GRAVITY FREE was launched in 2006 by Lee Knight, founder of EXHIBITOR MAGAZINE GROUP which includes EXHIBITOR and Corporate EVENT magazines, EXHIBITORFastTrak regional education events, and EXHIBITOR EVENT WEEK: The National Education Conference and Exhibition for Trade Show and Corporate Event Marketing.
As a publisher, event producer and lifelong design advocate, Knight is keenly aware of the essential and ubiquitous role of design in business and personal life, a bright thread woven into information, storytelling, environment, communications, theater, graphics, product innovation, technology, entertainment and virtually every endeavor that involved human interaction.
The first GRAVITY FREE Conference drew from diverse disciplines but concentrated on exhibit and experiential design. With GRAVITY FREE 2007, the true multidisciplinary character of the conference came into full bloom. Held in Chicago’s W Hotel City Center, the event introduced it’s first working theme, “The Geography of Curiosity”. The two and half day program included 22 world-class designers and design thinkers from 20 widely diverse design disciplines. Each speaker addressed one essential question that embodied his or her own passion, including such topics as: “How do you make the boring better?” KARIM RASHID. “Why do clients fire designers?” HENRY BEER. “How can design make the world better for five billion people? CAMERON SINCLAIR. “Where do ‘branded environments’ most often fail?” EVA MADDOX. “Why is 'real' important in contemporary culture?” JIM GILMORE “Why do we eat the way we do?” HOMARO CANTU and on and on. The conference drew raves for its cross fertilization of ideas and unrestricted access to world-class designers through open discussion, speaker-moderated roundtables, and inspired networking events. Participants enjoyed a breakfast presentation and “first-look” private tour of “CSI: The Experience”, a new exhibition soon to open at the world-famous Museum of Science and Industry and an evening reception at the newly restored Shedd Aquarium.
GRAVITY FREE is personally managed by Lee Knight, who has pledged to nurture the concept that made the first Conference great: small, intimate and endlessly inspiring. A commitment to seek out the most passionate designers on earth across widely diverse design disciplines, a event structure that provides attendees maximum personal access to speakers, and an experience that inspires both attendees and speakers to see the world with new eyes and fresh joy.
Architect and conference speaker Ron Pompei says of GRAVITY FREE: “It is soulful.”