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How AIGA Colorado runs
We keep it simple: Five goals. Three event themes. Nobody does it all alone. All we do supports the mission of our national organization, locally: AIGA advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force.
Five Goals of the Chapter
Every event, dollar, and volunteer hour should support one or more of these goals. All ideas should be vetted through this lens.
- Membership & growth: Engaged member and attract new ones of all career phases
- Professional development: Help members get better at their craft and profession.
- Community & belonging: Create a place where designers feel known, connected
- Emerging talent: Bridge the transition student > emerging designer > professional
- Financial health: Chapter is self-sustaining without heroic fundraising efforts
Programming Categories
Our chapter’s success depends on engaging members at all stages of their career throughout Colorado.
A mix of topics produced within these three categories can help achieve our goals without burnout or losing sight of our purpose. Consider including both virtual and in-person events throughout the season to reach more members across the state and attract new ones.
Head: Professional Development
Speaker talks, expert panels, portfolio reviews, case study breakdowns, career workshops, business tips. Members leave smarter about their craft or industry. | ~3 to 4 per year*
Heart: Community and Belonging
Casual mixers, mentorship programs, member celebrations, coffee crawls, affinity meetups, member blogs, board recruitment. Members leave feeling known. | ~2 to 3 per year*
Hand: Elevating the craft
Hands-on workshops, design jams, live crit nights, collaborative builds, learning new skills. Designers bond making things together. | ~3 to 4 per year*
*These are a suggested number to balance the mix of head, heart, and hand, however, the ultimate chapter goal is to create reliable, regular member engagement throughout the season.
We watch for these common challenges
- Overprogramming. Think quality not quantity. Twelve ambitious events with a burned-out board is worse than eight good ones. When making hard programming decisions: cut volume first, diversity of categories last.
- Only a few people do everything. Sustainability is key to a healthy Chapter. If one person is booking venues, posting on Instagram, and running meetings, the chapter is one resignation away from collapse.
- No promotion lead time. Getting the word out is as important as the event itself. Events planned only 2 weeks out will have low attendance — little reward for a lot of work. Plan at least a month ahead to lock in event details and include a minimum of 2 weeks to promote it. (Longer high-investment events, like the Speaker Series.)
- All Head, no Heart, some Hands. While we do love our speaker events, members renew because of relationships. Have a variety of event sizes and types spread across each month to avoid a calendar squeeze for members … and yourselves.
- No succession planning. Recruit next year’s board a few months before terms end. As board members, keep an eye out for people who show up time and again throughout the season. Invite them to their next level of engagement with AIGA.
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By AIGA Colorado
Published August 12, 2026
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