nate update

Hey friends, if you know me personally, you probably know my summer has been a total zoo. (If I cash in all the “Rain Checks” I have issued, I’m going to be out of the house until Christmas!) I recently became a father, remodeled a home, moved my family  into it, and turned my old home into a rental – all while working full time with no vacation time and the amount of sleep you’d expect with a 5 month old in ‘da house. All that said, Project Dinner Table is a can’t miss event in Las Vegas. I wrote about it earlier this summer here. Be sure to visit the official PDT site – check it for schedules, pictures, menus, videos and – no brainer – to buy your tickets!

Below, I’d like to share some photos from the last Las Vegas dinner event held in front of the El Cortez in one of my favorite places – Downtown Las Vegas, where it’s as funky as it is fun. Coincidentally, the next Project Dinner Table Event will be held only a few short blocks away, at the Historic 5th Street School – a truly cool space that really gets what it means to contribute to building culture in Las Vegas. From AIGA to The Vegas Valley Book Fair – each time a creative group needs a venue, Richard Hooker and the good people at the 5th Street School have their hands up willing to help.  I hope to see you there on September 11th. I’ll be the guy with the camera

I’m extending a special invitation to the Las Vegas Creative Community about this event because I think its very important that Vegas steps it up a notch. In order to step up our game, we need to see what’s going on in creative communities globally. The days of picking up a publication and expecting design inspiration are soooo 1990s.

This is the official event information. I hope you’ll attend.

Order tickets via Eventbrite:
http://chineseexchangelv-efbevent.eventbrite.com/

Ni hao!

…An exhibition and idea exchange
with 30 design ambassadors

Spend an amazing transglobal
evening socializing, exchanging ideas and crossing cultures. Thirty Chinese
graphic design professionals exhibit their latest work in advertising,
packaging, book design, posters, photography and contemporary Chinese
calligraphy.It’s a true cultural
exchange where we’ll share the flavor of Fabulous Las Vegas with our visitors,
while getting a glimpse into the design sensibilities of their vast and
fast-developing market.

Las Vegas is distinguished to be one of only four U.S.
cities on the 11-day tour that also includes Washington, D.C., San Francisco
and San Diego.

Hosted by the Center for CrossCultural Design, which fosters greater communication between designers across cultures, and a better understanding of the interwoven experience of design and culture.

EVENT PRESENTERS

City of Las Vegas

Center for
CrossCultural Design

Colors of Lupus Nevada

Las Vegas Chinese Association

Las Vegas-Clark
County Library Foundation

EVENT PARTNERS

AIGA Las Vegas

International Association of Business Communicators

Las Vegas Cultural Corridor Coalition

The Neon Museum Las Vegas

Studio J Photography

EVENT SUPPORTERS

American Advertising Federation

Association of Students in Communication, UNLV

Student Association of Graphic Arts, UNLV

Produced by eurie creative

Watch for new Event Partner and Event Support listings as additional sponsors come on board

For information about being
an event partner, contact Victor at victor@euriecreative.com,
or call him at 702-383-9805.

Here in Las Vegas, design means commerce. Here’s a testimonial that says this is not always the case.

For the 2nd year in a row, I’m designing shirts for a memorial bike rally honoring a family who recently lost 2 brothers (husbands, fathers, friends) in Nebraska and Wyoming, near my hometown. Long-time friends of my family as a kid, and good guys to have a cold one or catch a concert with. And, for the 2nd year in a row, I’m feeling lucky as hell that I can contribute to the event. Today I received photos of the last event and it really hit home, especially now that I’m a father.

I’m reminded of a song by Rancid called Indestructible. The jist of it is that as an artist, you can live forever – indestructible – through your art. I get it. You can, without a doubt. Another way to be indestructible is to be a good friend, a father, a brother, a mother, a sister and leave your mark on things through helping other people and causes. That’s what these types of projects are about. Try getting this kind of emotion, longevity and gratification from a routine paycheck. Fat chance.

I had the pleasure of shooting photos of the 3rd Las Vegas Event for Project Dinner Table. It’s a great event put together by really cool people – benefiting great causes, too. You can learn all about it – and buy tickets to the next one on their website here: http://www.projectdinnertable.com/

The PDT site does a really nice job of getting you the important information, so I’ll keep this post geared to my photographer friends & family. This assignment was a challenge! I shot it with two Digital SLRs, a Canon 5D Mk II with a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, and my backup camera, a Canon 20D with an 11-18mm lens for the wide stuff. Hey, it was a LONG table! I swapped out and used a 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens toward the end of the evening, too. The calculation with the smaller sensor makes it an even longer zoom than 200mm.

The most challenging part of this assignment was to get shots quickly – especially the chefs preparing the food – then, jump out to the dinner to see guests enjoying the meal – and be careful not to miss any of the fun activites like the 7th inning stretch poety reading, the presentations, or the singing of the national anthem. There were even some action shots of guests tossing the ball around the diamond!

It’s been a while since I shot events – I used to hate it because I was changing batteries all night with shoe mount flash units, that I didn’t ever really jive with. Now, with the advent of higher ISO settings, I can capture much more color in much lower light.  Not to mention have a LOT more fun!

Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I did taking them. Cheers!

Wow. My head is spinning with so much new info. It seems like Thursday’s sessions were a month ago.

I’ll keep this short, because I’m hardly an aficianado for BlogWorld09, it was my first year attending, after all. Personally, I went to bwe09 to learn about social trending, get some help with a few problems, and peek into what’s next for new media. Each of these were answered, and I think my company is on target for big success. Being a corporate blogger, with B to C (Business to Consumer) priority, there were few courses aimed at us – didn’t matter. My team was able to flex and see many other sides of our next phases into social networking. Moving ahead, I’m interested in trending for travel, retail, entertainment and gaming (Vegas, remember), and I got a great insight into some other areas, as well.

If there were any repeating trends, it’s a very positive report for consumers. Maybe because it has to be. Consumers hold a ton of power now that well, hasn’t been the case in recent memory. Conversational, Two-way marketing initiatives are the way to go, if your company isn’t doing it already. Getting to know your _________________ (insert: segment, demographic, target, guests, clients, customers, etc) is now easier than ever using blogs, facebook and twitter. It seems like the only big fat losers are the poor market research companies who do used to organize focus groups and get paid handsomely for it. Oh, and MySpace. (Who?)

What was missing? Not much. It would have been nice to see a keynote from Facebook or Twitter representatives. Perhaps it’s not the proper place. Maybe I just don’t know where that convention is yet. I would love to see a Facebook Damage Control panel, but that might make it seem okay to violate Facebook Policies.

I picked up a ton of new followers on Twitter this week, which I appreciate. I also picked up Chris Brogan’s book, Trust Agents, and I’m tearing through it this week. I’m only about 40 pages into it, and I can say this: Buy the damn book.

Here’s a fantastic recap of Brogan’s very inspiring Keynote Presentation at BWE09.

I’ll have a few more updates as soon as I can get to it. Hey, cut me some slack! I’m sorting through 29 pages of notes!

… If that’s not a testament to conference, I’m not sure what is.

Recently, my work has shifted into a more fun speed – as you can probably tell from the new tone of this site (thanks for all of the kind words, by the way, to those who are enjoying the more laid-back style) and this winter is going to be a fun one…

There will be some updates in the coming weeks about upcoming action sports events, new apparel designs hitting the streets, as always – concert coverage, special events and other exciting adventures.

This is going to be a fun Fall and Winter season. And, from the looks of this story, it’s coming quick.