NonProfit NewsPod: Capitol Creative Alliance Design Week is Here!

00:08 - Amanda Sanchez (Guest)
Welcome to this nonprofit podcast news pod. Our region is home to many incredibly creative people in design and I believe wherever we can support their collaborative efforts, we should, and that's the purpose of today's news pod. I'm speaking with Amanda Sanchez, co-director of Capital Creative Alliance. Amanda, would you give us just a brief overview of the organization and how you came to be, because it's pretty interesting. 

00:36 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Sure. So Capital Creative Alliance is a merger of four different local creative groups Design Sacramento, creativity Plus Sacramento, roseville, ux and SAC Desco. We all formed our groups separately, became really good friends throughout the process and then decided in 2021 to form as an alliance, and that allowed us to consolidate our efforts and also collaborate on different events and programming efforts and also collaborate on different events and programming Well. 

01:04 - Amanda Sanchez (Guest)
congratulations to all four of you for recognizing the value in a consolidated effort, you know, and a focused effort versus four that could potentially be fragmented. And you've also since 2019, developed this design week I think is what you're actually calling it which is since the origin of your organization as well correct. 

01:32 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Yes, that was our first event that we hosted as Design Sacramento in 2019, and we have continued to host it. 

01:40 - Amanda Sanchez (Guest)
Well, what's exciting about that is you did make it through COVID, so it had to be pretty interesting for those two years in October as you worked your way through everything virtual right. 

01:50 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Yes, we had to switch all of our programming virtually in 2020. And then 2021, we did hybrid through 2023. And then we started doing all in-person since then. 

02:02 - Amanda Sanchez (Guest)
And I'm sure everybody prefers that in-person a whole lot more. Tell us a little bit about the event. What is it that happens? Because you're blending everything design from studio tours, art workshops and even now a broader, multifaceted group of creative individuals that goes beyond design itself. 

02:25 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Yes, yes, so Design Week Sacramento is a week-long celebration of our creative community. We host events throughout the week with local organizations and businesses and then at the end of the week we cap it off with a two-day professional development conference for creatives. And our community events are really broad. We try to make them as general as we can. We host them throughout the region and then our conference is much more focused on the professional development side. 

02:59 - Amanda Sanchez (Guest)
And while the event has primarily been focused on graphic design community, While the event has primarily been focused on the graphic design community, what have you seen as the awareness and familiarity and interest grows? Who is the event really for? So? 

03:13 - Jeff Holden (Host)
I think the common misconception is that the event's only for graphic designers or the design community in general, and what I try to remind people is that design is everywhere and it affects everything that we do. So to say it's only for one group, I think it really could serve everyone, and so we try to make it. As you know, again, we try to make our community events as broad as we can. So we have Events at Sandpaper Factory, which is like a furniture. He focuses a lot on furniture and how he designs and builds them, so getting to have a tour there allows the process of that. We also have events at the SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity, or a MOSAC as we all call it, and that's really a tour of the museum, how they design their spaces, and then also a maker space workshop. And I think another event that really highlights that is we're also going to a print shop in Sierra, which is in Rancho Cordova. 

04:21 - Amanda Sanchez (Guest)
They do most of our printing and so finding out, like, how that process works, because we work so closely with printers final result, so to speak, is probably very, very helpful for a lot of people who haven't ever seen it in its process and I know that Mosaic, the Museum of Science and Curiosity, has that maker space that a lot of people don't realize exists either. So you're really exposing some people to some neat elements in our community that are either taken for granted or just people aren't aware of them at all. What might be some of the highlights and keynotes of the week? 

05:13 - Jeff Holden (Host)
So that's a great question. Our Design Week kicks off on Monday, October 20th. Adobe, who is one of our partners, will be hosting their Create Now event at the Sophia. We also have a trivia night on Tuesday, October 21st at Bike Dog Brewing in ESAC. Betsyda LeBron and PJ Carlino, who is a faculty member at Sacramento State, will be our keynote speakers at the conference. We also are going to have a live podcast recording with Marketing Team of One at our lunch on that Friday conference and then our Saturday conference lunchtime will include discussion tables with local industry leaders. 

05:55 - Amanda Sanchez (Guest)
Well, I can vouch for Betsyda LeBron. We had her in the studio a while back with another organization, speaking to humor in the workplace and she was fabulous. She is absolutely well worth seeing. How about the details? What are the dates and times? How does somebody register? 

06:17 - Jeff Holden (Host)
pricing, et cetera for the event. Our events are Monday, October 20th through Saturday, October 25th. Our community events are that Monday through Thursday, October 23rd. Again, our first event is that Adobe Create Now event at 6 pm on Monday and then, following that, events are at 10 am and 6 pm each day on Tuesday and Thursday. Our two-day conference starts Friday, October 24th and that's from 9 o'clock am to 5.30 pm. Following that, we'll have our after party at Legend Hasn't with AAF Sacramento, the American Advertising Federation of Sacramento, and then Saturday. Our day two of our conference is on Saturday, October 25th. That's our skill camp, so it's hands-on workshops and our discussion tables. That's on Saturday, October 25th from 9.30 am to 5 o'clock pm. The community events are all free and then the conference is ticketed. That's $100 for the two-day conference, $65 for Friday only, $50 for Saturday only, and the students and members get discounted tickets and everything's on our website at designweeksaccom. 

07:39 - Amanda Sanchez (Guest)
Okay, so designweeksaccom. Yes, I will put that in the show notes as well to make it easy for everybody to just do a quick click through. Amanda, this is great news for our graphic design community and related interested parties. Thanks to you and the Capital Creative Alliance for the work that goes into something like this and for the continued support of our design and creative community. Best of luck to you this year and let's see if we can help in the drive to make it a record year of attendance. Thank you. 

08:10 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Thank you.