Our Top Reasons to Attend WMC: Off-The-Grid — October 5–7th, 2018

Hi, my name is Heather Sakai and work at Go Media, a creative agency in Cleveland, Ohio that specializes in graphic design and web development. You may know us as the firm that sells design resources over at the Arsenal or throws an annual design conference known as Weapons of Mass Creation Fest. If you’re familiar, hello again. If not, nice to meet ‘cha.

We here at Go Media (your favorite design shop in CLE) are thrilled to introduce a new event to our community this year, an offshoot of our annual design conference Weapons of Mass Creation Festival, called WMC: Off-The-Grid. WMC: Off-The-Grid is an all-inclusive three-day weekend retreat aimed at YOU, the designers, illustrators, small business owners and other design-minded creatives looking to step away from the screens and social chatter that pull you in a million different directions daily. You will come away with tangible tools and action steps you can use to grow your skill set, your mindset and businesses to become more confident design leaders in your communities.

The event is to take place October 5–7th, 2018 at Mohican Adventures in Loudonville, Ohio.

Reason #1

Step Away from the Social Chatter and Focus on Your Craft in an Intimate Setting

Imagine what would happen if you turned off your notifications, put down your phone and truly had time to make connections, learn from the best and focus on your craft.

In this incredibly intimate setting, you will have the opportunity to:

• learn to be a better, more valuable and more profitable designer and creative
• learn how to increase profits, build and maintain a thriving design firm
• have some serious face time with nationally recognized designers, illustrators and business owners you’ve admired from afar
• get two and a half days of solid content (including talks, workshops, portfolio reviews, fireside chats, etc. — all of which are included in the ticket price)

Reason #2

Speaking of our faculty, each of these incredible people should be a reason on their own, but we’ll group them together for the purposes of this list.

Here is our phenomenal list and a little bit about them. You can learn more about each of our faculty members here.

• Shiu Pei Luu, Art Director for Facebook and Creative Director and Co-Founder for The Beehive Society, a non-profit that fosters creativity through pop up art shows and workshops facilitated around the Bay Area. Shiu Pei Luu will be teaching a workshop on Character Design. She’ll also be speaking — her talk title is “Diversity is Design and the Roles We Play.”
• Brad Weaver, co-founder of design firm The Banner Years, a customer experience studio who has worked with the likes of NPR, Coca-Cola, Disney, Lionsgate, Sony, and more. Brad’s workshop is on “Contracts and Collections.” His talk is entitled, “Swimming to the Shore.”
• Tony Diaz, founder of Austin’s Industry Print Shop and someone who has undoubtedly cemented himself as an authority on all things screenprinting. Tony’s talk will be called, “It’s Not Where You’re From, It’s Where You’re At.”
• Ken Schneck, producer and host of This Show is So Gay, the long-running, award-winning radio show and podcast. Ken’s workshops will be entitled, “The Art of Shameless Self Promotion” and “Creating a Community of Individuals (AKA: Herding Cats to Do Good)”
• Marshall Shorts, award-winning entrepreneur, owner of Soulo Theory Creative and co-founder of Creative Control Fest. Marshall’s talk is called, “This Moment On.”
• Dylan Menges, owner of Menges Design, who has a client list including Subaru of America, Mozilla, Sherwin Williams, and more… Dylan will be teaching a workshop entitled, “Finding Your Wild.”

Lenny Terenzi, designer and illustrator of Hey! Monkey Design will be our host. Lenny will be teaching a workshop entitled, “Self Compassion for Creatives.”

Reason #2

You’re going to love Mohican Adventures.

Mohican Adventures, located at Mohican State Park in Loudonville, Ohio, is partway between Cleveland and Columbus. If you’re driving or flying in from either of these cities, it will take you about 1.5 hours to arrive to the destination. You won’t be able to to miss Mohican Adventures, a vacation destination that offers cozy cabins and vacation homes (each with their unique charm), as well as adventure activities we will have access to (think: kayaking, tubing, ropes courses, hiking, rafting, fishing, and more.)

We will be staying in beautiful homes/cabins, which you can preview here:

Reason #3

Fuel your mind AND fuel your soul.

Our weekend itinerary is jam-packed with talks, workshops, campfire discussions, adventure activities and portfolio reviews. There is no shortage of content. But some of the best stuff is what lies in between — the unspoken — those quiet moments you’ll experience hiking and floating downstream, the peace that will wash over you once your notifications finally quiet. Too, you’ll have a chance to reflect on how far you’ve come and where you’d like to go. How often do you truly allow yourself to get lost and found again?

Reason #4

Ink Wars!

Ink Wars is returning to WMC! Ink Wars is one of the most popular events in the history of Weapons of Mass Creation Fest. This eight-person illustration just gets everyone’s blood-pumping and hearts racing. After all, when do you get to witness so many illustrators going toe-to-toe before your very eyes under some very strict time, material and thematic restraints?

Interested in competing in Ink Wars 2018? Please fill out this form by August 31, 2018 and you’ll be considered for this year’s event!

Special note: We will not be using the usual 8 foot canvases this year. A surprise medium will be announced at a later date. This will indeed change how this year’s Ink Wars will go down.

Reason #5

The little touches.

Did you know that all of your meals will be covered during your time at WMC: Off-The-Grid? We can’t wait to fill your bellies with some amazing meals, including our special Saturday BBQ entitled, “Mike Jones and Friends “Big Southern Lovin’ BBQ,” which is sponsored by the one and only Mike Jones and the team from Creative South out of Columbus, Georgia!

You’ll also get some swag from our incredible sponsors!

Reason #6

We need YOU!

We need you add to the conversation, to help paddle our canoe. And don’t worry. If you don’t have a buddy coming to WMC: OTG, you mustn’t worry. Most of the attendees enrolled thus far are coming solo, so you won’t be the odd woman or man out. After an hour or so, we’ll all be as thick as thieves.

There is still time to enroll, so head to our official site to learn more about the event and to our ticketing page to grab one of the last flying blind tickets, or to put down a deposit if you can’t pay for a full price ticket now.

Have any questions? Email me at heather@gomedia.com and I’d be happy to answer anything!

Hope to see you there!

Interested in sponsoring or giving us an in-kind donation, such as items for our awesome SWAG bags? Contact Heather.