Usually, I'm not exactly thrilled when I'm going to seminars or conferences. The intellectual anticipation can best be described as playing Russian roulette with 5 bullets and one blank.
Most conferences and seminars are shite. The conferences are intellectual deserts (with the occasional shady palm tree), and the seminars often end up as embarrassingly bland sales pitches for the companies or organisations giving them.
The common presenter is completely oblivious to the fact that people are paying to hear his or her stuff. The speakers are NOT selected for their entertainment factor or communicative skills. Endless Powerpoint presentations (usually slide after slide with bullet points) add to the general impression that you're trapped in a blur of meaningless repetition. Ever saw the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray? You know what I mean, then.
However, this Friday I'm attending a conference that I am actually looking forward to! Immensely! I'm going to the European version of the GEL 2006 (Good Experience Live) conference arranged by Mark Hurst - the web guru of good experience.
It's creative. It's brave. It's innovative. It's intelligent. The goal of the conference is basically to open minds. To make way for a real life, cross-cultural and cross-competency perspective of what constitutes a good experience.
The speaker list is inspiring in its variety. Architects, artists, musicians, scientists, web-gurus ... you name it!
The US conference (GEL 2006) was held in New York in May. If you want a little taste of what it is all about, watch Seth Godin's presentation from the conference about things that are "broken" (ie. bad user experiences). Great fun and very interesting. Do watch it, it's just 20 minutes long. Or go visit Mark Hurst's site This is Broken on the subject of lousy user experiences.
I've added a link to Seth's blog and dotcom website in the Mind Candy category in the side bar. At the EuroGel conference, Godin will be an attendee rather than a speaker, so I hope I'll get the chance to say hi. If not, there are about 500 other fantastic minds I'd like to meet. :)
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