UX Australia News

I saw this tweet come through the other day from Steve Collins:

@docbaty proposal for @uxaustralia side event – “The UX of tasting a single malt”. Dead set serious.

This got me to thinking about the nature of social events at conferences. And, naturally, about single malt whiskey Appreciation of a good single malt is a shared vice for a few of us within the user experience community – and I know that this is not universal – but there are enough of us that Steve’s suggestion is certainly worth thinking about. It might be a formal whisky appreciation mini-course, or a tasting put on in a bar, or a gathering at someone’s home or workplace.

Now, in general… what makes a good conference? To me it is a blend of location, venue, speaker quality, interest in the presented material – and yes – it is also about the social stuff.

Who do I know that is going along? Are these “my kind of mad UX/IA people” in general? How well do I feel accepted into the conversations when I am there? Are the social venues crowded and noisy with long lines at the bar and a long wait for food? I want to know where I fit in and how well suited the venue is to my style of conference socialising – which is having a drink or two while chatting to people, catching up, learning – and I grant that your mileage may vary.

Are you any different? What is your ideal conference social experience? Can you define it? I think it is fair to say that the whole UX Australia team is really interested in your answer

And by the by, if you think that Steve Collins’ suggestion is a good one, please say so.

We are very pleased to announce the call for proposals for UX Australia 2009.

The conference program for UX Australia 2009 will be based on your input, to ensure that the conference reflects current user experience practice and also reflects the types of presentations you would like to see.

We are calling for proposals for main conference presentations and for pre-conference workshops.

Key dates

The key dates are:

• 16 Feb 2009: Call for proposals open
• 29 Mar 2009: Proposals close (this is not a flexible date – we will close on midnight AEST this date) 
• 30 Mar 2009: Reviewing starts
• 11 Apr 2009: Speakers notified
• 1 May 2009: Conference registration opens (with full program available)

Guiding principles

Although the conference program will be heavily based on community reviews, there are some guiding principles for the type and style of presentations at the conference.

Reviewing proposals

UX Australia 2009 is a community-reviewed conference, and we need people to help with reviewing.

Where do I start?

Keen? Start here:

• How we’ll develop the UX Australia program
• Main conference presentation information
• Pre-conference workshop information
• Register as a reviewer

Thank you for telling us how excited you are about UX Australia. It’s so rewarding (and a big relief) to know that other people are excited about this conference.

It has taken a lot of work to get to this point, and we are developing the website incrementally. Last night we added our new logo (thanks to Boomworks for that) and today we add our blog.

We’ll be using the blog for all sorts of informal communications – all the little things that happen as we work, and the things we want to ask you about. So please subscribe to our feed, or visit regularly so you can be involved!