Tips for Symposium Registration

2015 Symposium in Singapore, photo by Azzam Bre Mahaputra, on Urban Sketchers blog.

This year's Urban Sketchers international symposium will be held relatively close to home, in Chicago July 26-29. It is a huge, energetic event with attendees and instructors from around the world. The energy and opportunity to learn and meet other sketchers is nothing short of amazing.

Symposium early-bird registration opens up this Saturday morning, February 11, at 8am Chicago time (that is 6am Seattle time!) In my experience, if you are thinking about going to Chicago, sign up as an early bird. It's hard to say if the symposium will fill immediately as it has in some years past (some times, even in mere minutes), so get a few things ready NOW and sign up at 6am Saturday morning if you can.

To read more about the costs and the different passes that are available, go here.

Regular registration opens up on February 18.


This will be my fifth symposium, so I have a few recommendations to share, as you will want to register very quickly on Saturday morning:

1--Sign up NOW at Eventbrite to save time when registration officially opens up on Saturday morning. To set up your account now, click here.

2--The list of a whopping 36 instructors and workshops is on the Urban Sketchers blog www.urbansketchers.org under "Symposium" and then "programming". It is here. You will get to select four workshops and one demo, plus lectures.

3--To be on the safe side, since sometimes the symposiums sell out immediately, set your alarm clock for for 15 minutes before registration opens up in your time zone and start your registration precisely at 8am Chicago time.  
You will have already set up your account via Eventbrite :) so it should go quickly if everything is working ok with the website. Eventrbrite times out after a few minutes and you'll have to start all over, so know ahead of time what you want to sign up for (see #4 below). Keep in mind that people from around the world are trying to register at the same time, so don't panic...be patient!

4--Do your homework before you register. Review all the workshops, study the work of the instructors NOW. Have a list of the workshops you want to do the most ready by Saturday morning and have alternates ready in case they are already full when you register. You will get to sign up for four workshops plus other demos, events, etc.

5--If you sign up now and then cancel, you may lose a bit of your registration fee. The symposium blog states:

What is the refund policy?

Urban Sketchers reserves the right to apply a $85 (USD) cancellation fee for all refunds. Due the need to finalize facilities, supplies, and programming, no refunds will be offered after May 11, 2017. 

6-- Go online to www.urbansketchers.org and look at the general info about the symposium under the "symposium" tab. You can also look at programming for past symposiums to get a feel for the event! 

7--This huge event is organized every year by incredible volunteers who already start planning more than a year in advance...they do an unbelievable amount of work to make this symposium a really (and I mean REALLY) impressive, well-organized experience. Please thank them for all they do!

8--Also, book your hotel now too. The symposium headquarters is right downtown near the Bean sculpture. Here are recommendations from the organizers: here

If anyone has anything to add, please do so in the comments below.

I hope this helps! See you in Chicago! #USkChicago2017