Chicago Gets Experienced

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by: David Armano

Next week is going to be an exciting one in Chicago if you are into customer experience, brand strategy, experience design, innovation, creativity and business. On May 16-17, the IIT's Institute of Design is holding a  two day conference, titled Strategy 06.

Here is the description: 

“The Institute of Design Strategy Conference is an international executive forum addressing how businesses can use design to explore emerging opportunities, solve complex problems, and achieve lasting strategic advantage.”

And right on it's heels is Beyond Usability 2.0, (May 17-18) featuring Adaptive Path:

"Are you involved in building interactive products? If you are a business owner, designer, technologist, or information architect, you will benefit from taking these four deep dives into essential aspects of digital product design: company insight, user research, information architecture, and interaction design.

This is a hands-on workshop. At the end of these two days, you will have the confidence to practice these methods in your work life."

I'll be attending the IIT Strategy conference where I'll be hosting a lunch round table discussion around the following topic:

“Playing In, Around and Outside of Your Sandbox

An Ad agency designs an experiential retail store in Times Square.
A Product Design shop creates an interactive marketing campaign for a global company.
A Marketing firm designs the interface for a leading gaming device.

What’s going on here?  Why are some organizations “playing outside” of their immediate disciplines?

There seems to be an evolution going on before our very eyes.  Organizations that understand how to plan, architect and design customer experiences are now doing work that may have previously been outside of their immediate offerings in the past.  So what does this mean to the industry?  Will skills become more specialized or generalized?  Are walls coming down or is this just a natural progression?  And how does this influence interdisciplinary teams positioned on the front lines?”

—The IIT event will also feature Bruce Nussbaum from Businessweek (view video from last year). Bruce has become one of the most  effective design/innovation Evangelists to bridge the creative and business worlds.

Should be an exciting week in Chicago!

Original Post: http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2006/05/chicago_gets_ex.html