Mark was one hell of a Chapter President, he pushed and inspired every executive and member to bring their best game forward for the benefit of our Association and the Design industry in BC. During his term, he managed to assemble the biggest and boldest volunteer executive the BC chapter had ever seen; a well-oiled machine where every single individual knew exactly what to do, was ready to get things done and was excited about the possibilities.
During his term the Chapter grew almost 32% in overall membership, we experienced a great interest for certification (MGDC and LGDC back in the day), a huge increase in student memberships and put together the successful FGDC nominations of Dale Simonson and Jim Rimmer.
Also, during his term, the chapter experienced presentations from Stefan Sagmeister, Tim Inkster and Michael Strassburger; had a very successful Graphex 2008 with an impressive panel of judges that included Marian Bantjes, Stanley Hainsworth, Michael Jager, Jamie Koval, Ronald Kapaz, and Sam Carter. His term also included two sold out premieres of the movie “Helvetica” that included a Q&A session with the director Gary Hustwit, Douglas Coupland and Jim Rimmer; as well as the first Student mini-conference POGO, now a staple event for the BC Chapter. These are just a small sample of the community events where Mark’s influence and connections were key in their success.
The “Busse-Factor”—or his amazing power of attraction, —made possible to create ongoing relationships with other associations like IxDA, CAPIC, SIGGRAPH, NABS and BCID to cross promote and organize industry events with mutual benefits; these relationships made it possible to establish the now legendary Associations BBQ, where every summer we come together as an industry and put one of the most friendly and relaxed events in the city. Mark’s moose chili is still one of the crowd’s favorite.
Thanks to the GDC BC, in 2007 Mark had the opportunity to attend Icograda Design Week in Cuba, an event that turned out to be the spark of one of the most influential and important events the GDC has put together, Icograda Design Week 2010—Design Currency. Engaging the whole BC design community from its formation, Mark with the help of the event’s co-chairs, managed to drive a committee of several creatives to bring the concept, identity and organize a line-up of 30 of the most influential international experts in the communication design field to speak about the Value of Design and to have attendees experience current design thinking to reshape the understanding of the value of
what we do.
The results of Design Week 2010 are still in the minds and hearts of those who experienced it. The event resulted in great promotion of the GDC, to government, local industry stakeholders and practitioners of other creative industries, all while navigating in the toughest economic times seen in the last decade. Design Week 2010 allowed the GDC to have a national presence in publications as the Globe and Mail, Business in Vancouver and other media outlets around the world that made possible to solidify the long-lasting relationship we have with Icograda, create an international influence— with presentations in China (from Mark himself and Past President Rod Roodenburg), and open communications and resources with other sister associations like AGDA.
