The Cyberposium 13 marketing team held a design competition for the conference logo. It is an example of user-generated content influencing life on campus
Congratulations to Ryan Naragon (Partner NA)! Last week he was selected the winner of the Cyberposium 13: Innovation Without Borders Logo Design Competition. The competition, a first for Cyberposium, was created with the goal of utilizing the latent gifts of the HBS community. As Netta Kivilis, co-director of marketing for the conference quipped, “We have a load of talent at this school, but not all of it comes out in the classroom. Some classmates are beautiful singers. Some are former athletic champions. A few are obsequious, purple and clairvoyant. With the Cyberposium Design Competition, we wanted to give people a chance to express some of these softer skills.”
For those who may not know, Cyberposium is the HBS TechMedia Club’s annual conference www.cyberposium.com. Its one of the largest conferences at HBS (nearly a thousand people attend) and it’s the most successful MBA tech business conference in the country. It hosts hundreds of industry professionals and features dynamite keynote speakers and panels. Cyberposium isn’t just for tech geeks. It is an event geared for MBA students in general who want to learn about technology, network with business leaders, and connect with students from both HBS and schools all over the Northeast.
In the midst of planning the conference, board members realized that we needed a logo to represent the Cyberposium. The idea of a design contest emerged as the result of a team budget discussion and although we considered hiring a graphic designer, that could cost upwards of several thousand dollars. We then realized that the HBS community could probably produce as good a design at a fraction of the cost and it would be a way for us to participate in the user-generated movement.
As a result, we held a 72-hour design contest. Our plan was simple: we would solicit designs from the HBS community and from our contacts outside of school. In exchange, we promised to give the winning designer a new Ipod Nano and free admission for two to Cyberposium 13.
Designs came pouring in almost immediately and the selection committee had oodles of fabulous photos, cartoons, and other designs to choose from. In the end, the committee selected Ryan’s cartoon of four light bulb-people holding hands over a crimson “Cyberposium.” It visually nailed the two parts of our conference theme: “Innovation Without Borders.” Light bulbs = innovation. Holding hands = without borders. The committee was further impressed by Ryan’s knowledge of and passion for fonts. Of the font he used for the design, he selected “Neo-Sans: A minimalist and geometric typeface that screams high tech. It is used in the Intel and Technorati logos.” Matt Witheiler, one of the conference co-chairs said, “This design blew me away. It is simple, elegant, and straightforward. I’ve never been so happy. Ever. Literally.”
Thanks for our logo Ryan. See you at the conference on November 10th.
