The annual conference of the Usability Professionals' Association, UPA, is a leading forum for the exchange of ideas among practitioners in the field of usability. The UPA seeks your active participation in the 2000 conference.

Designing a New Millennium Today - the theme of UPA 2000 - is appropriate as we discover the history of the past, the elegance of the present, and the adventure and promise of the future. The theme also reflects the setting of the conference at the Grove Park Inn Resort in Asheville, North Carolina, where the architecture and style bridges the past and the present. At the Inn you'll experience the same panoramic views of the magnificent Blue Ridge mountains that have repeatedly inspired the souls of writers, the hearts of artists, and the dreams of entrepreneurs.

The UPA actively promotes growth in our membership and participation. You can participate in the conference by attending it, reviewing submissions, or presenting: tutorials, workshops, posters, presentations, panels and business case studies. We want to attract usability specialists and professionals from a variety of industries and disciplines. Therefore we seek presentations that will interest newcomers and seasoned professionals and that showcase tools and techniques that can be used by many industries. To ensure the best content, we also strongly encourage members to participate as reviewers for these submissions.

The content and style of presentations, tutorials, and workshops are the heart of the UPA conference and are what make the experience fruitful, educational, and fun for attendees. The kinds of presentations that are successful include audience participation, presentations that make people think of how usability relates to other functional areas, real-life examples and case studies, clear and concise presentation materials, Web-related topics, presenters with opinions and experience about the topic, and presenters with energy. For examples of attributes of notable UPA 1999 presentations, read the quotes from attendee review surveys. You can find the slides from these presentations on the same page.