#AIAcon15 Recap, Part 1: the day before
As most of you know, last year was my first convention. As I mentioned in my recap, I came home from it overwhelmed with information but invigorated about my chosen profession and thrilled at the friends I made in the process.
I left off with a challenge to the architecture world:
So let’s see how we did a year later:
The Day Before: #ProjectAtlanta with AEC Cares and CMD Group
As a part of my second convention, and after my first experience helping with #ProjectChicago last year, I knew this would be on my schedule.
This year’s project at #AIAcon15 was for Covenant House Georgia, a local arm of a national non-profit that provides a variety of services to homeless youth. Our job as volunteers was to do as much as we could as a part of the renovation process (the plans for which began many months ago by a similarly volunteering design team). I met a number of manufacturer’s reps, also volunteering their time, and enjoyed seeing a couple familiar faces.
The take-away for #AIAcon16
WHERE ARE THE ARCHITECTS?!?
90% of the people I met were on the contractor side of our industry. Where are the architects? Why aren’t they helping volunteer? I know there’s a variety of workshops to choose from on the Wednesday before convention officially starts, but I also know there are plenty of architects with a “free” schedule that day. Get to the host city (next year is Philadelphia) a day early and volunteer with me. Your firm will probably love that you’re volunteering on their behalf when you tell them why you want to go early. If they don’t…well, that’s a topic for another time. Not only are you giving back, but you’re getting in a good workout before all of the food and drink that convention brings; my fitbit said I “walked” 8.5 miles this year while volunteering.
But more importantly, show that an architect does more than sit in a modernist office in all black and artsy glasses creating designs. Be a part of the community. Be a person. Be a steward and share your talents.
Think about the impact of a teenager, who to this point has not been dealt a winning hand, seeing you give your time to help better the place they may call home for the next two years. There’s the possibility to strike up a conversation…and they learn that you are an architect and what an architect really does. They learn that your job is making the world better, one design or building or day at a time.
And even if that conversation doesn’t happen, you are still helping make a person’s life better, which is the important part.
So next year, help me show our value. Mark off May 18, 2016. I don’t know what project AEC Cares will have up their sleeve, but I know from having helped out the last two years that it will be worth it. See you next year; paint, sweat, and all.
This is the first of 3 posts of my recap of #AIAcon15. Comment below and let me know if you’ll join me in volunteering next year. And keep an eye out for the rest of the recaps in the days to come.
