IA Summit 2007, March 22-26 at the Flamingo Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

The Information Architecture Summit is a premier gathering place for information architects and for discussion about information architecture. Everyone who touches on IA is welcome to share and learn. This year's IA Summit attracted over 570 attendees, including beginners, experienced IAs, and people in a range of related fields.

What is information architecture?

The Information Architecture Institute defines IA as:

  1. The structural design of shared information environments.
  2. The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability.
  3. An emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.

Still unsure what this means- check out some of the presentations from previous IA Summits to see what this conference usually includes.

IA Summit volunteers

The IA Summit is most definitely a community conference. It is sponsored & run by ASIS&T and is planned by a hard-working group of volunteers. This year the following people contributed time and effort to make this a great conference.

The Core Group

These people spent many, many hours planning the conference:

  • Conference chair: Donna Maurer, Information architect, Maadmob Interaction Design
  • Research track co-ordination: Karl FastKarl Fast, PhD Candidate, University of Western Ontario
  • Program: Richard Dalton, User Experience Design Manager, Vanguard
  • Review process: Chris Farnum, Information Architect
  • Website: Dave Ballantine, Sr. Information Architect, Avenue A | Razorfish
  • Visual design & promo material: Matthew Fetchko

The Strategy Group

No conference gets off the ground without a bunch of smart people to give advice:

The Social Committee

The IA Summit would not be worth running without a social program:

  • Cindy Blue, Senior Information Architect, NavigationArts, LLC
  • Crystal Kubitsky, Information Architect, Comcast
  • Dave Cooksey, Information Architect, GSI Commerce, Inc.
  • Lisa Colvin, User Experience Architect and Interaction Design Strategist
  • Louis Rosenfeld, Publisher, Rosenfeld Media
  • Olga Howard, IA & Usability Consultant, Creative Experience Design
  • Priyanka Kakar, Information Architect, Vanguard Group
  • Richard Dalton, User Experience Design Manager, Vanguard
  • Susan Rogers, Manager, Technology Transfer, SEMATECH

The reviewers

And the longest list - all the people who reviewed proposals:

  • Anh Dang, Information Architect, Avenue A | Razorfish
  • Baden Hughes, Program Manager - Information Management, The University of Melbourne
  • Beth R. Manning, Sr. Information Architect, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online
  • Bev Corwin, President, Enso Company Ltd
  • Carrie Gilbert, Director of User Experience, White Horse
  • Chiara Fox, Senior Information Architect, Adaptive Path
  • Chris Baum, Product Manager/Information Architect
  • Chris Farnum, Information Architect
  • Cindy Blue, Senior Information Architect, NavigationArts, LLC
  • Cristina Negrut, Freelance Consultant
  • Crystal Kubitsky, Information Architect, Comcast
  • Daniel Szuc, Usability Consultant, Apogee Usability Asia Ltd
  • Dave Cooksey, Information Architect, GSI Commerce, Inc.
  • Dennis J Schleicher Jr.
  • Don Turnbull, Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin
  • Dorelle Rabinowitz, Design Manager, Yahoo!
  • Elisa K. Miller, Information Architect, Perot Systems
  • Eric Reiss, Managing Director, FatDUX Copenhagen
  • Gershom Rogers, Sr. Business Analyst/Project Manager, UNC School of Public Health (Instructional and Information Systems)
  • Jack DeLand, Principal, m5
  • Jackson Fox, User Experience Designer, Lulu.com
  • James Melzer, Information Architect, SRA International
  • Javier Velasco, Information Arhictect, Yahoo! Research / Center for Web Research
  • Joseph T. Tennis, Assistant Professor, The University of British Columbia
  • Karl Fast, PhD Candidate, University of Western Ontario
  • Kate Simpson, Information Architect, London
  • Kristina M. Spurgin, PhD student, School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Laura Lessa, Information Architecture Manager, Globo.com
  • Leisa Reichelt, User Experience Consultant
  • Linda Urban, Principal Consultant, Linda Urban Communications, LLC
  • Livia Labate, Senior Manager, Information Architecture and Usability, Comcast Interactive Media
  • Lorelei Brown, Manager of User Experience, National Association of Realtors
  • Mags Hanley, Independent IA consultant
  • Matthew Milan, Account Planner, IA Practice Lead, Critical Mass Toronto
  • Maria A. Cordell, Senior Information Architect, Macquarium, Inc.
  • Melanie Feinberg, PhD student, Information School, University of Washington
  • Mike Steckel, Information Architect/Librarian, SEMATECH
  • Nancy Kaplan, Professor, Information Arts and Technologies, University of Baltimore
  • Peter Boersma, Senior Interaction Designer, Info.nl
  • Peter Morville, President, Semantic Studios
  • Priyanka Kakar, Information Architect, Vanguard Group
  • Richard Dalton, User Experience Design Manager, Vanguard
  • Ron Akanowicz, Softerware Consulting
  • Samantha Starmer, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft
  • Scott Weisbrod, Sr. Information Architect & Practice Lead, Critical Mass
  • Stacy Merrill Surla, Information Architect, MITRE Corporation
  • Stephanie L. Trunzo, Lead Information Architect, Rational User Assistance
  • Tal Herman, User Experience Manager, California State Automobile Association
  • Thomas Froehlich, Professor & Program Director, Information Architecture and Knowledge Management, Kent State University
IA Summit 2007