This month SheSays is all about changing, re-inventing and re-starting your career. We have come up with a group of speakers that have done every possible switch: from changing career disciplines to changing careers all together and even adding a change of country to spice things ups. We would also like to hear experiences, thoughts and questions from everyone in the audience so whether you are coming just to sit in and listen, ask questions or comment on a topic being discussed, we would love to have you for our one year in NY celebratory event. SPEAKERS Vivian Rosenthal - Co-founder/Director - Tronic Studio Tina Glengary - Creative Strategist - Big Spaceship Julie Zukof - Strategist - Anomaly Geetika Agrawal - Sr. Interaction Designer - R/GA

1. I want to tell you a true story today. About how I went from working in a museum to being a digital strategist at Big Spaceship.

2. My name is Tina Glengary. Hello.

3. I graduated from college with a French Culture degree, which was not very practical. So I went back to grad school to get another degree in information and library science. Which was highly
practical for going into highly specific fields...

4. Archivist
Curator
Librarian
HCI Specialist
Conservator
Educator
But unfortunately, I wasnʼt interested in any of them. But I did learn in school that I loved synthesizing huge amounts of information into digestible chunks. I loved helping other people
understand and get excited about the artifacts and documents at the libraries, archives and museums I interned at.

5. In short, I liked making experiences. Experiential learning uses multiple senses to get people into what Csikszentmihalyi called a “flow.” I wanted to do that!

6. Experience Developer // The Henry Ford
And luckily, I got an internship (which segued into a job) at the Experience Design department at Henry Ford Museum.

7. Find a mentor
Ask forgiveness, not permission
Listen more than you speak
Seek out adventure
I learned several important lessons working there. I had two amazing mentors. I inserted myself in all the projects I was interested in. I tried to understand where everyone was coming from.
And I just wanted to do more, learn more, etc...

8. Bubble Diagrams // Disney Exhibit
My job was essentially to tell stories through exhibits. I started with concepts and bubble diagrams.

9. Floor Plan // Disney Exhibit
And turned them into floor plans that mapped out the visitor experience and artifact placement.

10. Tina & Moose // Disney Exhibit
And finally saw them come to life! Thatʼs my service dog-in-training Moose, another long story.

11. But I wasnʼt entirely happy. Museums move very slowly and there are lots of politics to negotiate and small budgets to worry about. So I knew it was time to move on.

12. Learn about a new field / topic / etc
Make a list of people & firms
Research those people
Be brave, ask for introductions
Express yourself
I knew I was interested in experience design. So I started an evolving research project on what it meant, who was doing it and what their motivations were. Once I had a list, I wanted to send
them something that showed I “got it.”

13. Book One // i make experiences.
So I made a book. I love doing collages, so I made a collage book that tells the story of what an experience is. I sent it to about 10 firms. Although, I got back very few responses, Ed Cotton
(Influx Insights) called me, wanted to find out more and wished me luck. His interest meant the world to me.

14. Content Developer // Academy Studios
Even though I didnʼt land a job with the book, I ended up moving out to the Bay Area to work with an amazing exhibit design/build firm that I had worked with as a client at the museum.
Great. More projects, more collaboration with designers, more experiences...

15. Brainstorming // Capital Unity Center
Where I had a chance to lead brainstorms with our internal team and clients, often leading to fun whiteboard scribbles like this. (Props to John!)

16. Activity Flow // Capital Unity Center
And map out visitor activities to help clients understand what exactly visitors would be doing in these experiences.

17. Exhibit Elevation // Capital Unity Center
And work really, really closely with 3D, graphic designers and even fabricators to help influence the look and feel of the experience.

18. But, I still knew there was something else out there. Experience design still meant so many other things: digital, retail, wayfinding, branding, products, etc.

19. Do your homework
Know what they need
Specialize, even if youʼre a generalist
So I went back to the drawing board. I honed and refined my list from before. I knew what each firm did, their specialties, their goals. And most importantly, I tried to figure out how to sell
myself as an essential asset to their team. What could my unique skills offer these firms?

20. Feeds // Endless Information
What else did I do? I moved from reading blogs via bookmarks to keeping track of trends via a feed reader.

21. Blog // tiboutoo.blogspot.com
I started a blog of my own.

22. Website // imakeexperiences.com
I wanted to try something a bit out of my skill set and made my own website. A bit lo-fi, but I made it myself.

23. Book Two // A Fairy Tale
And again, I made a book that told the story of what an experience is. So I sent out 15 or so of these books with personalized letters. The response was better. I had 3 of the people on my
“favorites” list respond very enthusiastically.

24. Creative Strategist // Big Spaceship
In fact so enthusiastically, that I landed a job at Big Spaceship. Michael Lebowitz really got it. That experiences are experiences, whether they happen in 3D spaces or online.

25. Brainstorming // Epsonality
And at Big Spaceship I helped our teams find opportunities in a seemingly mundane products. In this case printers.

26. Strategy // Epsonality
I translated client goals and content into something that real people could relate to. Epsonality has to do with personality, so I made “personas” for each of the printers, mapping out their
likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc.

27. Website // Epsonality
And worked with an awesome team to pull off some great projects.

28. And here I am again, in the familiar spot of trying to reinvent myself. Trying to figure out where I fit in the world of experience design. Trying to figure out whatʼs next...

29. Be nice
Use LinkedIn
Take every opportunity
Say more than thank you
Try something new
Iʼm using everything Iʼve learned so far. Donʼt burn bridges. LinkedIn is an amazing tool that you need to work at while youʼre still employed so it can help you when youʼre looking for work.
Itʼs amazing what kinds of opportunities your network can provide. Beyond a thank you, provide some insight. And just try new stuff.

31. tina glengary // i make experiences.
tinaglengary@gmail.com
www.imakeexperiences.com