To Experience Design London list members:

Anyone on this list interested in the future of design practice and knowledge should consider attending the InterSections conference, subtitled 'design know-how for a new era', which takes place 25-26 October this year in NewcastleGateshead (UK).

Though I am not formally involved in creating InterSections, it is lead programmed by my colleague Kevin McCullagh, and I am chairing a thread. Kevin has outlined the thinking that informed the conference in the recent article Riding the Flux: Design is changing in myriad ways. Are you?, Kevin McCullagh, Core77, July 2007). If you are interested in who else is attending, see the InterSections entry on the shared events service Upcoming.org.

There are apparently fewer than 20 places left (of around 300) so if you are interested in attending check your budgets or badger your boss sooner than later.

Nico Macdonald

25-26 October 2007 (NewcastleGateshead)

The conference is a collaboration between Designs of the time (Dott) 07, Northumbria University School of Design, and the Design Council (with which I work), and ties into the Dott 07 Festival, which will take place 16-28 October in NewcastleGateshead. The cost of attending is GBP 300.

The conference chair is Jeremy Myerson, and sessions include:

Three parallel threads have also been programmed: Interactions (chaired by Nico Macdonald); Culture (chaired by Blueprint editor Vicky Richardson); and Business (chair TBA).

The seminar sessions in the Interactions thread are 'Designing interactions, media or experiences?' with Daljit Singh of Digit London, Durrell Bishop of Lucky Bite, and Andy Altmann of Why Not Associates, and we will be asking 'What do designers from different backgrounds and who are designing interactions to different ends, consider to be their core skills?'; and 'Can good design be 'co-created'?' with Future Cities Project director Austin Williams and Joe Heapy of Engine, and we will be asking 'What has design got to learn from the open-source software movement and 'wiki-nomics'? and 'While everyone is a designer, isn't it the job of professional designers to champion good design?'. See the full programme.

If you are (thinking about) attending, do indicate your status on the InterSections entry on the shared events service Upcoming.org.

Whether or not you take part, the Interactions thread will be documented at Spy: Panels: InterSections conference, and the conference should be widely reported and well documented.

See the Interaction Design Group on Upcoming.org (which allows people to share relevant events in the UK and beyond). Note  the IDSA/ICSID Connecting Congress in San Francisco in October, which is chaired by Bill Moggridge; DUX (Designing for User eXperiences) 2007 in Chicago, Illinois in February; IxDA Interaction 08 in Savannah, Georgia in February; and CHI2008 in Florence in April.

Also, look out for the soon-to-be-reinvigorated forum This happened, curated by Chris O'Shea (Pixelsumo), Joel Gethin Lewis (United Visual Artists) and Andreas Muller  (Nanika), which focuses on the stories behind interaction design. It will be hosted at the Rich Mix Cultural Foundation in Bethnal Green.