2008 Sarasota International Design Summit is October 27-29

The 2008 Sarasota International Design Summit is coming up. Scheduled for October 27-29, the 3-day event is presented by Ringling College of Art and Design and Sponsored by Target Corp. The Summit will feature presentations from a diverse mix of influential business and design leaders about how design is shaping the way we communicate using visual, social and mobile media.

It's only fitting that Target should sign on as the presenting sponsor for a prestigious event as this. I admire Target's brand personality very much. They are firmly committed to being a retailer who sends an intelligent, well-constructed message to consumers that design is important, and that consumers should look for well designed products, not just low prices.

Target will be well represented, along with others like Autodesk, Microsoft, Herman Miller and more.

Here's a partial list of speakers:

Michael Alexin - Target Corporation, Walter Bender - Sugar Labs, Chris Bernard - Microsoft, Duane Bray - IDEO, Tom Crawford - VizThink, Bruce Damer - Digitalspace, Dave Gray - XPlane, Josh Hallett - Voce Communications/Hyku, Steve Hamm- BusinessWeek, Jody Haneke - Haneke Design, Matt Jones - Dopplr.com, Franco Lodato - Pininfarina Extra, Jennifer Magnolfi - Herman Miller, Dave Meeker - Roundarch, Teckla Rhoads - GM, Ryan Stewart - Adobe, Susan Sznesay - Metropolis Magazine,
Larry R. Thompson - Ringling College of Art and Design, Charles Warren - Google, Tom Wujec - Autodesk.

Stephen A. Smith & Associates Advertising has signed on as a sponsor and has produced a promotional video designed to increase registrations for the event. The video is a lot of fun to watch so take a look and consider registering for the event.