Thursday, February 05, 2009

UX Australia - August 2009

It was with a certain sense of trepidation, and a great deal of excitement that we announced yesterday the UX Australia conference. The trepidation is only natural - as with any big undertaking. And there are a lot of reasons to be excited. Here are some of the biggies:
  • Its being held in Canberra. Usually, UX & Web conferences get held in places like Sydney or Melbourne or Perth. And we wanted to share some of the love with our capital cousins
  • The conference is community based, which means we're calling for proposals for presenters from the community; and we'll be involving volunteers from the community to review and help select the conference program
  • It's about UX. Not IA, although that will be covered. Not interaction design, although that will be covered as well. Nor is it about information design, usability, accessibility, or user research. No, it's about all of those things equally, and about how they all play a role in delivering great experiences to people.
The conference venue - Hotel Realm - looks pretty sweet as well. Brand new; five-star; but with plenty of affordable options for inter-state and international travelers. And plenty of restaurants and bars within throwing distance.

We'll be calling for presentation proposals in a bit over a week, so think of a good topic and get ready to send it in.

3 comments:

Patrick said...

Well done Steve, I look forward to the conference and your fresh take on holding an event such as this.

Would panel sessions also come under the peer review process? I find these sessions most interesting, but perhaps they should be 'by invitation' instead of by peer reviewed submissions.

cheers

Pat

Anonymous said...

Well Done Steve.

Good call. It would be excellent to focus on the UX as a whole, taking in all the various aspects, instead of the usual narrow focus.

Being a community conference in Canberra does raise a bias maybe in the peer review process. There is a possibility of a slanting towards a Govt / Canberra UX approach. Given that the Canberra work environment seems to be unique, and not very transferrable.

I'll assume you have methods in place to stop this occurring.

Mind you the by invitation approach will just end up with the usual stories from the same crop of speakers.

Personally I looking for something to make be sit up and take notice. Not more of the "same-old" lets hope UX-AU can deliver.

Looking forward to next weeks announcement.

Steve 'Doc' Baty said...

Pat, panel sessions haven't been discussed separately, so they're currently under the general call for submission and the peer review process. We *may* look at inviting a panel presentation if there's a strong need - say to tie up some loose ends around a topic that seems worthwhile.

Gary, we certainly don't intend for the conference to be Canberra-centric; Government-centric; or agencies-who-work-for-government-centric. We'll do our best to create a balanced program, and one that reflects the broad spread of UX projects going on in Australia.