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How AIGA Colorado runs
We keep it simple. Five goals. Three event themes. Nobody does it all alone. It ladders up to our mission: AIGA advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force.
Five Goals
Every event, dollar, and volunteer hour should ladder up to one of these. If it doesn’t, we probably shouldn’t do it.
- Membership & growth: Keep members engaged, bring new designers in
- Professional development: Help members get better at their craft and careers
- Community & belonging: Place where designers feel known and connected
- Emerging talent: Bridge students and early-career designers to practice
- Financial health: Enough money to run without heroics or burnout
Types of Events
Head: Professional Development
Speaker talks, panels, portfolio reviews, case study breakdowns, career workshops. Members leave smarter about their craft or industry. | ~3 to 4 per year*
Head: Professional Development
Speaker talks, panels, portfolio reviews, case study breakdowns, career workshops. Members leave smarter about their craft or industry. | ~3 to 4 per year*
Heart: Community and Belonging
Casual mixers, mentorship kickoffs, member celebrations, coffee crawls, affinity meetups. Members leave feeling known. |~2 to 3 per year*
Hand:Elevating the craft<
Hands-on workshops, design jams, live crit nights, collaborative builds. Designers making things together. | ~3 to 4 per year*
*these are just estimates. The goal is to avoid burnout.
We watch for these common challenges
- Overprogramming. Twelve ambitious events with a burned-out board is worse than eight good ones. Cut volume first, protect balance last.
- Only a few people do everything. If one person is booking venues, posting on Instagram, and running meetings, the chapter is one resignation away from collapse.
- No promotion lead time. Events planned 2 weeks out get 12 attendees. Lock details 3+ weeks ahead.
- All Head, no Heart, some Hands. Boards default to speaker events. But people renew because of relationships. Protect the social calendar. Have a variety of event sizes and types.
- No succession planning. Recruit next year’s board a few months before terms end.
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By elysia.syriac
Published August 12, 2026
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