What is WebVisions?

If you are somehow not familiar with WebVisions, it is a premiere event focused on the “future of design, content creation, user experience, and business strategy.”  And it’s coming to Portland soon.  But before continuing, you might be wondering what the wrestler image has to do with WebVisions.  Read this and it will all make sense.

Back to WebVisions, it started in 2001 in Portland and it gathers designers, developers, and Web industry leaders every year. The organizers have grown it into a worldwide event with conferences in Portland, Barcelona, Berlin, New York and Chicago.

So WebVisions returns to its roots in Portland on May 7 -9 at the Oregon Convention Center.  However, WebVisions covers a total of five days in Portland, including a pre-conference lab on the hot topic of the Internet of Things (IoT).  Run  by Claro Partners, the IoT Lab looks like a must for anyone interested in the topic, but be ready to roll your sleeves up and dig in as the Lab involves “brainstorming, designing and prototyping new IoT product and service concepts.”

What should I see at WebVisions?

The main WebVisions conference has a great lineup of speakers such as Tim Bray, Maria Giudice of Facebook, futurist Brian David Johnson, Indi Young, and Peter-Paul Koch.  The conference will appeal to those who are interested where the Web world is heading, as spelled out in the WebVisions Mini-festo.

There is a ton of stuff here of interest to our digital marketing, content strategist, or user experience readers.  I am just highlighting a few that jump out to me, be sure to check out complete schedule and register before it is too late.

Day 1 features a series of workshops running a range of topics from gamification, to CMS to user-centered design.  These look like must sees:

• Techniques to Recruit Participants for Customer Research
• Headaches, Rhinos, and Paper Doll Personas: Simple Ways to Find Out What Your Customer Really Wants
• Fable, Myth and Narrative Crafting Multi-Screen Stories

Not just about work, be sure to check out the pinewood derby Stumptown 40 that night.

Day 2 kicks of the keynotes and main sessions – including the previously mentioned “WWE Ethnography: Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!” with Tomer Sharon of Google.   Other sessions I am hoping to attend:

• “Balancing “Science” with Person-Focused Research”
• Pricing for the Web – How to Do Great Work Without Losing Your Shirt (and Soul)

Day 3 is the final day of the conference.  The day starts off with Brian David Johnson of Intel  who asks the intriguing question:  Can we optimize for something other than profit?  Those of you familiar with the Portland State Digital Marketing Strategies program will recognize another speaker – John Hartman wearing his I Have Robots hat.  John’s talk is titled “The 21st Century Campfire” and focuses on cross platform story telling.

Who is going to WebVisions?

This is just a thimble-full of the pack agenda and schedule at WebVisions.  Please read through the whole program and register.  Let us know below if you are going.  I and the other TMMPDX reporters would love to connect with you at WebVisions.