One thing that’s been taking a fair amount of my time is organizing the IDEA 2006 conference. We are now at the point where we’re ready to announce it, and encourage people to save the date – October 23-24, 2006.
IDEA is my attempt to fulfill the vision that the IA Institute has developed for information architecture, particularly that:
Information architecture principles apply in all shared information environments: Virtual, such as the Web; Physical, such as built enviroments like museums, libraries, hospitals; and Procedural, such as in flows of information in work processes.
This is not a “web” conference. We’ve set it in the Seattle Public Library, as it’s perhaps the best exemplar of physical information architecture accessible to the general public.
I’ve been thrilled with the feedback I’ve gotten, and even though we’re not finished planning the schedule we have begun an amazing line up of confirmed speakers:
- Bruce Sterling, author, designer, visionary
- Dan Hill, BBC Radio and Music Interactive, City of Sound blog
- Ed Vielmetti, Superpatron
- Paul Gould, MAYA Design
- Deborah Jacobs, City Librarian, Seattle Public Library
- Michal Migurski, Stamen, Mappr
- Jake Barton, Local Projects, StoryCorps
There’s still much left to plan — we’ve got to get a proper conference website together (and an identity design for the event); we’ve got to find hotels in the area willing to give discounts (which means lots of time on the phone for me – ugh); we’ve got to line up another 6-8 speakers; and none of this takes into account all the details leading up to the event — badges and schwag and the like.
I’m thrilled for the opportunity to put this together, and I hope to see you in Seattle in October! And, yes, I’m sure this site will become a news vehicle for updates!
Anyway, enough from me. Head to the conference page! (And hell, register early for the event and get a deep deep discount!)
