The Communication Benchmark Project (and The Business Mystery MBA exhibition) June 29, 2009

Following the success of IDC2009, please join us for two events on the evening of 29 June 2009 at The Cass Business School.

The IDA's June meeting will be a talk by David Sless (6.30pm), and the chance to see the Business Mystery MBA exhibition (from 5.30pm)

From 6.30pm
An Information Design Association talk by David Sless: 'The Communication Benchmark Project'

The Communication Research Institute (CRI) has been undertaking benchmarking research in information design for 20 years. David Sless will explain some of the background to that work and some of their findings. 

Earlier this year CRI put together an international group of volunteers who have now completed the first of what they hope will be many future Communication Benchmark studies. 

The subject of this first study was credit card statements—a type of document that has attracted a lot of recent political interest worldwide, as a result of the current economic mess. David will share with you some of the results of this study and their implications for information design.

Professor David Sless is Director of the Communication Research Institute of Australia. He is frequently invited speaker at international conferences in North America, Europe and Asia, and author of over 180 publications.
http://communication.org.au/modules/home/

From 5.30pm
Please come along to see The Business Mystery MBA exhibition

The Business Mystery MBA elective was conceived in 2004 with the aim of applying perspectives from the arts as a route to gaining insights into management problem solving. It involved treating the arts as a lens or perspective on management. It also overtly sought to redress the lack of right brain emphasis which is endemic to MBA programmes internationally.

The course consists of 5 experiences on a theme and usually in a specific space, in 2009 these include the Barbican Art Gallery (Corbusier), the streets of London (Flow), A recording studio in Hackney (Composition), the Whitechapel Gallery (Integration) and the Drill Hall Theatre (Performance). It was decided from the very beginning that there would be avoidance of formal lectures, leading to the idea of “learning without teaching”. Students are immersed in the experience and have to carry out site-specific tasks and achieve results by the end of each session.

Coursework 1: Describe the experience in one specific week taking one of the following roles: critic; supporter; employer; response to cynics
Coursework 2: Keep a continuous sketchbook of your learnings
Coursework 3: Produce an artfefact which sums up either the elective, the MBA year or your career
The courseworks will be on display at this end-of-term exhibition.

Find out more about the IDA at: http://www.infodesign.org.uk/

Follow IDA on Twitter: http://twitter.com/InfodesignUK