Hello everyone!
A Happy New Year to you all.

It has been a doozy as president of the AIGA AZ chapter for the past 6 months and I couldn’t be more proud of the team that Niki has lead for the past 2 years that I am now getting to lead! We are only getting stronger and it’s been amazing. With her continuation as President’s Council Chair to AIGA National Board, we couldn’t be prouder to maintain her passion at this new level. She has left me equip and ready to carry on a team with such energy and passion and it’s been truly great.

All that said, I wanted to send a quick recap of some awesome things that have been done by the AIGA AZ chapter through 2015. Here we go!

AIGA National Leadership Retreat

• Five AIGA AZ board members attended the national leadership retreat
• Kathy Morgan, AIGA AZ Financial Director, and Niki Blaker were invited to lead breakout sessions
• Amy Robinson, AIGA AZ Chapter Manager, spoke in depth on diversity and inclusion with Ric Grefé, former AIGA Executive Director, as well as the individuals heading up the diversity and inclusion initiative at the national level

CreateAthon Phoenix 2015

• In partnership with the CO+HOOTS Foundation,  AIGA AZ brought CreateAthon to Arizona for the first time
• Anika Bausom, AIGA AZ Design for Good Director, and Kay Transtrum, CO+HOOTS Program Coordinator, spearheaded and managed the event
• Phoenix Vice Mayor Daniel Valenzuela invited Anika Bausom to City Hall to celebrate Pro Bono Service Day
• CreateAthon Phoenix 2015 deemed largest CreateAthon in nation
• Matthew Manos, Founder and Managing Director of verynice, visited CreateAthon Phoenix 2015 – meeting him was awesome

Phoenix Design Week 2015

• Raised more sponsorship money than all previous design weeks
• The number of large sponsorships ($2,500 to $5,000) increased, along with the number of local companies either wanting to have a presence in the Arizona design market, or who already have a significant design presence here: Sessions College, GoDaddy, InVision App, Tallwave,  General Dynamics, and Grand Canyon University
• Two design week chairs led the 2015 effort: Doug Penick & Robert Renteria
• We began our partnership with PechaKucha – Patricia Tompkins (former AIGA AZ Programming Director) coordinated a PechaKucha night as the kick off event for Phoenix Design Week 2015

Best of 2015 Exhibition

• A continuation of the AIGA AZ 25 Years Exhibition. This year, Kathy Morgan gathered design work from agencies and designers all over the valley that was accomplished throughout 2015. It was put on display at PHXDW
• Tempe History Museum will have the full 26 year exhibition on display in March 2016 open to the public – this is all work over the 26 years in which AIGA AZ has been a chapter! So excited

Thought leaders who spoke to our community

• Pam Slim
• Ben Jenkins
• Becky Simpson
• Ashleigh Axios
• Juan Carlos Pagan
• Jaqui Oakley
• Alex Medina
• Steward Scott Curran
• Stefan Bucher

New member meetups

• Phoenix held three
• Flagstaff held one
• Taser International was a sponsor of our spring meetup in Phoenix

Tucson design community active & growing, some events held…

• Print Speaks series
• Tucson Makers: Food + Design
• Behance Portfolio Review

Established consistent presence in Flagstaff, some events held…

• Stand and Deliver speaker events (3) with local creatives
• Monthly Mixers
• New Member meetups
• Holiday Mixer

And More…

• Full year of partnership with Creative Mornings Phoenix
• Dinner with a Designer sold out every time – five total
• Family Night at the Museum: Phoenix Art Museum – Andy Warhol Exhibit, Heard Museum – Super Hero Exhibit
• Local board retreats: August 2015 – orientation based, November 2015 – planning 2016 programming

And finally, we exceeded 500 chapter members!

There are so many things to look forward to in 2016. We can’t wait to share all that we have in store. See you out there!

– Liz Magura, AIGA Arizona President