For as long as I have been at Villa Maria College….and long before I joined the faculty we have taken our students to IIDEX , Toronto in September.  We started with a caravan of cars….making the trek from Buffalo to Toronto.  Sometimes we stayed overnight to broaden our experience.  Change was not new to us. We had to adjust to stricter rules at the border and required students to have passports or enhanced driver’s licenses.  But we were always able to make it work.  Students would sometimes be unprepared…and take a chance at the border, hoping their student ID and a Red Cross card would be sufficient to demonstrate good character.  In the end we always made it there and back….with everyone in tow.  Most recently we started renting a bus and opened the trip to all students, faculty and alumni.  We would select an iconic destination for an afternoon tour.  This year it was the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) where students marvelled at the Frank Gehry renovations, including the staircase that inspires romance.  This always marked the start of the Fall semester.  But as I said…change is on the way, and IIDEX 2014 will be held in December. Not only do we have to think about the weather (and if this winter taught us anything it was the power of the polar vortex) but the December dates will come a week before the end of classes.  That means it will come immediately before finals, and immediately before final critique.  So I think that change is on the way for us as well….. Our students learned a tremendous amount at IIDEX, bringing us back year after year.  Even though a few exhibitors were not welcoming to students, most were…and the students remembered them.  They worked at forging relationships with the representatives and specified those products in their projects.  As professionals they continued to gravitate to furniture, fixtures and materials that they were familiar with.  So….looking forward we will make sure that our students not lose the learning experience. We will likely be replacing IIDEX Canada with a field trip that works with the academic calendar…..but losing a beloved tradition will be difficult.