The San Francisco Interactive Design + Development Meetup Group presents:

Usability 2012

Presented by Doug Strickland – former VP User Experience Publicis Modem

You’re invited to attend a free presention and discussion about web/mobile Usability on February 16, 2012, 6 p.m., hosted at Trulia, 116 New Montgomery, #300, San Francisco, CA. This is the first of many meetups organized by the WunderLand Group in San Francisco!

RSVPs are required – visit meetup.com to sign up today.



Speaker Bio

Doug Strickland is a User Experience Designer with more than twenty-five years of technical product development expertise. He has been a senior digital experience designer on projects for Microsoft, Intel, PayPal, and Tout.com. Doug’s background in engineering and human-computer interaction provides a solid foundation for his development of effective web and mobile applications and services, where his short attention span and unusually high expectations combine to create intuitive interfaces and memorable digital experiences.

Doug lives with his wife Heidi, and their dogs Cooper and Mozie in Northern California. When not modeling, synthesizing, or wireframing, Doug is usually found with a camera, a guitar, or an Arduino.

Interact with Doug here:

@dougstrickland

http://www.linkedin.com/in/experience

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Free Chicago Event: Learn how to create location-enabled apps

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What Recruiters and Corporate Hiring Managers Wish That Freelancers Knew

If you’re a freelance writer, you owe it to yourself to attend this event on Tuesday, September 13 in Chicago!

The Independent Writers of Chicago (IWOC) is the largest organization of freelance writers in the Midwest. Their members are all experienced writers and editors serving clients worldwide in a wide array of business, professional, technical, medical, journalistic, and creative areas. They are inviting all freelance marketing, advertising, content writers to attend, listen, ask questions, and learn how to improve their chances of getting freelance/contract gigs.

What Staffing Firms and Corporations Wish That Freelancers Knew – Panel Discussion

In these parlous economic times, we freelance writers need all the help we can get to find work, what with corporate layoffs that flood the market with unwilling entrants to our ranks and client belt-tightening that leaves us with plenty of time for tea and crumpets, if we can afford them. We’re not ready to hit the breadlines yet, but any news about job opportunities is music to our ears. Enter our September speakers.

Judi Wunderlich is co-founder and vice president of recruiting at WunderLand. Yes, there’s that vital word recruiting, i.e., she recruits freelance writers for the companies that hire her to find talent for them. Everyone’s heard of staffing firms, and many have worked for them, but how much do we really know about how these companies operate? How do they find the freelancers they place? In other words, what should we do to get noticed if we want to be considered? What skills/attributes do they look for? Does the writer always have to work on site or are there in-your-own-office gigs available? And, of course, we have the teeniest bit of interest in what they pay.

Antonio Hernandez is a corporate communication executive at Commonwealth Edison, and he hires freelancers too. We’ll find out what types of writing ComEd has to offer, what they look for in freelancers, and what no-nos will keep us from getting the job.

We’ll find the answers to these questions and more at the September 13 meeting. There will be a short business meeting and election of officers before the program. It’s an evening you won’t want to miss. Visitors are cordially invited.

The discussion will be held in Room 4020 at National-Louis University, 122 S. Michigan Avenue (across from the Art Institute) in Chicago. Networking with snacks and beverages begins at 5 p.m., followed by the program at 6 p.m. The meeting is free for all IWOC members. Non-members pay $15 or $10 with preregistration.

Register HERE.
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Free presentation: What’s Next for UX Design?

Idea Exchange, Discussion and Networking for Managers of In-House Creative Departments

Event Date: Thursday, June 23, 2011, from 2:00 to 5:30 p.m.
Event Title: Creating, Promoting and Earning Value Recognition for In-House Creative Organizations
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
The Wunderland Group is partnering with InSource, a professional association for people who manage in-house corporate creative departments. InSource is dedicated to bringing together in-house creative business leaders to share best practices, network and elevate the value of in-house creative organizations everywhere. InSource is a FREE professional association open to anyone who leads or manages a creative group (web or print creative).
They are hosting Regional Roundtables around the country for open discussions focused on a single topic and held in distinctly different regions of the country simultaneously. The next Roundtable in Chicago is on Thursday, June 23, 2011 from 2 to 5:30 p.m.

Who should attend?
* Leaders of in-house corporate creative groups
* Senior managers who have in-house creative groups report into them
* In-house Creative Directors
* In-house Creative Managers
* In-house directors who manage creative staff
* Managers who work closely with in-house creative staff

This year, InSource will host the second set of Regional Roundtable discussion groups in Boston, Chicago and New York. Last year, InSource hosted Regional Roundtable discussion groups in Minneapolis, Dallas and New York.
The topic for this year’s Regional Roundtable discussion group is “Creating, Promoting and Earning Value Recognition for In-House Creative Organizations.” We hope you’ll join us in a lively discussion and learn from your peers how they promote the value of their team to their internal clients and to the senior management of the organization.
This meeting will be facilitated by Kevin Kearns of Duke University Medical Center and held at Harris Bank in Chicago on June 23, 2011.
In addition, everyone who registers to attend this event will receive $100 off the ticket price to this year’s InHOWse Managers Conference beginning June 24th.

How to RSVP
There is a cost to attend this event. Sign up and pay via EventBrite.
Membership in InSource is free, so be sure to sign up with them to be included in announcements of future events and to take advantage of their professional resources to help you manage your in-house creative group.

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Workshop: User Experience (UX) February 24th, 2011

midVentures: Design and Develop Series

User Experience (UX): Planning for Success

February 24, 2011, 3:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Sync Technology Center
322 S. Green St., Suite 300, Chicago, IL

REGISTER HERE TO ATTEND

Workshops

3:30 PM: Design is Not Design
What is great design? Hint: it’s not look and feel. This workshop will challenge your view on what successful design is in a web application and what you should be focusing on for your next project.
John Roa
Head Wizard
AKTA Web Studio

4:45 PM: Incorporating UXD into an Agile Project Inception
The starting period of a project, called inception, sets the tone for the rest of the project – so it is critical to nail it. This workshop will explain through real world stories about what happens when inception goes awry. He will talk how effective user experience design is necessary and how to measure the inception phase to ensure it is on track. Michael will provide tips, tricks and tools on how to keep your inception phase going well and what to do if it is floundering.
Michael Walkden
VP of Product Delivery
Pathfinder Development

6:00 PM: Please join us after the workshops for open networking & refreshments!

CIMA February Dinner February 10, 2011

THE ONLINE PRIVACY DEBATE
HOW IT MAY CHANGE OUR BUSINESS

Thursday, February 10, 2011
5:30 – 9:30pm

Location:
Westin, Wellington Ballroom, 909 N. Michigan Ave.

Pricing:
Members: $90.00
Non-Members: $110.00

Sponsorships are still available for this event. Contact sponsorship@chicagoima.org for more information.

Join CIMA and a panel of industry experts as they debate about Online Privacy in 2011. Allison Pepper, Director, Public Policy will present the IAB’s stance on Online Privacy. Our panel of experts will discuss the IAB’s viewpoint as well as how the FTC’s “Do Not Track Plan” may impact the online advertising industry.

Panelists:

Alison Pepper – Director, Public Policy, Interactive Advertising Bureau
Pam Horan – President, Online Publishers Association
Kevin Hartbarger – Managing Director, Digital, Mindshare

You will gain the following insights:

-What to Expect in 2011 from Online Privacy
-Additional information about the FTC’s do-not-track mechanism and what it means to the online advertising industry
-The Digital Advertising Alliance’s self-regulatory program

Privacy Law: will it gain momentum?

Agenda:
5:30pm – 6:00pm Check-in
5:30pm – 6:30pm Pre-reception
6:30pm – 7:00pm Dinner
7:00pm – 8:15pm Panel Discussion
8:15pm – 9:30pm Post-reception