The Secret Handshake Lecture Series Presents
AFTER SCHOOL: WHAT YOU NEED AND WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A PROFESSIONAL DESIGNER
The Chicago Interactive Design and Development meetup group and WunderLand are holding another free educational event - but this time it's for design students or young designers from roughly 18 to 25. No matter what design field you're in, this talk will give you some tips and insight to become a professional!
You can arrive early between 5:00-6:00 pm, do some networking, then we'll start the lecture around 6:00. There will be a Q & A session after the talk, plus time for more networking.
The Secret Handshake is an orientation lecture series for design students and young creatives looking for insider insight, honest answers and solid solutions for making the transition from student to design professional, whether that means taking a job in design or going solo.
This series of lectures exists to bridge the gap between “design student” and “design professional” by inspiring greatness, demystifying the industry, and providing tactical insight to successfully survive the transition.
This lecture has been given at colleges around the U.S. and now it's right here in Chicago! Check out their Facebook page. You can also follow Secret Handshake lecture series updates via Twitter.
Join Jason Schwartz as he discusses such things as maxing out your resume, presenting the best work, and how to do it all right. If you have any questions about this subject matter that you would like answered, you can Tweet them to Jason Schwartz.
About the speaker:
Jason currently runs Bright Bright Great, a boutique interactive creative agency located in Chicago. Previously, Jason was the Director of Creative Services at Norvax, a Chicago-based Inc 500 technology company and has worked for 2 Chicago-based tech start-ups over the last 10 years.
Jason was recently featured on the AIGA KC website and judged in the 2010 Internet Marketing Awards. Jason was also a professional assistant at the 2009 Camp Firebelly as well as a participant in the 2009 Coudal Partners Layer Tennis Season. He has also been featured in GD USA magazine.
You MUST reserve a spot by registering here:
Chicago Interactive Design Development Meetup Group
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PAST EVENTS:
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USER RESEARCH PANEL DISCUSSION - MONDAY MAY 10, 2010
The Chicago Interactive Design and Development meetup group and WunderLand are holding another free educational event. This will be a panel discussion on User Research to educate and enlighten people from novices to those currently engaged in research. You can arrive at 5:30, do some networking, then we'll start the panel discussion around 6:00. We should be done before 8:00 p.m. Think about what questions you would want answered by this panel and EMAIL THEM TO ME (jwunderlich@wunderlandgroup.com) BEFORE MONDAY MAY 10th. We will try to get to as many questions as possible.Beer, water and sandwiches will be served - what a deal!
Our panel of experts will consist of: Carrie Sawyer Carrie Sawyer is User Research Manager for Cars.com, based in Chicago, Illinois. She has been working in the field of User Experience since 2004 and in that time has conducted exciting research both nationally and internationally. Carrie earned her master’s in Human Computer Interaction from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) and her bachelor’s in New Media Arts and Science from Indiana University. Carrie enjoys many parts of the User Experience field, but her passion lies in user research and understanding what makes her users tick. (Work doesn’t get much better than an successful research study!) She has a wide toolkit of IA and research methods, and is always looking for new ways to expand her knowledge about research and UX overall. Carrie’s most recent success includes leading iPhone research that informed the development of the Cars.com app. (350K downloads since the February 2010 launch) She looks forward to a year packed with research studies and user mysteries revealed. Polly Greathouse Polly Greathouse is a Senior Behavioral Researcher at HSBC, the World’s Local (and largest) Bank. As a member of the Strategic arm of the HSBC Global enterprise, Customer Experience, Technology researchers define, create and execute multichannel user research such as field observation, contextual interviewing, stakeholder interviews, analysis of tasks, journeys, industry trends, social trends, competitive analysis, usability and validation testing. She holds a Master of Design Methods graduate from the IIT Institute of Design (2008) and a BFA in Painting from the University of Illinois. Polly has designed and performed research for pharmaceutical, MacArthur Foundation ThinkeringSpaces, telecommunications, housewares, financial, interactive spaces, and commercial mobile mapping and navigation products. Making a difference in the emergent fields of digital services and strategic design planning are her focus for the near future. Gabby Hon Gabby Hon is an independent Senior User Experience Consultant in Chicago. With more than 10 years experience in UX, she's worked on a wide variety of clients including Allstate, American Express, Nissan, Fifth Third Bank, Home Depot, KitchenAid and Hyatt Hotels. Her agency experience includes Tribal DDB, Digitas, Royal Order of Experience Design, Arc Worldwide, Critical Mass and OgilvyOne. Gabby is active in the User Experience community as the host of UX Book Club Chicago (uxbookclubchicago.org) and volunteer for IA Summit 2011. She recently conducted a workshop on Consensus Facilitation at IA Summit 2010 in Phoenix. Gabby can be found on Twitter (@gabbyhon) and her personal site/portfolio, staywiththegroup.com. Carrie Trieglaff Carrie, Sr. User Researcher and Insight Analyst at CDW.com, has over 15 years of User Experience and Integrated Marketing experience. Her specialties are results-driven hybrid research plans for cross channel experiences; evangelizing User Insights; and making research fun, interesting and valuable. Her clients have included Swiss Bank Corporation, JP Morgan, BT Alex Brown, UBS Warburg Dillon Read, Brinson Partners, Gramaphone Records, Allstate, American Paper Corporation, Hilton Guest, Paine Webber and many others. In 2002 she shifted gears to specialize strictly in User Research. She is now the Lead Senior User Insights Analyst at CDW.com, initiating and managing the Ecommerce User Experience Research Program, which drives strategy, design and content decisions for CDW's $2bil+ web properties. She holds a Master's degree in Human Computer Interaction from DePaul University in Chicago (2005) and a Bachelor in English Literature with a Minor in Travel Writing from the University of Illinois in Champaign/ Urbana. She recently hosted a series of workshops on integrating User Research into a digital project planning and she has a NEW blog - www.iheartusers.com - which will be all about User Research approaches, methods, deliverables, challenges, programs and insights. You can follow Carrie on Twitter @iheartusers.Seating is limited to about 95 people, so arrive early, but there is standing room/floor sitting room for more.
You MUST reserve a spot by registering here:
http://www.meetup.com/Chicago-Interactive-Design-Development/calendar/13105688/
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Thanks to everyone who participated in our contest! The winners are:
@Designer_ToGo @krzalang @CreativeNewman @btripp @pdtoler
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WELCOME TO THE TALENT IN WUNDERLAND / ALICE IN WONDERLAND CONTEST
To win, visit this page of WunderLand's site, and look through the job listings on this page: http://wunderlandgroup.com/?page_id=22. Hidden in one of them is a quote from Alice. Find the quote, Tweet it to us like this with the quote and the page URL you found it on:
@wunderlandgroup "insert the quote here" (insert page URL here)
The first 5 people to Tweet the quote and link to WunderLand will win a pair of tickets to this Friday's 8:30 p.m. showing of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland 3D at the AMC River East theaters. Winners must pick up their tickets at WunderLand's office (Jackson & Wells in Chicago) between 9 and 5 p.m. Friday.
That's all there is to it. Good luck!
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Thank you to everyone who made it to our event last night - I counted 89 people in the room, every chair was filled, and the sandwiches were delicious!
As promised, click here to view Matt's presentation.
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WunderLand and the Chicago Interactive Design and Development meetup group are very pleased to announce we have arranged for a phenomenal guest speaker in February: Matt Moog, Founder and CEO of Viewpoints. This free event will include a presentation, Q&A session, and networking.Date: MONDAY, February 8, 2010, 5:30pm to 8:30pm. Arrive between 5:30pm and 6:30pm for networking. Presentation will begin at 6:30pm. Arrive early to get one of the good seats!
Where: WunderLand Group Conference Center at 200 W. Jackson, Suite 1320 View Map RSVP: Please RSVP via the Chicago Interactive Design and Development meetup group (preferred); or to Judi Wunderlich, WunderLand Group, at jwunderlich@wunderlandgroup.com.Presentation Topic:
HOW YOUR COMPANY CAN LEVERAGE SOCIAL COMMERCE TO DRIVE SALES, INSIGHT, AND LOYALTY
This presentation will focus on Social Commerce as an emerging framework for thinking about how to leverage the growth of the social web to drive results for businesses. Just as Social Media has helped to transform industries from media, to recruiting to public relations, it is also changing the way consumers shop and buy. Retailers, brands and service providers need to understand consumer needs, motivations and and behaviors as they move through the consideration funnel from from awareness, to intent, to purchase, to loyalty, and done correctly, to advocacy. Matt will discuss some of the underlying data, trends, case studies, best practices and emerging solutions in Social Commerce to address these changes in behavior.Presenter:
Matt Moog is the Founder and CEO of Viewpoints Network, a social technology media company focused on helping consumers make smarter purchase decisions. Viewpoints specializes in building communities and motivating "social influencers" to share their experiences by writing reviews, blog posts, how to guides, contributing ideas and participating in forums. Viewpoints organizes and presents those contributions to help "in-market" consumers make smarter purchase decisions. The Viewpoints Technology Platform powers Viewpoints.com and communities for customers such as Sears.
Matt founded Viewpoints in August 2006 after spending ten years at CoolSavings / Q Interactive, the last five as the President and CEO. Prior to CoolSavings, Matt worked for Microsoft in business development.
From 2001 to 2006 while serving as CEO of CoolSavings, a publicly traded interactive marketing services company, Matt led a turn around that resulted in revenue growing from $21 million to $80 million. In 2005 he led a transaction that took the company private in a sale to Landmark Communications that valued the company at $220 million. Under his leadership the share price grew more than 400% over five years.Matt is currently a board member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association and previously served on the board of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) 2005/06 and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) 2004-2006. He has been named to the '40 under 40' in 2005 by Crain’s Chicago Business and has been nominated for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award twice, and CoolSavings was named the Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 500 in 2003 and 2004. Matt has been cited as an industry expert in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, Fortune Small Business, and a variety of other national and regional publications. He has also appeared on Fox News, CNN, CNBC, WGN and WTTW to discuss the potential and future of social media and interactive marketing.
Matt holds a BA in Political Science from the George Washington University (’92) and is an active member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) Chicago Chapter. He also serves on the board of the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago. Matt is married, to Lucy, with three boys Max, Charlie, and Eli.