Conferences have a way of blending together, like some hazy montage from a movie you’ve probably long forgotten. Drifting from room to room, with the same companions, with the same oversaturated looks on their faces indicative of people who have just eaten too much and now want a nap (only here the food is knowledge).
That’s why I’m excited that we’re partnered this year with the 2017 IA Summit. (And it includes a discount code at the bottom of this article!) One of their goals this year is to make the attendee experience more diverse and more engaging. By spreading the collaboration and ideas across a wide array of activities, this conference will keep us on our toes all 4 days.
Something for Everyone
Here’s a look at a few of the activities the folks organizing IA Summit planned:
- Mentoring sessions—for those who might not be fortunate enough to be surrounded by great mentors at all times.
- Open discussions about diversity and inclusion—something we should all engage in more regularly anyway.
- Portfolio reviews—great for folks looking to change jobs, or even break into the field. Or who just like to be critiqued for fun.
- Wiki events—because who doesn’t want to edit a wiki?
And a whole lot more. But one thing in particular makes this all stand out…
Lots of Love for First Time Attendees
Every week, it seems I’m having coffee with someone asking me how to break into the user experience community. One of my responses (after “read a lot and write a lot and don’t expect miracles”) is always a recommendation to attend conferences. It’s why here at UX Booth we include important conferences in our Complete Beginner’s Guides. Indeed, IA Summit is in our guide to information architecture.
That’s why I’m tickled pink that IA Summit focuses on first time attendees and making sure they feel like they’re in the right place, and that they know how to make the most of their experience.
Here’s what IA Summit has to say:
If you are new to the IA Summit, this session is for you. Lead by an experienced member of the IA Summit community, this session is meant to give you a broad overview of the whole event and how to make the best of it. Also a bonus of attending is that we all walk to the opening reception together, so no one has to go it alone the first time.
First-time attendees of the IA Summit are invited to attend no-host welcome dinners with experienced members of the IA community.
I wish I would have had this kind of orientation when I went to my first conference.
So if you’re new to the UX and IA community but you’re fence-sitting on whether to attend, I hope you’ll land on attending. Because if you’ll allow me to pull out my soapbox once again, we need more diversity in design. If we want to research, design, and build for an inclusive world, we need new ideas, new perspectives.
So come bring yours to IA Summit this year. It’s in Vancouver, BC, and will happen between March 22—26th. Register with code UXBOOTH for a $50 discount!