CHICAGO—Designer Dave Mason loves meeting interesting people doing interesting things.
"In my world, that’s what gets me up in the morning," says Mason, of Chicago- and Vancouver-based design agency SamataMason.
He’s rounded up some of these interesting people to present at SamataMason’s inaugural Cusp Conference, a two-day event launching this September in Chicago.
Similar to the American conference TED (technology, entertainment, design) and Moses Znaimer’s IdeaCity, Cusp aims to be a catalyst for inspiration by promoting creative thinking through the exchange of innovative ideas.
"The best thing about our jobs is that we get to stick our nose in everyone else’s business and meet lots of smart people doing really smart things," says Mason. "We thought this would be a way to synthesize our experiences."
Confirmed Cusp presenters include Chicago chef Homaru Cantu, U.S. Army Specialist Bryan Anderson, British singer/songwriter Kirsty Hawkshaw, architect Adam Kalkin and Dr. Carl Hodges, founding director of the University of Arizona’s Environmental Research Laboratory, among others.
"I think this is a mind expanding opportunity," says Mason. "We need to foster the creative class… [T]hinking like a designer or thinking about things as a designer would think about things is a very important part of changing the way we educate ourselves."
The word cusp, after all, means a point that marks the beginning of a change.
Contact: www.cuspconference.com
