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

Tue Sep 9 12:14:51 EDT 2003

Hi Louise!
Glad you are writing about this!
I am running out the door right now,
But I too was thinking its time for at least a happy hour!
If you have some time to organize it - that would be great!
Ill write more later.
Donna

(also see chicagoIA at yahoogroups.com)

At 4:09 PM +0000 9/9/03, gruenberg.louise at comcast.net wrote:
>In town to speak at the AARP Conference, Life at 50+, Amy Lee, AARPís 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. Thereís lots of formal, mostly expensive stuff going on (see
>list & links at the end of this posting). Itís 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 Aquariumóthe 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 youíre 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 Iíve 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 & didnít find anything happening/anyone to
>connect with from the list. I know there are people out here so thatís all the
>more reason for everyone to ífess up to whatever theyíve 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 Iím 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 youíd
>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?
>
>Iím 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 theyíre here for business or pleasure. Lou Rosenfeld has
>been asking, ìWhere have all the IAs gone?î & 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 Iím 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. Itís
>just that theyíre not the kind of ongoing, iconoclastic, free-ranging informal
>get-togethers Iím 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 Groupís 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
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