Awards & Competitions

Hi, I’m Elsa Long, and I’m honored to be the 2012-2013 IIDA Northern Pacific Chapter’s Emerging Professional’s Grant recipient.

When I first read the mission statement of the Emerging Professional Grant, which outlines the goal of “inspiring the recipient and design community through encouraging dialog around educational experiences”, I instantly thought of TED talks.

If you aren’t familiar with TED talks yet, prepare to get hooked!

Speakers from around the world, some of whom are household names, and some whom are new-comers, deliver thought-provoking and inspirational messages at TED conferences.  The talks are video-recorded and then made available free of charge on TED.com.  Subjects range from technology, entertainment and design, to scientific break-thrus and musical performances.  It’s a wonderful free source of continuing education and inspiration. The TED mission statement is captured well in their tagline: “ideas worth sharing”.

Personally and professionally, I have found that design and the creative problem-solving processes that we all participate in every day are enriched by cross-pollination of ideas and experiences. We all learn and grow from lessons we teach each other as creators of space.

Using the TED membership and access that the Emerging Professional’s Grant allowed me to participate in, I will be virtually attending two TED conferences this year, for a total of 8 days of inspirational TED talks and performances. I am also a member of an online community of other TED conference attendees, where I participate and contribute to conversation around the most inspiring talks. I will be curating a collection of TED talks that are thought-provoking and relevant to the design community.

I’d like to take the  mantra of “ideas worth sharing” one step further, and not only share TED talks with the  IIDA NPC community,  but layer on the Emerging Professional’s goal of “inspiring dialog”.  I will be sharing a TED talk once a month, beginning February 2013 thru December 2013. I will post a link to the TED talk on the IIDA NPC Facebook, LinkedIn and website pages, which allows all members to watch the video on their own time, wherever they choose. Each video link will also include some conversation-starter comments of mine, which will encourage you, an IIDA member, to participate in dialog about the ideas, discoveries and inspiring moments from the TED talk you viewed.

I am excited for the potential to leverage technology and social media to bridge the geographic regions that encompass our IIDA NPC chapter, and hear comments and ideas from Alaska, Idaho, Washington, Alberta and British Columbia. I hope this will connect us as a community of designers who will continue to better our profession through the exchange of ideas and inspiration.

In December, we will take a look back, and I will share a recap of which TED talks most inspired us, motivated us, and taught us something new about the world of design.

I look forward to this educational journey, and hope to hear from each of you. Please visit the IIDA NPC Facebook, LinkedIn and website pages to view the TED talks and participate in the dialog.

Your fellow student of life,