Ideǝ2009 — Toronto
Sure, I would have liked to be in Toronto somewhat earlier to see a select number of great films at this year’s International Film Festival, but I am nonetheless extremely happy to be able to attend the Idea 2009 conference from the 14th to the 16th of September.
A conference about social and experience design? A meet-up with great speakers discussing new and engaging way humans can interact with systems, computers, and of course, with each other? Clearly a no-brainer for someone interested in HCI and Interaction Design like me. I’m there.
Besides, I’ve never been to Toronto. I hear it’s the “New York City” of Canada. (Is it?)
In the past I’ve had the chance to attend similar conferences, such as Voices That Matter Web Design conference in 2008, and more recently a combined 1-day version of IxDA Interaction 09 + IA Summit 2009, appropriately named RedUX DC. Needless to say, I love the chance of being in the middle of a highly-concentrated environment full of creative minds –all sharing how and why design is one of our passions.
Idea 2009 will start with a full day workshop called “Modular User Experience Design and Deliverables”. I’m particularly interested in how to create UX-pattern libraries, which seems to be one of the many things we will be learning in between lectures, discussions and actively building different types of UX deliverables.
The next two days will be full of talks touching on everything from designing social experiences, social models, open-source design and social design patterns –among many others. There’s one that particularly caught my attention just by reading the title: “The Art and Science of Seductive Interactions” by Stephen Anderson (there must be a reason why this is the last session of the conference.)
I sure hope to learn a lot at this conference; say hello to a couple of “Tweeple” I’ve met before; and certainly meet new speakers/attendants at this interesting event.
And of course, provided I wake up early enough one of these 3 days, I may just manage to add a quick run along Lake Ontario‘s shore.