The design community is a two headed beast. You have the online design world that is filled with lots of prolific designers, writers, and twitterers. On the other side you have the offline design world filled with lots of events, meetups, conferences and tweetups. As a web designer who primarily works online I find it extremely easy to exist solely in the online design community and neglect the offline community. This can lead to burnout when work and play, as well as socializing take place online. I’ve found that often times the solution to this burnout is human contact. (remember humans… those people behind the twitter names and avatars?)
But I’m Shy!!!
I moved to Boston just about two years ago. After a few weeks of job searching I was hired at a small design firm and ramped up my freelancing career. This life situation wasn’t exactly conducive to making friends or living a balanced life… I knew I needed to get out of my comfort zone and go out and meet people.
I’ll admit that I’m not the most social person in the world, or even the most outgoing for that matter. In fact I’m really geeky (well what web designer isnt…) and kind of shy at times. I’m slowly realizing that no matter how great the online design community is – it’s no substitute for face to face contact with REAL HUMAN beings…
Taking Action!
Ive been attempting to attend more local events and meet more people – even if I’m terrified to do so. Ive recently been attending some local design and development meetups. So far I’ve managed to make it out to a few AIGA Boston events, Refresh Boston, Build Guild Salem as well as BostonEErs. I just want to encourage everyone who reads this to get out and get involved in your local design community – you never know who you will meet and how you can learn from them! I’ve meet some incredibly cool people at these events including @unruthless @mkivokoski @jasonrobb @inkpixelspaper as well as others.
I’m looking forward to attending more web/design events and meet ups and continue to make new friends. If you are in the Boston/new england area and we haven’t met in real life connect with me on twitter @nikibrown or shoot me an email hi at nikibrown dot com and say Hi – I’m game for making new friends and more nerdy webby learning!
Resources In Your Area
Aiga http://aiga.org/
MeetUp.com http://www.meetup.com/
Build Guild http://buildguild.org
Refresh (insert your city name here) http://refreshingcities.org/
Also consider starting an event in your area if there arent any!
