Looking For a Few Good IAs

Ever think about living in the Pacific Northwest? If you're considering a change of scenery (or acquiring a new business card), we're looking for a couple full time IAs to add to our team, and what a better place to find candidates?

I thought since I'll be at the Summit (I'm not a recruiter), if anyone's looking for a full-time gig, we could meet and see what's possible. For more information go to www.zaaz.com.

Feel free to contact me at pams@zaaz.com if you'd like to learn more.

Yulblog Invites Bloggers For a Drink

For the past five years, a group of Montréal bloggers has been meeting face to face every month to catch up, have a drink, meet people they have been reading or discover new ones. We believe that to be the longest running such meeting. That group is called Yulblog and we'll be having a special celebration in a few weeks but in the mean time our regular night is Wednesday the 2nd, just a few days before the summit. If you are arriving early and are a blogger or simply interested in meeting french and english speaking writers, programmers, students, photographers and many others, you are invited to join us at La Cabane, right on The Main, one of the hubs of Montréal life. (details on time and place)

Driving from NYC to Montreal

I'll be driving from NYC to Montreal on Friday and would love to find company and share fuel costs. If you are interested please email me at patricia at 2far dot com. (Unfortunately I cannot offer a ride back since I'll add some vacation days).

Transportation from airport

It looks like the easiest way to get from the airport to the hotel/conference is with L'Aérobus. Every 20 minutes, it goes from the airport right to the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth, with a few stops along the way, and for only $13.00 one way.

Marc's Guide to Montreal

My friend Marc used to live in Montreal and he sent me this great list of things to do/see during the summit (remember this is Marc writing, not me):

Great location you got! Right downtown. I suggest you limit your outings to three parts of town: downtown, le plateau Mont-Royal, and Vieux-Montreal.

Downtown

Downtown you will not be bored by walking around Sainte-Catherine St.; stay off René-Levesques, where your hotel is, it's the financial district and restaurants/bars are generally not great there. I always like just to walk around and explore cities. I suggest you go check our McGill University: it's a really nice and old campus. Corner Ste-Cath. and Saint-Denis is pretty cool. You have to walk around on Saint-Denis, north of Saint-Cath. You will find good restaurants around there, corner Ontario and Rachel especially (but go with suggestions, if you can).

Speaking of restaurants, I was really poor when I lived there, so you will get the poor man's suggestions:

• for Montreal bagels (they are awesome-- better than New York, if you ask me): La maison du bagel, Fairmont bagel, Saint-Viateur bagel (plateau)
• for Montreal smoked meats (mmm): Schwartz's or Dunn's (downtown)
• good sushi place on Du Parc and Bernard
• if you feel fancy (and rich): L'Express is very French (great food, terrible service), and Toqué! is one of the best restaurants in Canada ($$$$$)

Other than that you should ask around: people are always really proud of giving suggestions in Montreal and there's TONS of great affordable food (lots of bring-your-own-wine, with no corkage fee). However, stick to the Frech-influenced cuisine, it's what Montreal has best to offer.

Le Plateau Mont-Royal

OK, plateau. It's a 20-30 minute walk, but there's a bunch of metro stations and busses (or cheap cab rides, if no traffic). You have to go there, no question. You go North on either Saint-Denis, Saint-Urbain, or Saint-Laurent up to about Mont-Royal Street. It's my favorite part of town (and where I used to live). Lots of great bars and restaurants. Prince-Arthur street is cute and great for shopping. My favorite bars there all closed, unfotunately, but there are a bunch of great new ones.

Bars: for dancing or hanging out 'Le Living' (on Saint-Denis and Rachel, I think) is kind of cool and the Saint-Sulpice (Saint-Denis, just north of Sainte-Cath.) is a huge and kind of cool too in a way.

You will find pubs and bistros just about everywhere, with lots of original beers (my favorite is "Belle Gueule Rousse"). One of the new hot places is Casa Del Popolo, never been there but I heard it's happening.

Vieux-Montreal

As for the Vieux-Montreal, it's such a short walk from where you are that you should check it out. It's best in the summer, but you will enyou just walking around 250-300 yr-old buildings. You basically just have to go south on Saint-Denis and you're there. You can walk around Saint-Paul, Saint-Jean, and Notre-Dame streets. It's a cool little area, but a bit expensive for food and drinks (plateau and downtown are WAY better).

Oh, almost forgot, for a french-neogoth experience try Les Foufounes Électrique (the electrical buns).

Don't forget: Stay off Crescent street!

My Favorite Montreal Spots

Schwartz's (3895 Saint-Laurent Boulevard)
- This place makes the best smoke meat sandwiches (4.50 Cdn).

La Vielle Europe Deli (3855 Saint-Laurent Boulevard)
- Great cheese and meat selection
- Amazing coffee. They have one of those roasting thingies right in the store.

See you soon.

Summit '05 T-Shirts, Mugs, and More

Check out the Summit online store (http://www.cafepress.com/iasummit) to order your IA'05 gear.

Thanks to Evette Mezger for chatcke design and online store setup, and to Dave Ballantine for the original artwork.

AIfIA face-to-face Saturday evening

There will be an AIfIA/IA Institute face-to-face on Saturday night. Here are the details:

When: Saturday, March 5, 2005, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Meet in the poster session at the AIfIA table
Theme: Bring your IA baggage--we'll "sort it out" over drinks.

This is a great opportunity to meet people on the list, board members, advisors and other IAs. If you have questions or suggestions about a bar/restaurant, contact me at genesmith@atomiq.org.

Canadian Visa

A reminder for those coming to Montreal from outside Canada and the US: make sure you get your Canadian visas in order. Depending on where and how you apply, your visa may take up to 4 weeks to be issued.

I requested mine over the mail to the NY embassy and it was suprisingly fast and painless: 5 days. Highly recommended. Tip: include the summit registration and hotel booking print-outs for speedier processing (less questions asked).

Don't leave it to the last week! Specially if you're presenting :)

Fairmont at $169 CAD/night

Just thought I would let you know that when reserving the room online using the conference's promotional code they now offer the rooms at $199CAD/night. When I called the hotel they were able to offer the room at $169CAD/night instead.

DCIA Social Saturday

If you hail from the Washington, DC metropolitan area, then put Saturday evening dinner on your calendar. DCIA (DC Information Architecture) organizers are behind this one. Comment or email stacy at greenfx.net if you plan to come. We'll figure out details later.

IxDG dinner & gathering Sunday Night

If you are on the Interaction Designers Group mailing list, an interaction designer, or someone who just likes interaction design, you are invited to join us for dinner (non-sponsored event) on Sunday night.

So far there are some 10-15 people who are coming from the IxDG discuss@ list. I'm sure the number will grow at this point between now and Sunday night.

To help those of us who are organizing the event, please send an e-mail to dave (at) ixdg (dot) org. Also, if you have suggestions, please post them here as comments.

For more information about the IxDG you can go to http://ixdg.org/.

Roommate?

I'm seeking a roommate for the Fairmont for 3 nights (Fri, Sat, Sun). I happen to be a male non-smoker (westontt@gmail.com).

Around town

For those who would like a great resource on information on what is going on in Montreal during your time there:

http://www.canada.com/montreal/aroundtown/eventResults.asp

It is a beautiful - great city!

2005, the family-accessible Summit

I believe it’s the allure of Montreal… rumor says that some of the attendees will be bringing their spouses to this Summit. In fact, I’ll be making the trip with my wife, and I know a friend who’ll be on the same boat.

We could use this blog for our spouses to organize outings for walkin along the highlights of the city, and maybe elaborate a guide on “how to put up with those crazy Information Architects” :-)

Gay and Lesbian IAs

Any other LGBT IAs interested in getting together, discussing IA, and exploring Montreal? It would be fun to get together for dinner or going out afterwards during the summit.

Post here and I would be willing to coordinate it.

Woodworking

Anybody know of or interested in finding and exploring woodworking or furniture building resources in Montreal during down time?