Conference Season NYC

I just got back from New York City after attending two inspiring conferences: SciViz and Ladies Get Paid. 2018 was my second year to attend, SciViz the New York Science Visualization Conference. An old friend from my Scientific American days Lucy Reading-Ikkanda gave an amazing talk on making infographics accessible. Another great talk in the same vein was given by Kennedy Elliott of National Geographic, to quote her “I believe that those who are most effective at communicating esoteric concepts are those who are able to ignore deep knowledge and view the topic from a more uninformed and curious perspective.” Sadly SciViz will not be held in 2019… hopefully this is just a brief hiatus.

The second conference was held by Ladies Get Paid. Free to join, LGP provides the resources for women to rise up in their career, and an online community of 30,000+ women worldwide. The conference was a whirl wind of successful women talking about valuing their work, negotiating fees, growing businesses, dealing with imposter syndrome etc. Science illustration is a rare field in which women out number men, however I’ve noticed the men are usually in paid positions instead of freelancing. And as women it can be harder to not be considered a hobbyist. The LGP conference did inspire me to find more clients in the year to come.

GNSI 50th Anniversary Conference Washington DC

The 50th Anniversary Conference was without a doubt the best GNSI Conference I have attended. As usual there was an overwhelming number of great talks. I wished I could physically divide into two so I could attend everything, though send a friend as scout worked almost as well. This year was particularly well organized and had volunteer opportunities to help with the cost.

I had only two big regrets. First, that I didn’t make it into the members exhibit. It’s not surprising since competition was fierce this year. Second, not taking Fernando Gomez Baptista Infographic and Sculpture workshop. I’m still kicking myself over this one. Fernando gave a fantastic talk about how he uses models that he makes from polymer clay.

SEM Lab

Figure Drawing blocks at the auction

My favorite events were numerous. First, the speakers included creature designer Terryl Anne Whitlatch who I met when I was the programs coordinator for the 2012 GNSI Con. The generosity of illustrators always amazes me; they are so happy to share their hard earned knowledge. Also, part of the conference package was a tour of the back scene of the Smithsonian. I picked the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) Lab out of sheer curiosity and was rewarded with a microscopic image of an ant’s jaw. Next was the annual conference auction which had a fascinating and eclectic array of items such as art prints, hand made jewelry, biological specimens, drawing tools, there was even a model skeletal torso. I bid on and lost a print by Catherine Miller and purchased an old book on perspective drawing. Last I did attend to fatastic workshop with Christie Newman and Bricelyn Strauch teaching Infographics and Justine Lee Hirten teaching Replicating traditional media effects in Photoshop. Both were fantastic and you can follow Justine on Patreon.