In the spirit of CREATIVITY and INSPIRATION, the UCDA Creative Summit is a program that brings designers and communication professionals together to share ideas and stories that help INSPIRE, EDUCATE, and REIGNITE ones way of thinking.

The summit provides 2-plus days of CREATIVE THINKING, COLLABORATION, and EXPLORATION, with talks focused on process and experience.

HYBRID EVENT

In response to the COVID-19 (see UCDA statement on COVID-19), the UCDA Creative Summit is now a hybrid event, meaning you can get the same great content in person or online.

While we are not in a position to recommend a specific course of action for travel to the UCDA Creative Summit, we are committed to maintaining all appropriate sanitary, health, and safety measures and encourage attendees to follow recommended guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.

For those who don’t feel comfortable attending in person, or may be prevented from attending due to institutional travel restrictions—you have the option to join and participate remotely.

REGISTRATION INCLUDES

• Onsite access to all eight main stage speakers
  
  
• Access to the UCDA EVENTS APP:
  • Attendees—Connect and chat with other attendees. 
  • Schedule—Complete program at your fingertips with links to relevant information about sessions, speakers, and evaluations.
  • Presentations—Copies of speaker presentations.
• Access to a PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP
  • Live Stream—Presentations will be live-streamed and saved for future viewing. 
  • Comments and Questions—Post questions and comments during or after the presentations.
    
    

^{UCDA Creative Summit photos by Matt Lester. Denver photos by Ellen Jaskol and Jeff Wells.}

LOCATION AND LODGING

SUMMIT LOCATION
The summit will be held in Denver, Colorado, at the Le Méridien Denver Downtown hotel. The Le Méridien is a boutique hotel situated in the center of downtown Denver and just moments away from the city’s most compelling diversions.

Le Méridien Denver Downtown
1475 California Street
Denver, CO 80202

DISCOUNTED HOTEL RATES
You can make your reservations by going to tinyurl.com/ucda-creative-summit or by calling the Le Méridien Denver Downtown at 303-893-1888. Mention that you are attending the UCDA Creative Summit to receive the discounted rate of $199 (Classic King room). Room block is good until March 4, subject to availability.

Take advantage of this rate and extend your stay before or after the UCDA Creative Summit. The reduced rate will be honored three days prior and after, subject to availability.

The hotel stay is not included in the summit registration fees. You are responsible for making your own hotel reservations. Room blocks may fill before the hotel deadline. If the group rate is no longer available, prevailing rates may be offered for some or all of your dates, so please make your reservation immediately to ensure the discounted rate and availability.

GET INSPIRED

UNLOCK ART 
For those staying at Le Méridien Denver Downtown, the hotel is proud to offer Unlock Art—an innovative partnership that offers guests complimentary access to local, contemporary museums and cultural institutions. Simply present your room card at participating destinations, and uncover a world of creativity. 

Through this program, the hotel partners with cultural centers, vendors, and artisans to offer local and inspiring experiences.

LITERATURE EXCHANGE 
Share examples of your work with your colleagues and gather new ideas to bring back to your institution. Bring samples with you, or mail them to yourself at the hotel to arrive when you do. A table will be provided throughout the summit so you can see and be seen as you collect samples!

HAPPY HOUR
Before you head out to explore Denver during your free evenings, join fellow UCDA Creative Summit attendees at not just one—but two—happy hours! 

On Thursday, enjoy local craft beer and cider as you meet and greet and make new friends while you gather to make dinner plans.

During Friday’s happy hour, stop by for live screen printing, where you can print your own shirt to take home.

ADDITIONAL ADD-ON EVENT
Take advantage of this post-summit add-on event taking place on Saturday morning. Space is limited.

MATTER Letterpress Workshop and Tour ($40/person)

^{UCDA Creative Summit photos by Matt Lester. Denver photos courtesy of Visit Denver.}

REGISTRATION FEES

FOUR WAYS TO REGISTER
1. REGISTER ONLINE

2. CALL 615-459-4559 with your registration information and your credit card number.

3. FAX 615-459-5229 your completed registration form and payment information (purchase order or credit card numbers).

4. MAIL your completed registration form with payment to:
    UCDA Creative Summit
    199 Enon Springs Road West, Suite 400
    Smyrna, Tennessee 37167
    
REGISTRATION CONFIRMATION
A confirmation letter will be sent to you after registration is received and processed. Occasionally conferences fill to capacity before the registration cut-off date, so please register early.

REGISTRATION CANCELLATION
See UCDA Cancellation Policies

SCHEDULE

THURSDAY, APRIL 2

9-9:30 a.m.
ONSITE REGISTRATION

9:30-10:45 a.m.
1. THREE WAYS TO WORK WITH AN AGENCY
Mark Gallo
Engaging with an outside agency can be a fun, rewarding experience when done right—and a painful, expensive one when managed improperly. While every project is unique, we’ll discuss some simple best practices to follow to help elevate the work and protect your budget. Using three unique university publications as examples, Mark will outline how each was set up for success based on their desired outcomes.

11 a.m.-12 noon
2. HUMAN AT WORK
Dave Cameron
Somewhere between our overlapping project deadlines, meetings, and endless emails, we are all just trying to do good work, but it’s hard to keep up. We do our best to stay organized but in the end we are humans with limited time and attention, easily distracted and best plans disrupted—how can we be expected to actually get stuff done each day? Inspired by his own years of struggling with missed deadlines and overwhelming workloads, Dave shares the practical approaches that have helped him and others evaluate and improve their tools and habits, including his Goals for Productive Humans that can help anyone be more productive and rethink how we work in a way that is achievable, sustainable, and balanced.

12 noon-1 p.m.
LUNCH
Lunch is provided.

1:15-2:15 p.m.
3. THE ART AND SCIENCE OF STORYTELLING IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Donna Talarico
Part feel-good, part practical, Donna will cover the art and science of storytelling. First, we’ll cover why we, as humans, crave narrative. What it does to our brains, for instance. We’ll explore effective campaigns that span mediums and industries—not just the web and not just higher ed. After covering the science of stories, we’ll dive into the art of crafting compelling narratives for your individual institutions—and all its strategic goals. Finally, since storytelling is a team effort, we’ll address how you can manage ideas and content within your team or across campus. You’ll leave with a list of several story “formulas,” plus countless resources to help you continue to build your storytelling skills.

2:30-4:30 p.m.
4. ACCESSING YOUR CREATIVITY: BUILDING AN ACCESSIBILITY STYLE GUIDE
Dave Cameron and Donna Talarico
Making inclusive and accessible content for all audiences is not just about meeting certain legal requirements; it’s an opportunity to define what “accessible” means for your institution in your branding, your choices of imagery, and the standards you set for other content contributors throughout your print and digital streams. In this interactive team workshop, Cameron and Talarico will facilitate exercises to explore how you can bring accessibility standards to existing style guides and editorial processes across print, digital, and social channels, and then discuss tactical requirements for moving from a basic accessibility style guide for non-designers to a practical toolkit for all campus content creators and partners. This session includes hands-on time outside of the meeting room to explore and capture imagery and then incorporate those images into creating an accessible story.

4:30-6 p.m.
HAPPY HOUR
Enjoy local craft beer and cider as you meet and greet your fellow UCDA Creative Summit attendees. A great opportunity to make new friends and gather as you make dinner plans.

FRIDAY, APRIL 3

9-10 a.m.
5. BRAND DEVELOPMENT: POSITIONING, CREATING, AND LAUNCHING YOUR BRAND
Ellen Bruss
Take a step back and learn how to speak to your audience, not yourself. Start with determining why your institution is different than your competitors. Attain knowledge of how to craft unique positioning that defines your institution, your core values, and your brand promise. And master how to make that resonate in the creative. 

10:15-11:15 a.m
6. WE INVENT ALMOST EVERY DAY
Rick Griffith
Rick has been making unconventional tools for designers and for other thinking persons for 20 years. It’s how the studio he founded—MATTER—thrives. Rick might inspire you towards self-reliance, or towards creativity, or maybe just remind you that you are a designer.

11:15-1:45 p.m.
RECESS
Time to go out and explore Denver! Lunch on your own.

1:45-2:45 p.m.
7. A PATH TO ORIGINAL THINKING
Mark Gallo
The design process is a function of both inspiration and perspiration, but when working in-house, it can feel like far too much of the latter. So how do you get out of your creative rut and avoid formulaic solutions? Learn how a logical approach to creative can help you and your team escape the expected and lead to more unique solutions and successful results.

3-4 p.m.
8. REBRANDING A UNIVERSITY: THE METROPOLITAN STATE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER STORY
Scott Surine and Stacy Lewis
Learn about the anatomy of MSU Denver’s rebranding effort—one that started with a name change in 2012 and continues today with the launch of a new brand campaign refresh.  Scott and Stacy will show you how research laid the foundation for brand positioning and robust design thinking and how competitive differentiation and stakeholder input drove the final creative expression. You’ll leave with a holistic view of the many factors that drive a university rebranding effort and witness the creative execution around Denver. 

4-6 p.m.
HAPPY HOUR WITH LIVE SCREEN PRINTING
Stop by for live screen printing, where you can print your own shirt to take home!

SATURDAY, APRIL 4

8-9 a.m.
DESIGN THERAPY BREAKFAST
Have a creative road block? Looking for answers? Have advice you want to share with others? Join us at this informal breakfast for collaborative conversations where you can ask those burning questions as well provide guidance and support from your design perspective.

9:30 a.m.-12 noon
ADDITIONAL ADD-ON EVENTS

Option 1: MATTER Letterpress Workshop and Tour
Come get your hands dirty with design director and master letterpress printer Rick Griffith at MATTER—his downtown design studio, printshop, and manufactory. Rick will give a private tour and you can typeset and print on mid-twentieth-century printing presses. Get inspired and also get a letterpressed poster... or two! After the workshop, the SHOP AT MATTER will open which offers Denver's best-curated collection design books and gifts for designers (and other thinking persons). Co-sponsored by ACPA.

A guide will escort you to MATTER (about a 20-minute walk from the hotel) for this two hour hands-on workshop and tour. Space is limited. $40/person.

Option 2: Molly Brown House Museum Tour—No Longer Available
A guided tour of the Molly Brown House Museum where a docent will lead you through the home sharing the inspirational story of Denver’s Titanic heroine and engaged social activist, Margaret “Molly” Tobin Brown. 

The Molly Brown House Museum is multi-story, Victorian-era home constructed in 1889. The museum tries to be as accessible as possible; however, due to the historic nature of the home, only the first floor of the house and lower level Natural Resources Education Center are accessible via the lift.

A museum volunteer will escort the group to the house (about a 25-minute walk from the hotel) for the 90-minute guided tour that begins at 10:30 a.m. You will be on your own to return to the hotel at the conclusion of the tour. Space is limited. $15/person.

Option 3: Larimer Square with D&F Clock Tower Walking Tour—No Longer Available
Explore Denver’s oldest block and learn about the first city center, its transformation to a skid row, and how local citizens saved the block of buildings from demolition to create Denver’s first historic district.  This tour includes exclusive access to the Daniels & Fisher Clock Tower with 360 views of Denver from the 17th floor. 

A tour guide will escort the group to Larimer Square (about a 10-minute walk from the hotel) for the 90-minute tour. You will be on your own to return to the hotel at the conclusion of the tour. Space is limited. $20/person.

10 a.m.-5 p.m.
DENVER ART MUSEUM
If the tours are already sold out or you just want a free alternative, visit the Denver Art Museum (free admission the first Saturday of the month). Or, do both—the museum is open until 5 p.m. The museum is a 15-minute walk from the hotel and you would be on your own to get to and from the museum.

CO-CHAIRS

Laura Shriver, Senior Graphic Designer, University of California San Diego
Wendy Sheaffer, Director of Creative Services, Elizabethtown College

^{See bios below.}

SPEAKERS

Ellen Bruss, Owner and Creative Director, EBD [Speaker Profile]
Dave Cameron, Senior Web Strategist, Ithaca College
Mark Gallo, Creative Director, Traina [Speaker Profile]
Rick Griffith, Design Director, MATTER
Stacy Lewis, Principal, Sector Brands [Speaker Profile]
Scott Surine, Associate Director of Brand Strategy, Metropolitan State University of Denver [Speaker Profile]
Donna Talarico, Independent content writer and speaker; Founder, Hippocampus Magazine and Books [Speaker Profile]

^{See bios below.}