It’s that time of the year again, time for the 2011 edition of the Interaction conference put on by the IxDA folks. I’m absolutely psyched to be attending for the second year in a row because I know how much thought the planning committee puts into each and every detail, thus making Interaction a truly great event.
In chatting with one of my good friends and talented colleagues about the upcoming awesomeness, I was asked “what are your goals for the conference this year?”. I thought this was an excellent question, and realized that I hadn’t set any for myself up to that point. So, I started to think more and more about what I wanted to get out of the event.
After some thinking, here’s what I came up with. My top most goal is to observe and internalize the interaction community as a whole. Since Interaction is such a great event, and so many of the people there are insanely passionate about this profession, I want to take the time to observe how we all interact with each other, react to all the stimuli around us, and take in the large amount of information that we are being given. I want to get a pulse on what topics are popular with which groups/industry UXers and why. I also just want to see how this planning committee throws down one hell of a great experience, and try to gleam insights into how I can do the same in my work.
So despite the life long goal of learning as much as I can, I’m heading out to Boulder to look at and interact with my tribe. It’s going to be a great time, and I can’t wait to provide a recap of what I learned from my goals above… as well as from the speakers that are busily preparing to fill my brain with more UX goodness. This is going to be great… next stop, Boulder!