Semi Permanent

Overview

Every now and then something comes along that warrants whatever plans you may have had to be scrapped and replaced with something way cooler. In this instance, whatever you've got diaried for May 18th and 19th, grab an eraser (or your backspace button if you're not as old school as me) and clear your day; Semi Permanent is back and trust me, it's not one to be missed.

In a nutshell, SP is a world leading design conference. To date it has hosted 29 events in 9 cities, covering 5 countries, with over 200 speakers and 50,000 attendees. It other words, it's an awesomely big deal. 2012 sees the eighth installment of the conference in NZ, after touring Sydney, Melbourne, Dubai and Singapore. They even have satellite conferences in New York and London. Future as.

I went to my first SP when I was studying design, and to say you come away buzzing is an understatement.  The event covers all disciplines of design, including graphic design, film, fine art, illustration, web design, interaction design, photography, visual effects, animation, graffiti, motion graphics, stop motion, and architecture, and much more. Leaving your mind boggling at the creative genius and sheer talent of some people.

While obviously heavily weighted in design, SP is a forum for people with a mind open to creative ideas. It's on a similar wavelength as TED talks, so if you've ever caught yourself up past midnight watching speaker streams, this is definitely something to look into.

And believe me, it's well worth wagging work on Friday. See here for the full speaker line up.