My Amazing Weekend Part 1: Meeting the Inmans
I have been a member of the WaSP Education Task Force since March of 2008 and in that group I have met a lot of very capable and talented people who are working hard to enhance the educational opportunities for people in website development (design and development). In that group is also the mighty Leslie Jensen-Inman whom I have been working both indirectly and directly with since March ‘08. Leslie works at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga teaching graphic design. Leslie is a very talented graphic designer and holds such designer friends as The Great Cindy Li and The Duoh Superwoman Veerle Pieters. So when Leslie contacted me saying she would be in Baltimore this past weekend, of course, I was excited.
Oh yeah, her husband, Shaun Inman, was going to be with her. Double, no triple awesome!
Shaun Inman is a very well known web designer/developer, probably most notably for his blog iterations of his personal site ( http://www.shauninman.com ) or his creation of mint ( http://www.haveamint.com ) (a site analytics tool).
I drove to Baltimore so excited about the chance to grab lunch with them, thinking that I would need to stay calm and not scream like a 13 year old girl when I saw them. We went to a restaurant across the street from their hotel and enjoyed some sushi. We made small talk and Leslie and I commiserated over the flaws of education. She shared her wisdom in regard to approach and concept of teaching and how the flaws of education effect her nook in Chattanooga.
The largest thing I took away from this experience is that the Inmans are real people, they are passionate about what they do and enjoy talking about it. I think I had them on this pedestal way above myself (and believe me they belong there for all their hard work and knowledge) but I thought that with that they would be unapproachable and boy was that a skewed conception. The second thing I took away from our time together was that it is absolutely fabulous to meet and talk to other educators in the website design and development field. Leslie and I had met priorly electronically and spoken via Skype but there is something you can’t replicate when you get to sit down and talk to someone face to face. I had a fabulous time with the Inmans and appreciate the time they took out of their very busy weekend to meet (Leslie both defended her thesis for her Masters degree that day and presented at an AIGA conference the next, whew, I’m tired just typing all that). Thanks Leslie and Shaun.
