[Sigia-l] Chicago Events & some questions (long)

Tue Sep 9 12:09:04 EDT 2003

In town to speak at the AARP Conference, Life at 50+, Amy Lee, AARP’s Manager of
Creative Web Development did a great job of presenting research on people over
50 on the Web (see http://www.aarp.org/olderwiserwired/) to the Chicago
Usability Professionals Association at IIT on Thursday evening, September 4. Her
presentation was followed by a lively panel composed of Lee, Beth Mazur of the
AARP Services Web Strategy & Operations Group, Court Chilton & Susan Granger.
Accompanying husband IA Mike Lee of visualee.com got in on the panel action,
too. Lots of lively audience interaction kept the interesting insights into the
needs of online adults flowing until after 8 P.M.

Afterward we were discussing the apparent lack of a truly active IA/ID group in
the Chicago area. There’s lots of formal, mostly expensive stuff going on (see
list & links at the end of this posting). It’s the lack of a cohesive group for
informal get-togethers, planned & spontaneous, that I am lamenting. (Whatever
happened to the group that met at the Shedd Aquarium—the one that always met
when I had to be in Georgia on work-related business?) 

So, in the interest of getting something going, I have some questions for you,
whether you’re from Chicagoland (as we call it here) or not, as the case may be.
Please reply off-list & I will summarize.

Non-Chicagoans: What are you doing to promote IA/ID & Usability within your
organizations and especially, between IAs? How are you doing it? Tell all,
please! This includes formal & informal stuff, everything from networking to
scheduled inexpensive presentations to formal conferences. For example Mike told
me about the IA Salon in NYC. New York IAs take turns getting together, hosting
from their residences. Is anyone having IA Salons elsewhere?

ChicagolandIAns: Okay, what are you doing that I’ve somehow missed, lurking as I
do in both sigia-l at asis.org  & chi-web at acm.org? Mike Lee told me he searched the
archives before heading to Chicago & didn’t find anything happening/anyone to
connect with from the list. I know there are people out here so that’s all the
more reason for everyone to ’fess up to whatever they’ve got happening. Both
Beth & Mike told me that an ID group is coalescing in Chicago. Please fill us in. 

What *would* you like to see happening in Chicago? Since I’m currently between
jobs this is a good time to take advantage of my organizational skills. Do you
like the idea of in-home IA Salon meetings, or would you prefer a public place,
say a library meeting room or restaurant? Do you desire casual discussions,
formal presentations, networking ops? All of the above? Do you have suggestions
for topics? Do you want to be a speaker (on what)? Do you have a problem you’d
like some group-mind help to solve? Would you prefer to meet on weeknights or on
the weekend? Would your workplace provide a meeting space? 

I’m willing to appoint myself catalyst (AKA temporary program chair) to get the
ball rolling on some informal, free to inexpensive events for IA/ID/Usability
types to get together, & to provide a focal point for out of town visitors to
touch base with when they’re here for business or pleasure. Lou Rosenfeld has
been asking, “Where have all the IAs gone?” & this is a chance to answer that
question for Chicago, & to get something happening that would provide
edutainment of the best kind. And as long as I’m volunteering for things, do you
feel that a Web page devoted to Chicago-area IA/ID/Usability events would be
useful for keeping track of what we have going on here, for us & for visitors?
In which case, I need volunteer reviewers for the events below, since going to
all of them is beyond my means.

In some ways being in Chicago provides an embarrassment of riches, because there
are lots of events sponsored by both non-profit & for-profit organizations. It’s
just that they’re not the kind of ongoing, iconoclastic, free-ranging informal
get-togethers I’m envisioning. How about you? Is it worth trying to pull
together a group of working professionals that meet in person, once or twice a
month, rather than virtually?

Upcoming Chicago Events (by date order)

AMC NetContent/Chicago has a September 16 lecture coming up, see
http://www.amcomm.org/scripts/content.cgi?page=SIG_content 

Nielsen/Norman Group’s User Experience Conference starts on September 21, see
http://www.nngroup.com/events/chicago/agenda.html. People attending are welcome
to contact me at gruenberg.louise at comcast.net for native Chicagoan ideas for
what to do here or to set up an informal post conference evening get-together. 

CHI-Squared is the local SIG for the Chicago area chapter of ACM SIGCHI. They
should be announcing a September meeting soon.

Chicago Usability Professionals Association has a networking meeting coming up
on October 2. 

Humans Interaction Technology Strategy, a conference about interaction design &
business strategy is happening October 16-17, 2003, see
http://www.id.iit.edu/events/hits/. 

The About, With & For Conference is October 17 & 18, see
http://www.id.iit.edu/events/aboutwithandfor/awf_home.html.

The Chicago ASIST chapter was trying to get reorganized a while ago. Did it succeed?
--
Louise Gruenberg
ARCS (Answers Research &
Communication Services)
708-386-9055