Today was the volunteer orientation with only 2 days to get everything ready for Thursday and the start of the conference. The Hynes convention center is rather large and will have no problem holding the 2,300 attendees. The conference is split between 2 floors with the living room and market place on the 1st floor and the main conference hall is on the 3rd floor. The AIGA staff are really worried about getting people back and forth from the focus sessions since people will probably get lost trying to find there way around. Most of the focus session rooms on the 1st floor are not that big and might fill up quicker then the ones on the 3rd floor which are larger rooms. If you are planning to go to one of the events on the 1st floor be sure to get there as early as possible or you might be locked out. The layout of the building can also be circular and so getting turned around might be a problem as well. Be sure to take a tour of the building when you get there so you know where most of the rooms are.
Dorothy gave a long over view of the events going on at the conference and made it sound twice more exciting then it looks on paper. I was hoping to meet more people from Boston in the volunteer staff but I guess I underestimated how far people will come from to volunteer, the answer being just about everywhere but Alaska and Hawaii.
If you are an AIGA member with little cash to spare and can still make it to Boston I suggest trying to get the living room pass for $350. They are broadcasting everything on the main stage and then showing other cool stuff in between. You miss out on the focus sessions but you get almost the whole conference experience for half the price. Not to mention that the living room has nice couches while the main stage has crappy chairs. And yes the entire building will have wifi.
If you have any general questions I will be happy to answer them from what I’ve learned so far. Anything specific really should be directed to the official AIGA Design Conference site. At the conference look for people in the non breathing plastic white jackets that all AIGA staff will be wearing.