Are you making your travel plans for UXPA 2013 in Washington, DC? I know I am, and I registered with one of the precious few Early Bird special rates left . This will be my fourteenth (consecutive) UXPA conference, dating back to 2000 in Asheville, NC, and I can’t think of a year when I’ve been more excited to go. The theme, Collaboration, is so integral to everything that UX is about. Every day we collaborate with our users, with developers, with product management, and with our UX colleagues. UX professionals have truly become the conduit that product and service development projects center around. Our ability to move fluidly through all of the phases of the development lifecycle, and to collaborate with every type of stakeholder, has been noticed by leaders in nearly every industry. We are making inroads in medical devices and informatics, in mobile development, in gaming and playtesting, and in the design of end-to-end customer experiences.
While I’m of course excited about all of the great learning experiences that the conference will bring, I’m most excited about the networking opportunities. I’ve met so many awesome UX practitioners over the years, and I’m able to call on that network of peers for professional development, for advice on a design, or just to go grab a drink and talk about UX. I think that what makes UXPA better than any other professional conference in our field is that it gives so many opportunities for our community to get to know each other, to work on things of common interest, and to build our personal and professional networks.
I’m also looking forward to being in Washington, D.C., and inviting our international peers to our Nation’s Capital. The conference is right on the heels of July 4th, so I’m sure the city will be in a very festive mood. The conference hotel puts us in Dupont Circle, which is easy walking distance to some of the best restaurants in the World, from every locale in the World! A few Metro stops away are the Smithsonian museums, the National Mall, the Capitol Building, the White House, and the Washington Monument. For sight-seeing enthusiasts, Washington, D.C. is a great place to visit.
Finally, I’m looking forward to sharing all of the great things that UXPA is working on. Our new website will be going live. Our online version of UX Magazine HAS gone live (as of this week!). We are planning for our other 2013 conference in Shanghai in collaboration with UXPA China in November. We will be rolling out our mentoring program, announcing a number of strategic partnerships, debuting a number of Special Interest Groups, and finally, introducing our new membership model and dues structure. This will offer a set of compelling, comprehensive, and meaningful benefits that make sense for UXPA members worldwide.
I hope to see you all at UXPA 2013. Please come up and introduce yourself!
Rich Gunther
President, UXPA International
rich.gunther@uxpa.org