Design4Mobile Conference

One conference I’ve been looking forward to all year is the Design4Mobile conference coming up September 20-24th in Chicago. I was excited before I saw the speaker list. Now, the conference can’t come soon enough!

(This was supposed to be a short post, but I got excited about all the cool speakers and wrote too much. So skip to the bottom to find out how to get a limited number of 15% discount codes for registration.)

I’ve attended a lot of conferences over the last few years. The conferences I’ve attended either have a broader focus and if I’m lucky, they have a mobile track. Some simply have have a session or two on mobile.

Other conferences that are focused on mobile tend to be of two different types. They are either focused on one platform exclusively (e.g., Apple’s WWDC) or are older conferences focused on telecoms (e.g., CTIA).

I’ve enjoyed the majority of the conferences I’ve attended so I can’t complain much about the format. But what has me excited about Design4Mobile is that it is the only conference I know of that is focus on mobile design and user experience. Four days of in depth conversations on these topics.

The conference is organized by Barbara Ballard and Little Springs Design who have been working on mobile design long before the iPhone. They are experts who I follow closely.

That alone would be enough, but come on, the speaker list is just insane. Here are just a few highlights:

• Josh Clark, Global Moxie and author of Tapworthy: Designing Great iPhone Apps — I saw Josh speak at SXSW long before I met him on Twitter or knew of his book. His session was the best one I saw. Phenomenal.
• Suzanne Ginsburg, Ginsburg Design and author of Designing the iPhone User Experience: A User-Centered Approach to Sketching and Prototyping iPhone Apps — I saw Suzanne speak earlier this year in Seattle before her book was published. She interviewed a lot of designers and developers in the process of developing her book so it’s great to hear the stories of how different people tackle problems.
• Scott Jenson, Mobile UX Designer at Google — Scott was on a panel with Barbara Ballard at SXSW. He has a practical approach to mobile, has a quick wit, and was talking about how phone can be used without taking them out of your pocket which I found fascinating.
• Corey Pressman, Exprima Media — It’s strange to look forward to seeing someone speak who works down the hall from you, but Corey spoke last week at Mobile Portland and I learned two things. 1. I learned just enough about his thoughts on mobile in education and the future of textbook publishing to want to know more. 2. That he is an excellent presenter and very funny.
• Katrin Verclas, MobileActive — I admire Katrin and her work at MobileActive so much. It is this sort of work that inspires me for what mobile technology can mean for society.
• Luke Wroblewski, Entrepreneur in Residence at Benchmark Capital — I saw Luke speak at Web Visions a few years ago before he got bitten by the mobile bug. His talk was full of both data and insights. Can’t wait to hear more of his thoughts on mobile and try to figure out what his is up to next (ssshhh… It’s a secret!)

And there are many more people I can’t wait to see. I’ve meant to write this for quite some time to say simply, if you are interested in mobile—particularly mobile design—this is the conference you should attend.

I have a limited number of 15% off registration codes for the conference. If you are interested in a code, please leave a comment or fill out the contact form and I’ll send it to you.

I hope to see you in Chicago!