So submissions are open for the 2013 UXPA conference in DC.
The theme is collaboration.
And you haven’t submitted a proposal yet.

Hm.

You know that submissions close February 6th, right?

What can we do about that?  Maybe the theme seems too broad or too generic.  Maybe it’s not inspiring enough.  Maybe you have laundry to do and don’t have time to put your thoughts together.  Or maybe you just need a kick start.  So let’s talk about what was in our heads when we put “collaboration” out there as the conference theme…

6 Goals of the theme:

Enrich the practice of UX with perspectives from other professions.
Related fields like marketing, visual design, technical writing, etc. can teach a lot about aspects of business, problem solving, and organizational skills.   Learning how other professionals deal with similar problems can be really inspirational!

Engage the experts by diversifying content
The most common lament heard at conferences from folks with a few years under their belt is that “there’s no new content” or “I’m already an expert in that topic”.  We want to encourage stimulating thought, new connections, and creative ideas from seasoned professionals by offering new and different perspectives to rev up those synapses.

Generate new and interesting types of proposals
We really want anyone who attends the conference to come away with practical tools, tips, and guidelines to be successful in their work.  But we also want people to be inspired and feel like they were part of something a little bit innovative.  I don’t know what these interesting and new types of proposals are (duels, debates, tandem presentations, group perspectives, joint presentations with other professions…) – that’s up to you to push the boundaries in your submissions. What have you never seen before that you’d like to see?

Start reflecting the diversity of the profession and the real-life situation that UX professionals work in.
No one works in a vacuum.  We work with engineers, designers, marketing gurus, business analysts, copy writers, editors, CEOs, product managers, clients, end users, financial wizards…the list goes on.  What have we learned from them?  What can they learn from us?  How can we turn how we live every day into a better way of working tomorrow?

Diversify our attendees
If we have more diverse content we might appeal to more diverse people and professions.  If we have a more diverse mix of people, we might improve networking, build relationships, and get more people interested in what we do. Just sayin’.

Be broad enough to serve across cultures and languages
This theme isn’t just serving the DC conference.  It is also at the heart of the theme for the UXPA conference that will be taking place in Shanghai in November of this year.  That conference is being planned in conjunction with UXPA China and UXPA Asia members.  It is a collaborative effort to partner with User Friendly (an already wildly successful UX conference!) and create a shared experience across continents by potentially sharing speakers, tools, and resources. So the theme has to work on many levels!

Ok.  So those were 6 goals around the conference theme of collaboration.

Trust me. There are more than 6 thoughts in our head around the conference theme.  This is just food for thought.  What other good can we do with a theme of collaboration?

We look forward to seeing your fun/insightful/earth-shattering/practical/cool/enlightening/educational proposal! (So submit, already!)

Christina & Danielle