March 13, 2009

London IA Mini Conference at The Guardian in April

I'm delighted to be able to blog that on Monday 20th April, The Guardian will be hosting the first 'London IA Mini Conference' at our Kings Place office.

It is the start of what I hope will be a series of mini-conferences that allow our London IA group to share knowledge and experience in a setting that is less formal (and less expensive) than a big one day conference, but a little bit more structured than 'IA in the pub'.

The topics and presenters we have planned for April are:

Agile UX - Cennydd Bowles
Interactivity - how IA's learned to stop worrying and love designers - Tom Coombs
Why users don't follow instructions - Phillip Winwood
Interacting with forms - Matthew Solle
Spec docs from Axure wires - Ken Beatson

I'll also be delivering a short spot on "What IA means for The Guardian" - a topic also briefly covered in a Q&A about my new job which I've done with Judith Townend at journalism.co.uk.

You can register via our London IA Ning community from noon today. In order to keep the level of personal interaction high there is a limit of 30 places, so try and register quickly if you want to go. It is free, but you need to be a member of the group to attend - so please sign up.

The format of the evening is to provide:

"5-10 min presentations intermixed with discussion on topics of current relevance to IA practice. Interaction is the key. Focuses on more participation and peer knowledge sharing than lectures from gurus."

Huge credit goes to Ken Beatson, who has been the driving force behind getting this organised, and the other sponsors alongside The Guardian - Aquent and Axure.