference, but assumed many guises - formal presentations from designers to designers, informal discussions about design and issues, chats over lunch and dinner, getting to know other designers and finding them just like us and sharing some grooves in the nightclub. Oh, and we also discovered that designers are fun people, as Andrew kept telling us all weekend.

So, it is really hard for me to convey exactly what made the Coolum conference so special but here are my highlights: seeing the design community make Coolum the success it was; meeting so many designers that I would like to get to know better; meeting Rick and finding out what a cool dude he was; having Russell Bevers quote me in his AGDA address; and grooving with two dudes at the nightclub and finding out they designed two projects that I really liked, Southgate and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

I think the final word on Coolum must go to Rick, design is about the 'encounter' and gift-giving.

Martine Zajacek