The Interaction Design Association (IxDA) is pleased to announce Interaction|09, to be held February 5-8, 2009 in conjunction with Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts + Technology, and the Faculty of Business, located in lovely Vancouver, B.C. Mark your calendars now for what promises to be another exciting and informative conference centered around the design of interactive systems of all types, from web and desktop applications, to mobile devices, consumer electronics, digitally-enhanced environments, and more. This will be our growing community’s second annual opportunity to gather with several hundred other Interaction Design professionals from around the world.

Building on the successful format of Interaction 08 at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Interaction 09 will span four days, with two and a half main conference days preceded by 1 ½ days of pre- conference workshops and activities. Thursday will be devoted to a diverse and valuable series of professional workshops. Friday will be a busy and exciting day, with tours, additional workshops and opportunities to explore SFU, its surrounding community and Vancouver, along with leadership and organizing activities in the morning. The conference will open Friday afternoon, with a welcoming reception that evening.

Saturday and Sunday will be packed with inspirational and tactical sessions geared at anyone who practices Interaction Design. We look forward to Interaction 09 continuing to build on the quality of experience and community camaraderie we shared this year in Savannah.

In addition to invited speakers, we will be welcoming speaking proposals for sessions on Saturday and Sunday. Stay tuned for that and other exciting announcements.

Are you interested in becoming a much-appreciated sponsor for Interaction 09? Contact sponsorships at ixda.org. This is a great opportunity to support the IxDA community!

Read more on:

• Simon Fraser University School of Interactive Arts + Technology
• IxDA

Content Convergence and Integration 2008 is for content professionals who need to find more strategic ways to manage their content in a world where content now gets created and syndicated, integrated, repurposed, and redistributed. Content professionals, from Web to marketing to technical communication professionals, from content management to knowledge management to information management consultants, are searching for new techniques to stay ahead of the curve.

The conference tracks, appropriately enough, converge into three daily themes:

• Day 1: Content – Liz Danzico, Editor Emeritus of Boxes and Arrows, keynotes on The Framework Age
• Day 2: Technology – Salim Ismail, head of Yahoo! Brickhouse, keynotes on The Future of XML Publishing
• Day 3: User Relationships – Michael Fergusson, Chief Products and Innovation Officer at Uniserve Communications, keynotes on Culture, Commerce, and Copyright at Content Convergence and Integration Conference

The 2009 Annual Meeting for the American Society for Information Science and Technology will be November 6-9, 2009, in Vancouver.

The theme of the 2nd Annual Documentation & Training West Conference is Web 2.0 and its Impact on Communication. Featured speakers include Bob Glushko on “Document Engineering in User Experience Design.”

Now in its 9th year, the DocTrain Conference Series brings together industry professionals, management, vendors, standards bodies, and others interested in learning about the latest tools, processes, and technologies for technical communicators.

Web Directions focuses on the challenges of building the web: practical and inspiring concepts, technologies and techniques for web designers, developers, product managers, and others whose day to day responsibility is making and managing web sites and applications.

Web Directions North 2008 includes a two day conference with an optional two days of workshops, and two more days of skiing and snowboarding at Whistler Blackcomb.

Topics include:

• Web Site Design
• Web application and user interface Design
• User testing
• Rich Internet Application technologies, tools, platforms and techniques
• Accessibility
• Online communities, social media and social applications
• Innovative data visualizations
• Designing for the mobile web, and other new web enabled devices
• Marketing in the age of social media

The Vancouver User Experience Group (VanUE) is a group of User Experience professionals who, via monthly sessions, wish to share unique approaches, experiences and challenges. The group encourages participation from those who share a common thread as user advocates, regardless of their industry.

To participate in the VanUE community, join the mailing list and/or the Facebook group.