CHI 2005 | Development Consortium

April 2-7 | Portland, Oregon, USAA Focus on Conferences
Nico Macdonald
Spy
102 Seddon House, Barbican, London
EC2Y 8BX UK
nico@spy.co.uk+44 7973 377 897
ABSTRACT

Conferences are still valuable for established attendees andpotential new audiences, and the overall audience for events
can be increased, helping alleviate competition between
professional organisations.
In addition professional organisations need to avoid
conferences being run-of-the-mill, and taking their audiencefor granted. They need to widen their primary and secondary
audiences by helping potential attendees and presenters findout about events, evaluate those they might attend, andbenefit in other ways from participating in; professionalisingpresentation and documentation; facilitating more
controversial discussion; improving media relations(including with informal commentators).

•Focussed, reflective, and visually supported learning
about high quality new design work, research, andtheoretical insights – and related references•

Developing a broader view of a theme or subject area•

Questioning presenters about their work, and learningfrom others’ questions•Meeting and engaging with old colleagues and newacquaintances, the latter introduced by old colleagues,
identified in Q&A sessions, or met by chance•Raising your profile as a presenter or panellist, or as anattendee in Q&A sessions

The trends around conferences have been discussed more in
the design world than the HCI world, and the latter may be
more aware of the design element of conference creation1, 2,3 4, . However, the issue of meta conference programming andcoordination has been discussed relatively little.

Some of the solutions involved re-designing and reprogramming
events,greaterinter-organisational
cooperation, technical developments, and greater intelligencewhen thinking about audiences and stakeholders.

Discussion
Author Keywords

There are a number of factors undermining the value ofevents and conferences for attendees and potential attendees.
These are expanded on in the ‘Supplemental information’.

Conference formats, conference documentation, conference
discussion, conference attendees, presenters, presentationreferences, information sharing, conferencing reporting,
Weblogging,
ACM Classification Keywords

H.5.m Miscellaneous
INTRODUCTION

I should begin by noting that the call for participation
assumes that there is an assumption that professional
associations, and specifically the events they program, are orcould be of value to professionals.

Conferencing by default•

Taking the audience for granted•

Widening audiences•

Lack of controversy•

Media savvy missing•

Failing to connect

Challenges

I will consider potential solutions within the timeline of atypical conference.

Events in the area of design and human-computer interaction
have a number of potential benefits for presenters, attendees,
and related stakeholders:••

Finding out about and evaluating events

Standards for sharing information about planned,
forthcoming and past events need to be established between
event programming organisations. Information about planned
events will help organisations at least ensure there aren’t dateconflicts (as there will be between this year’s CHI conference
and INCLUDE 2005 at the Royal College of Art in London),and at best that conference themes are complementary.

Finding new and high quality sources of information andideas from presenters selected by a conference
programmer or coming out of the peer review process

Copyright is held by the author/owner(s).
CHI 2005, April 2–7, 2005, Portland, Oregon, USA.
ACM 1-59593-002-7/05/0004.

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April 2-7 | Portland, Oregon, USA

This information should be easy to incorporate into otherinformation environments, including personal calendars,
word processors (as citations), other electronic tools, andWeblogs (for instance, to allow Weblog hosts to indicate they
are attending an event). It should be used by these and otherorganisations and publications to present event information
in a strongly visual manner.
There should be an emphasis on annotating eventsannouncements with information that would help potential
attendees evaluate the events. This might include lists ofregistered attendees (who potential attendees may contact for
their take on the event if they already know them), links toreviews of previous or related event, and to previews of theevent. Reviews and previews should encompass Weblogentries.

•Territoriality of professional organisations, which insome areas are in competition, and in general may beunused to collaborating•

The tension between formalising and structuring
information and the relatively unstructured way in whichpeople tend to share information•Creating dynamics that will encourage overall beneficial
acts, such as indicating if you are attending an event,previewing an events, and sharing learning•Raising standards in professional conference situations
where volunteers are unremunerated and have little togain by learning new practices

CONCLUSION

There is a keen desire for design and HCI knowledge, which
can been seen in the development of events around groups
such as AIGA Experience Design, Doors of Perception,
O’Reilly, and individual facilitators. With greater pressure on
professional organisations, clearer thinking about event
design, and greater consideration of event documentation andinformation sharing, and open-minded collaboration andprogramming between professional organisations it will bepossible to better serve professionals and other interested
parties in the future.

Getting value out of the event

There should be an increased emphasis on working withpresenters to improve the rhetorical and visual aspects ofpresentations (particularly at conferences based on peerreview). Documentation should also be addressed, helping
attendees to frame, structure and reference their notes, fortheir own use and for trip reports. The design and production
values of conference proceedings should be reconsidered tomake them more useful to attendees, and more attractive topotential future attendees and interested parties11.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Much could be learned from presentations, moderation anddocumentation at conferences such as Doors of Perception,
TED12, and the AIGA National conferences.

I have been collaborating in developing thinking arounddesign and HCI event information (and broader areas ofknowledge) with members of the steering committee of theAIGA Experience Design group including Robert Reimann,
Julie Stanford, and Molly Wright Steenson. I have also beenworking with the UXnet calendar working group.

Getting the word out

During and post-conference there should be an emphasis on
telling engaging stories about the conference presentations,debates, and activities in a manner that makes it easier for
media representatives to talk about them, and presents theconference as a coherent whole.

REFERENCES
1. ‘Conference madness’ Alice Twemlow, Eye issue 49,Autumn 2003
http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=71&fid=469

Media relations should also support Webloggers writing
about the conference, creating a buzz during the conference
that non-attendees can tap into, and seeding the publicdocumentation of the event. The Doors of Perception
conference is extremely effective in this area.

2.

Aspen 2004 conference review, John Maeda, CreativeReview, October 2004

Material related to the conference and presentations should
be make readily available (where copyright allows) andinformation presented in ways that make it easy toincorporation references into other writing, reviews, essays
and books, Weblog posts, and conference previews. In thismanner, the conference may become part of the informationsphere, clarifying its nature, making more impact, andwidening its (and the total) audience.

3.

‘1989: Roots of Revolution’ Michael Bierut, March 6,2004. On the biennial conference of the American
Institute of Graphic Arts.
http://www.designobserver.com/archives/000110.html

4.

‘Does Aspen Have A Future?’ William Drenttel,
October 9, 2004. Comment from Michael Bierut: The
purpose of design conferences is still somewhat
mysterious, and I say this as someone who has organized
more than a few.
http://www.designobserver.com/archives/000208.html

5.

Doors of Perception conference
http://www.doorsofperception.com/Barriers

Barriers to these solutions, and their strengths andweaknesses, include:•The difficulty of the process of developing andmaintaining any standard for information sharing

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6.

February 9-12, 2004: O’Reilly Emerging Technology
Conference [http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etcon/](San Diego)

7.

October 23-26, 2003: AIGA National Conference: The
Power of Design [http://powerofdesign.aiga.org/](Vancouver, BC) and March 21-23, 2002: Voice: AIGA
National Design Conference[http://www.voice.aiga.org/] (Washington, DC).

8.

November 12-14, 2004: Design Engaged[http://www.heyotwell.com/engaged2004/](Amsterdam)

9.

October 16-17, 2003: HITS: Humans Interaction
Technology Strategy [http://www.id.iit.edu/events/hits]/](Chicago, Illinois)

April 2-7 | Portland, Oregon, USA

systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques.
2002. ISBN:1-58113-515-7
12. February 23-25, 2005: TED2005[http://www.ted.com/ted2005/] (Monterey, CA). TED is
the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference,founded by Richard Saul Wurman.
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
The author’s qualifications

The author has been involved in programming design andHCI events for over years. Major conferences include
Designing the Internet (London, 1994), and Design For
Usability (London, 2000). He has been on conference
committees for DIS2002 (including editing the proceedings)
and CHI2003 and consulted on communications forDIS2004. He has programmed and chaired panels atDIS2000, DIS2002, CHI2003, and DIS2004. He is on thesteering committee of the AIGA Experience Design group,
has been involved in programming a number of its Summits,and founded and programs its London events. He was on theexecutive of the British HCI Group for three years, where he
was key to the launch of its Usability News publication, on
which he still advises. He also programmed and chaired theCHI2003 Development Consortium on Mass Communicationand Interaction. In addition he has spoken at many
conferences including AIGA and IIID events.

10. During December 2004 on the CHI-ANNOUNCE list

alone there were almost 20 calls for participation for
conferences and workshops (some part of bigger
conferences). Over a year an industry professional might
have to decide between 20 to 200 events they might
submit a paper to or attend.
11. The conference committee for the 2002 Symposium on

Designing Interactive Systems (of which I was amember) attempted this, with some success. See
Proceedings of the conference on Designing interactive1095academics and researchers (peer kudos, departmentalbenefits, value when promotion is considered or in job
applications, impressing potential publishers), nor will theiremployers have the funds to support attending a conference.
There is also less value for this audience in the format oftypical conferences or the nature of the level at whichanalysis is presented.

A FOCUS ON CONFERENCES:
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION (NICO M.)

Discussion
Conferencing by default

One of the factors undermining the quality and value ofconferences is the obligation organisations are under to put
on a regular (and often annual) events, and the financial
value of conferences (attendee fees, sponsorship income,and licensing or selling of proceedings). By contrast, someevents have a strong individual character, and a distinct andintriguing theme. For instance the Dutch-based Doors ofPerception conferences5, the O’Reilly Emerging
Technologies conferences6, the bi-annual AIGA National
Conferences (whose last two themes have been ‘The Powerof Design’ and ‘Voice’)7, and the Design Engaged events
programmed by Andrew Otwell8. In the SIGCHI area, apartfrom the DUX conference, the most significant recent event
has been the HITS conference9, which combined anintriguing and timely theme with high quality and engaging
presentations.

Lack of controversy

Professional conferences have tended to move from nicheareas of interest to address wider audiences, and broader
societal and business issues. However, programmers haveoften failed to address these developments, or where they
do they often assume there are common interests and views
across their audiences. As a result, programs often fail toengage new audiences, and new thinking is not effectively
challenged or developed.
Media savvy missing

The focus on existing audiences, and the lack ofcontroversy, also tend to lead to the neglecting ofcommunication to new conference audiences and otherinterested parties. Although many events and conferences
have formal media relations, they are often poor at sellingstories in a manner that will gain coverage and appeal toaudiences and other interested parties.

Taking the audience for granted

Another factor is a product of the established nature ofmany conferences and their focus on their traditional
audiences. As a result, the audience is taken for granted,
established presentation and documentation formats are notdeveloped, and fail to engage potential new audiences.

Failing to connect

With the proliferation of events and conferences, and ofcommunication channels, it is becoming harder for potential
attendees to determine which events are significant andwhich they might submit to or attend. The obligatory natureof many events, and the tendency to take audiences forgranted, also leads to their communications being
information driven and bland, leaving few ways in forpeople to judge their value.

Widening audiences

As design and, particularly, HCI have become more key toindustry the audiences for events and conferences on these
themes have broadened beyond the traditional academic
and research communities.1 Typically this wider audience
doesn’t have the incentive to submit papers that motivate

1