IA Summit 2009 Day 2
I wanted to post an update on Day 1 but I forgot so I'll just put it here.
Day 1:
Arrived in Memphis Tuesday night around midnight. Flight from Phoenix was delayed so I hadn't eaten since lunch. Starving, I checked into the hotel and grabbed some gourmet at Denny's.
Next morning I attended Information Architecture: Theory and Practice presented by Donna Spencer. This was a great session. It was the perfect way to kick off a four days of IA presentations while the foundation principles are still fresh in my head.
I tried to sync up with the rest of the IA crew but somehow missed the boat. We ate at Automatic Slim's and I had the worst duck I have ever eaten. Must be karma because I am staying at the Peabody Hotel whose mascot is four ducks who are escorted down the elevator from their rooftop roost every day at 11am and go back up at 5pm. Even though we missed the big group, we were joined by @Schjønhaug and @Alsos who are attending the conference from Norway.
Day 2:
Today it was Skills for Senior IAs: Mastering Difficult Conversations with Clients and Colleagues presented by Dan Brown and Chris Detzi from EightShapes. Another great session. It's always good to hear about other people having some of the same (or worse) struggles and frustrations with the people/clients work with. Helps me keep perspective and gave me some good ideas of how to better communicate ideas and mitigate some of the inevitable noise that comes along with a collaborative process.
Had dinner at Rendezvous. I didn't even look at the menu, just gimme the ribs. The sweet tea here is great.
Tomorrow I have a full schedule of presentations. The keynote will be great. Michael Wesch is speaking. I first heard of him by his YouTube video Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us he has since posted a few more videos that are also very interesting. I look forward to hearing what he has to say about the future.
After the keynote I have six other sessions planned:
You are (Mostly) Here: Digital Space and The Context Problem
Creating Magic Kingdoms: User Experience lessons from Disney’s Imagineers
Designing Rules: The Engine of User Experience
Site Redesign: When Hell Freezes Over Use a Blowtorch
IA Spy School
Using Enterprise IA to Support Business Strategy
Updates on those sessions and dinner tomorrow...
