Monthly Archive for April, 2008

Web Directions Gov08 Canberra

Published
by
scenariogirl
on April 28, 2008
in Accessibility, Events, Speaking and User Experience
. 4 Comments

One thing I’ve really wanted to do of late is attend the IA Cocktail Hour in Canberra. It always sounds like they have so much fun and actually learn stuff at the same time. It’s rare that you can mix Fun, Alcohol, Learning and Canberra in the one event, but I think they’ve got it sorted.. and I want to give it a go too.

In a strange twist of fate, I’ve been invited to present at the Web Directions Gov08 Conference on May 22nd, which isn’t an IA Cocktail Hour event, but I’m sure there’s going to be some of the same crowd there. And surprise surprise! There’ll be lots of Fun, Alcohol, Learning and Canberra there too.

I’ll be presenting something on Accessibility and the User Experience, a talk based on the one I gave at Web Directions South 07… but better and more interesting, funnier and well, if Cameron Adams is in the room, there might even be a re-run of last years hilarity where he fell asleep during my presentation! Only this time *I will* have a camera ready.

Web Directions Government is a full day two track conference (May 19), plus an optional extra day of workshops (May 20). Presentations will focus on the concepts, technologies and techniques for meeting the challenges of eGovernment:

  • José Manuel Alonso (W3C) – eGovernment Lead
  • Robert Hoekman Jr (Miskeeto) – Interaction design and user experience
  • Lisa Herrod – Usability and accessibility
  • Scott Gledhill (News Digital Media) – Real world web standards
  • Sebastian Chan – Social media and government (workshop)
  • Cameron Adams – Frontiers of Javascript (workshop)
  • Jason Ryan (NZ State Services Commission) – Government 2.0
  • Jenny Telford (Australian Bureau of Statistics) – Opening government data
  • Matthew Hodgson (SMS) – Social computing for knowledge management
  • Ralph Douglas (AGIMO) – GovDex for secure online collaboration
  • Patrick Lee (News Digital Media) – Javascript with legacy systems
  • Andrew Kesper (ABC Online) – Ajax for dry data

It’s all very exciting! I’ve only ever been to Canberra once before, and never to present. I’m really, really looking forward to seeing all my Canberra friends on their home turf for a change… it’s going to be fun!

Web Directions UX08 Melbourne

Published
by
scenariogirl
on April 28, 2008
in Events and User Experience
. 3 Comments

I’m very happy to be presenting at UX08 in Melbourne on May 16.

It’s a real honour to be presenting with such a smart group of local UX people as well as getting to meet a few new faces from O/S.

I’m particularly keen to have a quiet word with Andy Budd too. Not so much to do with UXie stuffs though. You see the last time we met was at an after party at SxSW in Austin, Texas. Within the first minute of talking to him, I choked, had a coughing fit and had to excuse myself… Yes I was sober. But talk about embarrassment! I looked like an alcoholic with TB. So I’m looking forward to representing in a better light this time…

I’m also looking forward to meeting Robert Hoekman Jr, not only because I’ve been reading his posts on the IxDA mail list for ages, but also because he’s a ‘Jr’… and I’ve never met one of those before. I’m wondering what the difference between ‘Jr’ and ‘the II’ is too. I’ll keep you posted, don’t worry about that.

But overall it’s just going to be a fun event and I’m really rapt to be presenting along side some great local friends and all round smart people.

Not only that, Melbourne is my home town, I can wear black on black and not look gothic, and it’s at the Melbourne Town Hall – what a brilliant venue.

So just in case you’re not sure, check out the line up… it’s got all areas covered:

  • Andy Budd (Clearleft) – Interaction design and usability
  • Robert Hoekman Jr (Miskeeto) – User experience evangelist
  • Lisa Herrod – User testing
  • Emily Boyd (Remember the Milk) – Ajax techniques for great user experiences
  • Cameron Adams – Frontiers of Javascript (workshop)
  • Donna Maurer – Getting content right
  • Jackie Moyes (News Digital Media) – Turning research into products
  • Oliver Weidlich – Mobile web user experience
  • Steve Baty – Analysing research data
  • Mathew Patterson (Campaign Monitor) – Designing for email

Hope to see you there… Do you think you can make it?