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Top O.C. designers, continued ...
Virtual meeting designer
Dan Parks
President and creative director of Corporate Planners Unlimited
Dana Point
<<< Photo by Carla Rhea
What
you like most about being a designer: “Waking up and having a clean
virtual canvas to work with, and watching the images in my mind
materialize in 3-D”
Imagine that you’re sitting inside a
balloon floating over Tokyo, with the clouds at your feet. And after 15
minutes, you’re handed a teleport so you can travel to a field to
practice tai chi.
This isn’t a video game; it’s the
revolutionary new world of meetings and events. It’s called Virtualis
Convention and Learning, and it’s the brainchild of Dan Parks, the
president and creative director of Corporate Planners Unlimited, or CPU.
“Every morning, I feel like Picasso waking up with a clear palette,” he says. “I can create anything that my mind can imagine.”
He’s
been designing for 20 years, but Parks says his passion was injected
with a high dose of adrenaline in 2006, upon the discovery of Second
Life – a downloadable, three-dimensional world.
Working with
his wife at the company they founded before marrying, the couple put
their talents together to revolutionize meetings with Virtualis.
“It
was truly a labor of life and love,” he says. “We have these different
skill sets, and we’ve always evolved them into each other. She’s the
real meeting professional; and I’m the idea guy, the creator.”
Although
Parks uses his multifarious creative talents at CPU for print media,
theme and room design, creative marketing campaigns, invitations and
promotional items, Virtualis is his greatest achievement. And it earned
CPU a spot among a list of 14 companies in the United States to be a
Gold Provider in Second Life.
Parks is also one of the
founding members of MeCo, or the Meetings Community – a group of about
30,000 meeting professionals. And he created the MeCo Mansion, a
virtual educational facility with 16 rooms to provide the optimal
environment for meeting and planning professionals.
Parks is an active member of social networking sites and has more than 20,000 followers on Twitter.
Derek Jenkins | Barclay Butera | Mariana Stoopen
Matt Tubergen | Jane Elia Schwartz | Marc Entin
Kelli Ellis | Dan Parks | Oday Shakar | Lin Shen
Top O.C. designers, continued ...
Virtual meeting designerDan Parks
President and creative director of Corporate Planners Unlimited
Dana Point
<<< Photo by Carla Rhea
What you like most about being a designer: “Waking up and having a clean virtual canvas to work with, and watching the images in my mind materialize in 3-D”
Imagine that you’re sitting inside a balloon floating over Tokyo, with the clouds at your feet. And after 15 minutes, you’re handed a teleport so you can travel to a field to practice tai chi.
This isn’t a video game; it’s the revolutionary new world of meetings and events. It’s called Virtualis Convention and Learning, and it’s the brainchild of Dan Parks, the president and creative director of Corporate Planners Unlimited, or CPU.
“Every morning, I feel like Picasso waking up with a clear palette,” he says. “I can create anything that my mind can imagine.”
He’s been designing for 20 years, but Parks says his passion was injected with a high dose of adrenaline in 2006, upon the discovery of Second Life – a downloadable, three-dimensional world.
Working with his wife at the company they founded before marrying, the couple put their talents together to revolutionize meetings with Virtualis.
“It was truly a labor of life and love,” he says. “We have these different skill sets, and we’ve always evolved them into each other. She’s the real meeting professional; and I’m the idea guy, the creator.”
Although Parks uses his multifarious creative talents at CPU for print media, theme and room design, creative marketing campaigns, invitations and promotional items, Virtualis is his greatest achievement. And it earned CPU a spot among a list of 14 companies in the United States to be a Gold Provider in Second Life.
Parks is also one of the founding members of MeCo, or the Meetings Community – a group of about 30,000 meeting professionals. And he created the MeCo Mansion, a virtual educational facility with 16 rooms to provide the optimal environment for meeting and planning professionals.
Parks is an active member of social networking sites and has more than 20,000 followers on Twitter.
Derek Jenkins | Barclay Butera | Mariana Stoopen
Matt Tubergen | Jane Elia Schwartz | Marc Entin
Kelli Ellis | Dan Parks | Oday Shakar | Lin Shen
Matt Tubergen | Jane Elia Schwartz | Marc Entin
Kelli Ellis | Dan Parks | Oday Shakar | Lin Shen
