I met Whitney Hess at the 2008 IA Summit in Miami, Florida while sharing a table to discuss Kevin Cheng’s book on comics for Rosenfeld Media. Since then, she’s made a number of changes–from becoming a full time freelancer / owning her own business to writing a well-visited blog to her weekly “Whit Hour” to giving the closing plenary at the 2010 IA Summit in Phoenix. Whitney happily shared some of her own insights and lessons learned from presenting.

How do you create a new presentation, specifically in the conceptual phase?
Over the course of several weeks, I write one-liners as they pop into my head on post-it notes. Once I start thinking of the same one-liners again, I realize my brain is empty. I lay out all of the stickies on the floor and do a sort of affinity diagram, grouping the like items into categories. Then I label each category, and those become the sections of my talk (I try to create 3-5 sections). I put the sections in an order that I think will create the best flow, then type in each one-liner onto a slide and move the slides around within each section while talking out loud to myself to create the strongest story. Sometimes I rearrange the sections, or add transitional slides to ensure that everything flows well.

How do you prepare for the presentation once you have your content in place?
I don’t like to over-prepare, because when I do my talk ends up sounding forced and inauthentic. Instead I walk through each section, writing in any voice over that I want to be sure to hit into the Notes area for each slide. Then I walk through the whole thing once in real-time, speaking the voice over to my computer screen. I make any necessary tweaks to improve the flow, and then I put it to bed.

I might wake up the morning of the presentation with one new thought, which I’ll then add to the deck somewhere.

What are your “pre-presentation” rituals that help you get ready? Any rituals during the presentation that keep you in the flow?
Jared Spool taught me to always eat breakfast the day of a talk, so I do it even if I feel like throwing up. And I usually want to. I wake up with the shakes, they usually dissipate after breakfast, and then I’m fine until about 30 minutes before my presentation. I go into the bathroom, sometimes cry a little, and imagine ways to get out of having to give the talk — If I hide, will they find me? What will it do to my career if I just run away? — then I realize how ridiculous I’m being, splash some water on my face, and stride up to the stage. Once I’m up there looking out at the audience and I open my mouth, something else takes over and all the nerves go away.

How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you’re in the middle of a presentation?
Sometimes I just can’t find the word I’m looking for or I forget the point I was trying to make. So I immediately skip to the next slide.

How have you combated stage fright in the past and/or how do you combat it today? What are the techniques you use–not the whole “see the audience in their underwear” stuff, but the real tricks that make it work for you.
See above. Also, once I’m up there, I’m no longer there in the present moment. I kind of black out, and only come to once the presentation is done and I’m off the stage. I rarely remember saying whatever I said up there — the entire hour is blank. Something else takes over and the fear just isn’t there.

About Whitney Hess
Whitney Hess is a user experience design consultant based in New York City. She helps make stuff easy and pleasurable to use.

As a strategic partner with Happy Cog, Whitney recently completed an extensive research initiative for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website redesign. She was also the user experience consultant on Boxee’s beta redesign, and has worked with many other startups, agencies and major corporations.

Prior to going independent, Whitney was on the design team at Liquidnet, an international financial software company that runs the leading electronic marketplace for wholesale stock-trading. Previously, she was an interaction designer at two marketing agencies, Digitas and Tribal DDB, where her clients included American Express, The New York Times, Allstate, Claritin, Tropicana, and EarthLink. Most notably, she helped to conceive, design, and test an innovative card search tool for American Express, and is named as a co-inventor on its U.S. patent.

Whitney received a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing and a Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. She writes about improving the human experience on her blog, Pleasure and Pain, and can always be reached via Twitter @whitneyhess.

Karl Fast is one of this guys you wish you knew better (unless you already know him really well, in which case you’re just really happy about it). I’ve had the chance over the course of the past year or so to have a couple of great, informative chats with Karl, and I’m certainly better off for it. In addition, he’s a professor, which means that he’s putting himself up in front of a group of people on an almost daily basis, which means that I’m pretty sure he’s got some great advice when it comes to presenting. Let’s learn from Karl, shall we?

How do you create a new presentation, specifically in the conceptual phase?
I walk because walking helps me think. It’s the best method I’ve found for thinking through the ways I might approach a presentation. It’s a trick I use to tackle conceptually thorny problems. Good presentations fall into that category. Actually, most of the creative challenges in my life fall into that category.

While walking I start a monologue in my head. As I get more engaged in the problem this monologue builds. Eventually it spills out and I begin talking out loud. The voice in my head always sounds brilliant and flawless. Talking out loud helps me recognize when I’m not expressing myself clearly. Our culture associates people who talk to themselves with a need to be medicated, so I prefer to walk in places where I’m unlikely to meet other people. Given the car-centric nature of the modern world this is easier than it might seem. 

After walking and talking I move to pen and paper. This is a process of jotting down short phrases, key concepts, and stray thoughts and then stringing them together into a narrative. Jotting is how I take the meandering ideas from my walk, identify the conceptual landmarks, and bash them into a coherent whole. My notebook usually looks quite messy at this stage with words and phrases stitched together to indicate flow and relationships. The result wouldn’t make sense to anyone else, but it makes sense to me.

This is when I finally open PowerPoint or Keynote and start working on the visual components for the presentation. My jottings are the source material. There is a lot of iteration, but the final slides mostly follow my jottings. The slides start as text. Then I minimize the text, or eliminate it altogether, and add the necessary visuals.

I strive for the minimum set of slides to convey my message. Once I have a complete deck, I reduce it by thirty to fifty percent. My presentations are mostly about next-generation interfaces so I can rarely get away no slides. But I can always cut out a vast swath of my slides.

As I become a better speaker, I have found that I am more likely to give a good talk when I focus on the words and the art of speaking, rather than the visuals. All great speakers can hold an audience rapt with words. The visuals can help, but I’ve never seen a great talk based on great visuals and weak words. I’ve seen plenty of great talks with great words and weak visuals, or no visuals at all.

This sounds like a fairly neat linear process. It’s not. It’s actually quite messy and highly iterative. Messiness is creativity.

How do you prepare for the presentation once you have your content in place?
I run it through in my head a few times. I don’t speak in front of a mirror. But I will talk out certain parts to myself. The introduction is one of those parts. I always want the first few minutes to be smooth. This allows me to quickly get into the flow, and it’s a critical part of the talk for connecting with the audience. 

Once I have worked out all the details I usually set the talk aside and don’t worry about it much. If the talk has a lot of pre-written material—more script than slides—then I will time it and make sure I’m within the time limit. However, in most cases, I just set it aside until the talk.

I wish I could say that I always finish my talks ahead of schedule. It doesn’t happen as often as I would like. But even when I’m putting something together at the last minute, I have still been working through the talk in my mind—walking to and from the office—for at least a week. I’ve been jotting as part of that process. So I always have something to work from.

What are your “pre-presentation” rituals that help you get ready?  Any rituals during the presentation that keep you in  the flow?
I go through the presentation sometime within the hour leading up the talk. This usually involves three things.

• First, I flip through the entire deck, if I have one, to refresh my memory about the overall structure of the talk.
• Second, I rehearse the opening part of my talk. I don’t rehearse it all. I simply start doing my talk and stop after a few minutes. This is my main trick getting into the flow. I want to engage the audience immediately, so I try to memorize at least the opening segment.
• Third, I go over parts of the talk that I want to emphasize, that have specific phrases I want to say, or function as conceptual landmarks around which I have mentally structured the talk. These are usually transition points where I am ending one section and starting another, or summing up a series of points and stepping back to emphasize the central idea. I want to be clear in my mind about what those parts are.

How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you’re in the middle of a presentation? 
I pause. I know I can say nothing for at least ten seconds before anyone will start to get nervous and wonder if something has gone wrong. That is usually plenty of time to gather my thoughts and move one.

I’ve never found flow to be much of a problem when giving a talk. Not if I have prepared well. My preparation is all about articulating the jumbled words in my head and corralling them into a meaningful sequence. By the time it comes to speak the whole speech is in my head and losing flow isn’t an issue. If it does happen, it’s minor, and a brief pause to collect my thoughts always puts me back on track.

How have you combated stage fright in the past and/or how do you combat it today?  What are the techniques you use–not the whole “see the audience in their underwear” stuff, but the real tricks that make it work for you.
The only time I remember having stage fright was in junior high, when I gave my first presentation to a group of peers. I was probably 12 years old. After my first few talks, my nervousness evaporated. I haven’t worried about stage fright since. I’m sure I have various physiological reactions—elevated heart rate or dilated pupils—but nothing that I would call stage fright.

Curiously, I used to get extremely nervous during Q&A sessions, not as the speaker, but as an audience member who wanted to ask the speaker a question. When I thought of a question, instead of listening to the talk, I would mull over how best to express it. I would obsess over possible phrasings and miss the rest of the talk. Eventually I learned to write down my question and redirect my attention to the talk. In most cases the speaker would answer the question later, someone else would ask a similar question, or I would decide the question wasn’t that important. My real insight was realizing that most Q&A sessions are boring. So now, if I still have a question, I approach the speaker after the talk and try to engage in a one-on-one discussion.

About Karl Fast
Karl Fast is a professor of User Experience Design at Kent State University. He is a founding member of the Information Architecture Institute. He researches the messy nature of complex information work and the epistemic benefits of interacting with visual abstractions. He’s also Canadian.

You may have heard of Jesse James Garrett from the book “The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web and Beyond (2nd Edition) (Voices That Matter)
“, or possibly even from the term “AJAX“, or perhaps even as one of the founders of Adaptive Path. Heck, you might have heard of him from his closing plenary at the 2009 IA Summit in Memphis, too. While I’ve got no new reason to have ever heard of Jesse, he was very obliging of his time and shared some of his own thoughts around creating and performing presentations. And that’s pretty cool of him. Read on…

How do you create a presentation, specifically at the concept phase? (ie for me, I write an outline while doing research, create note cards, move them all around, and then get inside of keynote when I have this all figured out)
My presentations are generally built around a handful of anchor points, strong, concise statements of my major ideas. Everything about the talk is oriented around these, and I’ll usually craft those first. I jump into Keynote pretty early. I need to start seeing the slides coming together to get a sense of how much depth to go into for each point.

Then it’s a process of bridging the gaps — figuring out what the audience needs to know heading into each of those anchor points and what makes for a logical progression from one to the next. I’m a big fan of presenter notes, especially for these transitions. I can remember my anchor points easily enough, but the transitions, where I’m drawing connections between ideas, are harder for me to keep in my head. So my presenter notes will always contain a couple of key phrases: the first thing I say when the slide comes up, and the last thing I say before I move to the next one.

How do you prepare once you’ve got your content in place? (Do you rehearse in front of a mirror, etc.?)
I used to do a lot of rehearsal early in my speaking career. (Not in front of a mirror, though, that would be way too distracting.) In part that was because I hadn’t learned how to use presenter notes effectively yet, and in part it was because I had no idea how to estimate the time it would take to deliver the material I had developed.

What are your “pre-presentation” rituals that help you get ready?  What about during the presentation that keep you in the flow? (I do workout routines, breakfast, walking the room, etc.)
Getting ready for a morning talk is really different from an afternoon talk. In the morning: Get there early enough that you can get comfortable with the room itself. Have coffee, but do it well before you have to be onstage. I will have something small to eat, not a full breakfast or anything heavy. Don’t forget to visit the restroom as close as you can to talk time.

In the afternoon, it’s a little different. It’s more a matter of watching the other speakers and looking for connections to what you’re going to talk about. I don’t ever change my presentation — that’s too much disruption too late in the game — but I will sometimes add a note referring back to a similar or related point made earlier in the day.

How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you fall out of character, or the moment, when you’re in the middle of a presentation?
If it’s really obvious to everybody (usually because of some technical glitch) I’ll try to make a joke of it. Getting a laugh reminds you that the audience is on your side. Don’t force it, though: if you can’t think of a way to make light of the situation, you’ll just make things worse racking your brains for a joke.

If it’s a little thing that only I would know about, I fall back on my presenter notes to reorient myself and get some momentum going again.

About Jesse James Garrett
Jesse James Garrett, co-founder and president of Adaptive Path, is one of the world’s most widely recognized technology product designers. At Adaptive Path, Jesse supports the company’s designers and strategists with creative guidance and helps them advance the company’s thought leadership position.

Jesse blogs at http://jjg.net and has a much longer biography on the Adaptive Path website.

David Armano, possibly best known for his talents in the social media space, is a pretty regular guy with lots of smarts, a decent sense of humor and an ability to grow facial hair at 10x the rate of the guy writing this copy. I first met David a few years back, thanks to the connection-making skills of Ms. Whitney Hess, and I count myself as pretty fortunate to call him not only a friend, but a co-conspirator at times, and even a co-presenter at SXSW in 2009. David is generous with his time and talents, and this easily makes him a standout in the very populated crowd of “internet celebrities”–but he’s also genuinely interested in all of those “greater good” things, and won’t hesitate to step up for a good cause, and has done so many times. In addition to that, he jumped at the chance to share his experiences and advice about presenting, when he easily could have been too busy busting his hump for clients. Anyone willing to trade-in some “plane nap-time” for well-thought responses is a pretty good egg in my book.

And with that, here’s some wisdom from Mr. Armano.

How do you create a new presentation, specifically in the conceptual phase?
Presentations are first created in my mind and they don’t start as presentations they start out as fragments, ideas and parts of a story. The pieces of the narrative then show up in a variety of forms. Sometimes in work deliverables, other times in articles and occasionally a blog post or tweet. The narrative begins to take root. Then, when the time is right and all the pieces are scattered in a variety of forms—I begin to pull the master narrative together in the forms of words, pictures and whatever else helps me tell the story.

What are your “pre-presentation” rituals that help you get ready?  Any rituals during the presentation that keep you in  the flow?
I never, ever do dry runs. What I do is put some notes to the slides or sometimes edit them. I never read the notes—it is the act of writing them that helps me to recall the story. I also flip through slides in presentation mode whether on laptop, iPad or whatever. I need to see the slides over and over again until they are burned into my mind.

How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you’re in the middle of a presentation?
Great question, this happens from time to time. Not everyone notices it—but I know when I’ve lost optimal flow. What I do is look to the audience and find someone who is highly engaged. I focus on that person even though they probably never know it. I take that energy and bring it back into the presentation. This usually works and I regain my footing. I often find that I’m only as good as my audience. But I’ve been pretty fortunate to have some good ones.

How have you combated stage fright in the past and/or how do you combat it today?  What are the techniques you use–not the whole “see the audience in their underwear” stuff, but the real tricks that make it work for you.
This is going to sound odd but I typically get very calm before an audience. The larger the audience—the calmer I get. This doesn’t mean I don’t get nervous. I do. But I’ve noticed something interesting that often happens after I speak. I feel the effects after, not before. Sometimes in my lower back! I often feel depleted. I like to joke that I’m a “closet introvert” and people never believe me because I’m very social and outgoing. But interactions in public such as presentations and the meet & greets after drain my batteries as opposed to charging them. I have no tricks to offer here, but would suggest that you try to focus your presentations on subjects you feel passionately about. I think that’s probably one of the reasons my stage fright is pretty minimal.  

About David Armano
David Armano is currently a senior vice president at Edelman Digital, the interactive arm of global communications firm Edelman. He has 14 years experience in the industry with the majority of his time spent in digital marketing and user experience design. An active participant in the industry, he writes Logic + Emotion which is ranked in the top media + marketing blogs according to Advertising Age. His writing and visual thinking has been cited by Forrester, The Boston Globe and has landed him in BusinessWeek on several occasions including their “Best of 2006”. He also writes at the Harvard Business Review.

Prior to Edelman, David spent time as a creative & strategic lead at notable firms such as Critical Mass, Digitas and Agency.com—putting in a combined tenure of 8 years in the large digital agency environment. He has led multiple initiatives for clients such as HP, Allstate, Fifth Third Bank, Miller Brewing, Grainger, and Bally Total Fitness. Previously, he earned his interactive stripes working with The Chicago Tribune on their site initiatives balancing content with functionality.



Today, David blends strategy with design and looks for new business opportunities around the social Web to enhance the customer experience, connect individuals and innovate.  He currently lives in a near-northern suburb of Chicago, not far from Lake Michigan. When he’s not working, surfing the net, or riding his motorbike—he can be found spending quality time with his family.



Oh, and he doesn’t have a middle name, considers himself a connoisseur of beef jerky and has been occasionally known to wear cowboy hats, but only if the mood strikes him. He also loves the karaoke, and is known by his first name at The Blue Frog in downtown Chicago.

Christian Lane and I went to different high schools together and I had the rare fortune of being able to hang out with him a few times. Not like “I’m in the same room with Slash” type of thing–sheesh. I do recall we attended that same “Enuff Z’nuff” show at the Thirsty Whale, however… Oh, the 80s.

As long as I’ve known him, Christian has been a purveyor of the finer things in music, and he somehow always seemed to just know what the Next Big Thing™ was, and listened to it first, perhaps subconsciously forcing the rest of us to get turned on to bands like The Cult, The Clash and The Sex Pistols in between hits of The Beatles, but before we knew we should be listening in that general direction. His father, Terry, was and is a pretty big fan of his work, and seemed to know the best ways to support him. Somewhere out there (perhaps in my cassette tape collection that’s been relocated to a top shelf in the shed) is a copy of “Temptation” by New Order that Christian’s dad paid for him to record as a birthday present. It was a wild eye-opener of things to come for him, in hindsight. It’s never been a surprise that he went on make a professional career in music, with many of his songs landing in some of your favorite TV shows. He generously offered his time to help me gain some insight into how he handles live performances, and the full interview text follows.

As corny as it sounds, I still remember the coach’s axiom, “the more you practice, the luckier you are”. Obviously that’s a better analogy for free throws, but I find great comfort in that.

Just remember, there’s a reason why you’re up there on stage. You have to believe that reason yourself. Know your material, be able to answer anything.

Have you ever been at a podium–done a presentation, a reading, played music, where you had to prepare in advance for it? If so, how do you create that presentation (song list, etc.), specifically in the conceptual phase? Maybe a better question is “how do you structure a new song when you’re starting from scratch?”
Yes.

As a musician, about 70% of my work is live performances. Very rarely do I not prepare. the exception would be the occasional impromptu “jam”. For live performance I prepare the physical aspects, such as warming up my voice and my fingers (on guitar). The set list i create is usually firm on the opening 3 songs, and the last couple. I still write-out the names of the rest and put them in there in a loose “order”, but i allow for the mood of the crowd to dictate the direction. Also, I jot down a handful of cover songs I can play just in case I need to pull out something familiar. (Honestly, i think this is a better direction than me trying to explain song process. If someone could explain it to ME, perhaps!)

As musician, how do you get into the mindset of “playing live”? That is, as a presenter, I more or less “turn it on” when I’m presenting and know how I do it, but how do you get on stage?
Nerves mostly.

As corny as it sounds, I still remember the coach’s axiom, “the more you practice, the luckier you are”. Obviously that’s a better analogy for free throws, but I find great comfort in that. Then I like to be alone, or with my band, or maybe my wife, for about a half hour before performance, and just pace and air guitar–and really just let the nerves wash over me.

I learned, about myself anyway, that nerves have a way of focusing you and they serve a real purpose. As far as turning it on, when I walk on stage (in the bigger venues “when the lights go down”), everything disappears and I just feel like it’s my house, and I own it.

What are your “pre-playing” rituals that help you get ready? What about during the performance that keep you in the flow?
I’m sort of smooshing these questions together a bit I guess–I already touched on pre-show, but I think it’s good to reiterate that I like to have a little “alone time” if possible.

It seems like there’s some sort of inverse formula stating the harder you are about to rock, the more silent you will be before hand. I get almost comatose, and I yawn (though I hear yawning is a manifestation of nerves for lots of folks). Before the biggest solo show I ever played in Canada, in front of 9,000 people, I fell asleep under a card table.

I wish I could tell you that I was cognizant of what takes place when I step on stage, but I’m really not. I’m told I’m completely different on-stage than I am off, but I have little-to-no knowledge of how that switch is flipped.

How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you maybe choke in the middle of a song, or the moment, when you’re in the middle of a gig?
I don’t know that I have any set ways to recover from a flub, etc. I’m not sure exactly what happens, but when you’re in the moment it goes by all too fast.

I don’t think I’ve ever had time to realize a dinger even happened, so I wouldn’t be able to “recover” as it were. The closest thing I can think of that I would relate to this would be breaking a string. You just sort power through–there’s not much you can do about it  until the end of the song.

I think if you make too big a deal about mistakes it highlights them to the audience.

How have you combated stage fright in the past and/or how do you combat it today?  What are the techniques you use–not the whole “see the audience in their underwear” stuff, but the real tricks that make it work for you.
I don’t have any real tricks to combat stage fright. I’m not sure if I have/get “stage fright”. Nerves are sort of part of anything you do in life where you might be under review, or engaging with other people or unfamiliar situations. “Stage fright”, I’m guessing, is a very specific fear, and maybe public speaking isn’t the best way to get your ideas out there!!

I kid.

I would say, use the nerves. I think nervousness can also be “preparedness”. Nerves tend to focus me on things I need to remember (ie., do i have my good cable, is my water bottle already open, etc…

Sorry, no real tricks. Just remember, there’s a reason why you’re up there on stage. You have to believe that reason yourself. Know your material, be able to answer anything.

About C.E. Lane
With the release of his debut solo album on Bad Religion guitarist Greg Hetson’s Porterhouse 101 Records, songwriter c e lane opens a new chapter in a vibrant rock and roll story.

From the age of three, c e lane has been playing guitar and writing songs. Fueled by classic artists like the Beatles and Dylan, as well as the punk rock of The Clash and Sex Pistols, lane began performing in clubs and roadhouses at the tender age of 14. At 18 he made the journey from small town Illinois to the city of Chicago to pursue his dreams. Coinciding with the Chicago alt-rock music explosion of the mid-90′s, lane’s band Loud Lucy quickly developed a strong regional following, selling out the famed Metro Theater and being featured
prominently in both local and national press. The band’s fusion of grunge-thrust and pop sensibility brought them to the attention of Geffen Records. Within a year, Loud Lucy went from local roadhouses and clubs to to playing shows around the globe.

With a voice reminiscent of American classics Tom Petty and Alex Chilton and with a stylistic nod to British icons John Lennon and Marc Bolan, c e lane sings of love, loss, and home. At first listen, these simple themes immediately become imbued with powerful undercurrent of longing and searching.

Find C.E. Lane online at: http://porterhouse101.com/artists/ceLane/ceLane.html

Buy C.E. Lane’s new album, “Meet Me At The Corner” on iTunes.

I “met” Eytan Mirsky more than a handful of years ago after discovering his music and tracking down just about everything I could find by him–I’m a sucker for really strong pop music, and Eytan’s all about that, in a great way. Some of my favorite songs from Eytan are in the “Tao of Steve” soundtrack, but there’s little he’s done that I’ve not been a fan of. He’s also made a few acting appearances (if you saw “American Splendor” he wrote the title track and played it in the movie), and was a perfect candidate to get some information on handling public performances. In unrelated news: one of these days I’ll make the trip to one of Eytan’s live shows and/or I’m going to hold him to letting me sing backing vocals on a track in the future. He clearly doesn’t know of my love for Hootie and the Blowfish or he’d have already been all over this.

Surprisingly — or maybe not surprisingly — most times people are not as aware of any mistakes as you might think. They are not focusing on things the way you (as the performer) are.

Have you ever been at a podium–done a presentation, a reading, played music, where you had to prepare in advance for it? If so, how do you create that presentation (song list, etc.), specifically in the conceptual phase? Maybe a better question is “how do you structure a new song when you’re starting from scratch?”
Yes, I have had to do live shows and present set lists for the shows. First I will pick the songs I want to do at the show. Then I will determine how the show will start and finish then I will try to fill in the material in between. Clearly you don’t want songs that are too similar right next to each other, so I try to mix it up as much as I can. I also try to come up with some clever between-song patter, but I like to keep that somewhat extemporaneous. I really don’t agonize too much about the song order though, to tell you the truth.
 
How do I structure a new song? In my case, I usually have the overall concept and try to develop that into a chorus that I like. That will basically include both the words and music. (Sometimes the initial concept can be a phrase, so I develop that into a larger idea of what I am trying to say.) At that time usually the overall structure of the song will come to mind in an abstract sense. When the chorus is done I try to come up with verses that will work with the chorus. That is probably the trickiest part. You want the verses to be sufficiently different from the chorus and yet still sound like they were meant for each other. Once the verses and chorus forms are determined I will write the bridge or middle eight, assuming I feel the song needs one. This is another part that gives you a break from the verse-chorus routine and introduces more variety. I often use this to comment in a different way about the topic at hand.
 
As musician, how do you get into the mindset of “playing live”? That is, as a presenter, I more or less “turn it on” when I’m presenting and know how I do it, but how do you get on stage?
In my own case I try to be as natural as possible. That is kind of my schtick: I am very deadpan. I can’t say whether or not that is satisfying for the audience!  Obviously my persona onstage is somewhat of an exaggeration of my own personality, but it’s not radically different.

What are your “pre-playing” rituals that help you get ready? What about during the performance that keep you in the flow?
My main concern with playing live is that I will forget the songs! I am not that concerned about the lyrics, but I do worry a lot about forgetting the chords of the songs. Obviously, you just need to rehearse so it becomes second nature.  Something about the actual performance seems to focus my mind though, so that I end up not making the mistakes I am worried about making.

I try to do some songs I am most comfortable with in the beginning because I know that if/when those go well I will become more relaxed about things and things will continue to flow more easily.

How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you maybe choke in the middle of a song, or the moment, when you’re in the middle of a gig?
Surprisingly — or maybe not surprisingly — most times people are not as aware of any mistakes as you might think. They are not focusing on things the way you (as the performer) are. And even if they do notice some little mistake they most likely not going to focus too much on it, especially if they are enjoying the overall performance. Of course if the whole thing becomes a train wreck then that’s a problem. You just have to keep pushing on. You can also make a joke out of the mistake if that suits your performance style. 

How have you combatted stage fright in the past and/or how do you combat it today?  What are the techniques you use–not the whole “see the audience in their underwear” stuff, but the real tricks that make it work for you.
I seriously do not have stage fright. The audience doesn’t bother me at all. Between the songs I just do patter and sometimes talk directly to people in the audience. As I said, the only thing that worries me is that I will forget the words or chords. So I need to focus. But it doesn’t really end up being a problem 99 percent of the time.

About Eytan Mirsky
Eytan Mirsky is a singer-songwriter best known for his original contributions to film soundtracks, including the title songs for the critically acclaimed films Happiness (sung by R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe) and American Splendor (in which he himself appeared singing the theme). He also contributed three songs to the film The Tao of Steve, including the title song and “(I Just Wanna Be) Your Steve McQueen”. Other films to which Mirsky has contributed music are Palindromes, The Company and Desert Blue.  He has put out four CDs: Songs About Girls (& Other Painful Subjects), Get Ready for Eytan!, Was it Something I Said? and Everyone’s Having Fun Tonight!

See also: Eytan Mirsky’s Music at AmazonMP3

My first interview is with actor and musician Alex Dittmer, of New York City. Alex and I happen to know each other from some community college days and have shared a stage for the musical “Godspell”. Many years have since passed, and Alex is a full time professional actor. I hope you learn from his insights.

I don’t really have stage fright anymore. The only time I get nervous or rattled is when I am unprepared. I subscribe to two mantras when performing. The first is, “Repetition is the key to mastery” and the second is “Nervousness (fear) is caused by lack of preparing”.

Have you ever been at a podium–done a presentation, a reading, played music, where you had to prepare in advance for it? If so, how do you create that presentation (song list, etc.), specifically in the conceptual phase?
All of my work comes from being prepared, even if it’s during an improv show.  You prepare the basic tenants of improv, the guidelines if you will and the structure builds itself. If it’s an acting gig, my job is to bring as much to the character as possible.  In my business we call that “homework”.  An actor has to do his homework and delve into his character and bring that to rehearsals so the group can share that and grow.
 
To prepare for the role conceptually can be as simple as reading the script several times. I tend to go over board.  I read the script and any history on the author or productions.  i also do a name search to see if there is significance to the name.  Also location history is important as is time the play is set in and the date the play was written in.  All of these factors offer a broad range of colors that the actor can use to paint the canvas of the character.
 
As an actor, how do you get into the mindset of “acting”? That is, as a presenter, I more or less “turn it on” when I’m presenting and know how I do it, but how do you become the character?
My answer may sound kinda silly or untrue, but it’s honestly how I feel.  I love acting.  There is nothing on earth that I have found anywhere that I feel more comfortable and confident doing. There is such a wonderful symbiotic relationship with the audience- a shared energy- that even if I were down, I couldn’t be once I crossed into the lighted stage.  So to give anything less than 100% would be like cheating on a spouse or loved one.  
 
I grew up in a blue collar home with blue collar parents and the work ethic they instilled in me still continues.  I realize that while my job is different from the 9-5 grind or factory work, I still have a job to do and I try to approach it that way.  Someone is paying me decent money to do something I would probably do for free because of my love and passion for it. So if I cash that check, I better deliver on what they are paying me to do.  So, in a long round about way, I guess I am always “on” once I walk into the theatre.  It is a kin to the reverence some people feel when they walk into Cathedral.
 
What are your “pre-acting” rituals that help you get ready? What about during the acting performance that keep you in character / the flow?
I have some pre-show things that I always do.  First I always stretch and get physically warmed up.  I do no less than 25 push-up prior to getting into costume and then the same amount when fully in the opening costume. I also vocalize.  My favorite thing in working the vocals is working on diction.  There is this consonant exercise that I learned in grad school that incorporates all the vowel sounds and the majority of consonants. It takes a little concentration and was something that I struggled with early on in Grad school.  So to do it in warm up reminds me that I always have room to improve.  I also re-read all of my lines in all of my scenes before the stage manager calls “places”. I do this in costume and sit in front of the make-up mirror.  I also always go pee when they call “five minutes to paces”. I’m not sure how I started that habit, but it seems to relax me.
 
The part about keeping in character / flow is a great question.  I think you may have meant about keeping in character in a two hour show.  That’s easy, the thing that I found difficult is doing the same show, twice a day for 6 – 8 months.  There was a time around the 2 -3 month period where I was saying the same dialogue, the same way and I felt I wasn’t being as fresh to the audience as I would have liked.  So I told the other actor (it was a two person show) that I am going to change the intention of some of my lines and let’s see where it goes. While the lines were exactly the same, the intent changed the dynamic of the scene which in turn changed the dynamic of the show. We would do this, from time to time, without telling each other.  That way we were forced to listen and it made the show fresh and alive for us and for each audience….even after 8 months.
 
How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you fall out of character, or the moment, when you’re in the middle of a presentation or character or gig?
In acting we call it “going up”.  Everyone has a horror story on this.  Everyone has done it and everyone has been in a show that someone else has gone up and t affected the show.  My favorite on I’ve ever heard involves an older gentleman, but a community legend  who was playing the Friar in Romeo & Juliet for a summer stock professional show.  It was the scene where he was supposed to tell Juliet about the poison and the antidote.  He completely forgot his lines.  He looked at the actress playing Juliet.  Looked out at the crowd.  Looked back at the actress, and with abject fear on his face he yelled to her, “I’m going up!”.  The trained actress, fed him his lines by asking him questions and the scene was soon put back on track.
 
This is what should happen if there is an interruption in “the flow”.  If you know where the scene is supposed to go, even if you start going up you can usually find your way back.  It’s when you start to panic as an actor and not trust the work that you’ve done, that problems come along.  Mistakes happen, but problems are there when we focus on mistakes. Mistakes can be overcome in a second, problems can require a whole new set of tools. If I make mistakes I tend to push right on through and, if time permits, run back to my dressing room and write down the line or scene or moment that I F***ed up on.  This way I can go back and figure out what happened and reduce it for the next time.  I try my best to make any brief mistake appear smooth to the audience by not drawing attention to it. However, there are times that the audience wants in and it makes the moment more communal and the audience goes crazy.
 
I did a show where, in the final few minutes of the end of the play, one of the actors was to burst on and  improvise a line and then correct himself and say the real line.  This actor was pure genius and the improved lines were always hysterical. On the final night he ran in and blurted out his improved line which was, “Improv line!” the majority of the actors onstage just started cracking up, as we were waiting for some real line. The audience saw we were laughing and started laughing with us.  It was like a Carol Burnett moment. I honestly don’t remember how we ended that show, but I remember the audience waiting for us at the stage door and thanking us for such a fun time.
 
So if you go up, see how the audience reacts and don’t EVER fear. Just go with it, where ever the moment takes you and know where the story ends.  In the meantime, enjoy the new route that you took getting there.
 
How have you combatted stage fright in the past and/or how do you combat it today?  What are the techniques you use–not the whole “see the audience in their underwear” stuff, but the real tricks that make it work for you.
When I was younger I used to run around and try to get all the energy running through my body, out of my system.  I thought that this way, I would be able to perform better…to have more focus.  I used to get a case of the nerves when friends or family were coming to the show I was certifiable if I knew there was a reviewer in the house. Theatre folk tend to enjoy the histrionics. They thrive on the buzz of nerves and anxiety.  Nowadays, I can’t stand to be around those kind of people.  It’s wasted and unfocused energy.

I don’t really have stage fright anymore.  The only time I get nervous or rattled is when I am unprepared.  I subscribe to two mantras when performing.  The first is, “Repetition is the key to mastery” and the second is “Nervousness (fear) is caused by lack of preparing”.  They both pretty much mean the same thing. I only get nervous or concerned if I know I didn’t prepare properly.  As an actor, the majority of the time we are auditioning for a job. Sometimes we are told what to prepare and those are the gret auditions .  you can bring whatever you like from your prepared arsenal and blow them away.  Other times they send you (via your agent) parts of the script to memorize and want to see you do it in two days. You may have plans during those days, or a day job to pay the bills, but time will be working against you and you’ll want to act those scenes fully and only have a few hours to really focus on it.  It those auditions that make me nervous.

The key to getting through them is to make a mental deal with yourself that you will do the absolute best you can for that day and that moment. One of the things I’ve found most helpful was some advice one of my instructors gave me during grad school.  She told me to learn something from every audition and to make sure you take something positive away from it.  All too often actors, most people it seems, beat themselves up over moments like these when they are not at their best. They relive it in their minds a hundred time playing out the most damaging moments.  The perspective is where the difference is.  It the difference of saying, “Shit, I totally blew that line!” or “They never laughed when they were supposed to!” instead of, “Well that monologue doesn’t work well, I can dump it and learn something that works”. 

I realize this isn’t about nerves so much as perspective, but to me they go hand in hand.  If you prepare and approach it from a “win” standpoint, then nerves really don’t play into the scene.

About Alex Dittmer

Alex Dittmer is a native of rural Illinois but a recent transplant to New York. He received his BA in Theatre from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL and received his MFA in Acting from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He has been seen onstage at the Tony Award winning CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK and has worked at the OBIE award winning PEARL THEATRE COMPANY and has had the honor and pleasure of sharing the stage with Tony and Emmy Award winning actress Julie Harris. He has been seen onstage throughout the midwest and parts of the East coast. Visit Alex’s website at www.alexdittmer.com.

Dave Gray’s session was–as always–fun, insightful and inspiring. He’s always a great speaker and a sure-fire bet to be one of your favorite sessions if you’re at a conference he’s presenting at. He did not let us down this time, and I hope my notes make sense.

Knowledge Games Description:

We’re moving from an industrial to a knowledge economy, where creativity and innovation will be the keys to value. New rules apply. Yet two hundred years of industrial habits are embedded in our workplaces, our schools and our systems of government. How must we change our work practices to thrive in the 21st Century? Dave Gray will share insights from his upcoming book on the work of creativity and innovation, due to be published in the first quarter of 2010.

Dave Gray’s Bio:

Dave Gray is the founder and chairman of XPLANE, an information design consultancy serving Fortune 100, NGO and government clients around the world. An artist, journalist and information designer, he is passionate about applied creativity.

My Notes on the Session:

Knowledge Games – Dave Gray

• The AK-47 has killed more people than any other weapon.
• Best designed weapon; can drop it in water, pick it up, still use it.
• A 12 year old can use it.
• Simple – Has 8 moving parts
• Rugged
• Reliable – many other guns would jam, etc. American soldiers would take the AK-47 from killed enemies
• Lightweight – can be used by a 12-year old, but also easily portable.
• Easy to manufacture; can make it in a machine shop
• Design is a Weapon that can be used for good or for bad. It’s a powerful tool for change.
• Design Philosophy: Don’t design for a perfect world, design for chaos. Because the world is filled with chaos.
• Design challenges have a starting point and an end point, but what do you do when the end point is vague and/or unknown?
• DG thinks of a process as more like a pachinko game; with all kinds of structure around it, but you don’t exactly what’s going to happen. There is unpredictability in the process.
• Some things are linear and some are non-linear. But they can be friends.
• Business process: a series of steps that are repeatable.
• Knowledge games: a mothod for inventing and discovering new processes.
• What is a game: A creation of a microworld that represents aspects of the real world.
• A game has boundaries and exists within time and space.
• A game has a goal
• A game has rules
• A game has artifacts
• A Game has players
• A game exists between a start point & end point. How do we define a goal when we don’t know the  goal?
• Fuzzy goals – you know you’re going somewhere, but will figure that out along the way. It can adjust & change as you move along.
• Conference Design: What if a conference was as good as all of the coffee breaks?
  • 10 Essential Rules:
  • 1. Opening & Closing – It’s all about rhythm. The rhythm of working with people. Game reference: Scrabble.
    • Two Rules
      • Never open & close at the same time; you can’t be creative & decisive at the same time
      • Always close what you open! It’s frustrating as hell if you don’t close things.
• 2. Fire-starting – getting people excited is a huge part of getting things done. Game reference: 20 questions
  • Get in touch with your ignorance; you need to get beyond knowing all of the answers & be happy to be wrong!
  • 5 Kinds of Questions
    • Opening – What has been keeping you up at night?
    • Examining – What is this? How does this work? Can you give me an example? What does the data indicate?
    • Experimenting – If we worked in a restaurant how would we solve this? What are we missing? What if all the barriers are removed?
    • Navigating – Is there some tension around this topic? How about a short break?
    • Closing – How would you prioritize these? What’s feasible for us to do in the next 2 weeks? Who will take responsibility for doing that?
• 3. Artifacts – usually portable, items that people have imbued with meaning even if we don’t know exactly what it is. Game example: Chess; you can’t play without knowing the rules of the pieces.
• 4. Node Generation – like sticky notes. Game example: Scattergories; generate as many notes as you can, get as much stuff on post-its, etc. around solving a problem.
• 5. Meaningful space – Think UPSIDE the box! What is the right kind of container for all of this stuff? Draw borders; think of Pros & Cons, axes, etc. to help define the space.
• 6. Sketching! Game reference: Pictionary!. There is no try! EVERYONE CAN SKETCH! Anyone who can write the alphabet and the numbers 1-10, can sketch!
• 7. Randomness – Shake things up! Game example: Dice
• 8. Improvisation – game Example: Charades!
• 9. Selection – This is where you make hard decisions. You have to kill some of your babies here. Game example: Jenga! Choose well.
• 10. Try something new. Every time you do something, try something new. If you do the same thing every time you’ll get bored & everyone will know it.  Game example: Operation! Keep it alive!
• Don’t be afraid to be wrong—you’ll find something no matter what!
• Paradox of discovery: You find things that you’re not looking for…
  • Basically, don’t over-think it!

I don’t have a “Top 10″ list or any sort of “10 Best”-something list.

I didn’t count those things this year, I didn’t put so much focus on the rest of the world in that sort of fashion, and if I’m lucky, I won’t forget the important things that I got to be a part of this year.  I could, however, probably sift through a ton of photos and find the Top 10 of my family, if I tried–but even that would be a challenge.

So, instead, and at the risk of coming across egotistical (which is not my intention), I’m going to review all of the stuff that I did this year that had some sort of an impact on my life.

This one’s for me.

• In January, I started work as Director of Experience Planning for Draftfcb in Chicago. I started building a practice around user experience, information architecture, strategic design and planning and frankly, I busted my ass for the better parts of 2009. That’s not a complaint–I knew it going in, and in many ways, the crazy parts were every bit what I expected (and more) and the great parts where just the same–and more. The investment in the relationship has been a lot like that of a marriage; I love the work I get to do, I’m fortunate to be able to spend my time with so many other talented people. When it works, all of that is that much better. When it doesn’t, I look to the lessons, ask for advice and input and hope to not repeat the mistakes. I’ve got one of the best bosses I’ve ever had and he challenges my thinking, makes me want to get better at shifting my view and solving from a different angle. I was lucky to grow my own practice this year; sharing the madness helps bring some clarity, but it also helps me learn a lot more about myself. I’m pretty grateful, again, to get to work with some wickedly talented folks.
• In February, I attended Interaction09 in Vancouver, and kicked-off the inaugural “Bromantic Dinner” with Jared Spool, Todd Zaki Warfel, Will Evans and Mario Bourque. It was legendary and I was appreciative–if not in awe–of the great company and great friends that had been so helpful to me along the way while we were wrapping up the book. I also tried oysters, and really don’t think I need to do that again. I was also lucky enough to sign-up a few speakers for the IDEA Conference later in the year. I’m hopeful that some of the side/back discussions can get resolved in 2010; so many folks with the same interests at heart and on the same page, it seems like things should align…
• Throughout most of January and the first half of February, I was also scrambling to wrap up a little project I like to call “A Project Guide to UX Design” (or A Project Guide to UX Design: For user experience designers in the field or in the making). This probably would never have happened without the help of Steve Baty. Why? Because he’s in Australia and could read chapters while we slept and give us timely feedback when we woke up. Think about Australia when you write your book! Writing a book was… well, it would have been a lot easier without a baby/toddler who ended up having some pretty serious allergies to dairy products–and the doctors didn’t figure it out, we did, after an insane battery of tests that caused me to miss a few events. Beyond that, it was an awesome experience, even after chopping out pages upon pages of copy, because…
• In March, I attended–and spoke at–my very first SXSW with Sir David of Armano in what was called a “Core Conversation” on the topic of “Friendship is Dead”. Look, David was the star of that show; I just started the idea (which was initially slated for myself, David Armano, Bill DeRouchey and Matthew Milan) and his name brought us the room full of people to listen to what we had to say. I don’t have any real misinterpretation about my own draw, but I certainly saw a few familiar faces in the chairs and I’ve spent more than a little bit of time exploring our online relationships. I’d say I held my own, at least until we got to…
• Cogaoke was crazy at SXSW. It was a karaoke contest and with a little (a lot, really) of frantic entering in of CAPTCHA to vote for yours truly, I got to take the very large stage in the very packed venue and sing some Hootie & the Blowfish. Wow, was I ever mediocre, but wow, was it ever fun!
• A Project Guide to UX Design also launched while I was at SXSW. I’ve got a lot of mixed feelings about how I feel we were handled as authors, especially as authors of what appears to be a fairly successful book. You might not know this, but authors do the lion’s share of the marketing–at least from my perspective. Publishers have the talent to recognize ideas and/or talent that’ll sell enough books to make a profit and they have the reach through distribution channels to help that along. For the most part, it was a lonely endeavor once we sent off the last pages and after we received our copies. Sure, there was a little hoopla and some marketing push here and there, but when you don’t know what to expect and you’ve been working closely with an editorial team for months and suddenly there’s nothing… Well, it’s a mix of emotions.
• Also in February–and I can talk about this finally–Todd Zaki Warfel and I put together a book proposal and submitted it to a couple of publishers. One publisher was very excited and spent a fair amount of time at SXSW talking to me about it, sent along a few emails about their excitement since they hadn’t published the previous book (they were interested, but the timing came in as the deal was being finalized with Peachpit) and then disappeared in a cloud of “other stuff happening”. That’s okay; it’s how it works, and I’m not bitter about it–it is what it is. Mostly, however, this proposal didn’t get any real traction until much later in the year. After SXSW was (hung)over, next up was…
• The IA Summit in beautiful Memphis, Tennessee. I was nearly a zombie after the run at SXSW the previous week, and I recall spending the afternoon in my room at The Peabody on a client call, but feeling elated that I was in one of my favorite cities in the country. The next day, my wife arrived and she got to meet everyone, hang out away from the kids and I got to be on the “Evolve or Die” panel with Gene Smith, Josh Porter & Christina Wodtke as well as give a solo presentation called “Heuristic Evaluation for the Pitch Process”. March was a blurrrrrrrr of epic proportions thanks to all of the traveling back and forth and presentationing.
• Right after the IA Summit, I got together with Todd Zaki Warfel, Fred Beecher and Will Evans to hash-out an idea that we’re going to be discussing in 2010 titled, “The Right Way to Wireframe”. I think it’s important that we put our money where our mouths are and decided to ask these fellas to step up and show our process and samples of our work and share it with the world. Fortunately, they bought off on the idea and we had a pretty nice proposal put together for a couple of conferences that has been very well received–far better than our expectations (except for CHI, which, well, whatever).
• April found Carolyn and I presenting at the Voices That Matter Conference in San Francisco. It was great to share the same space with so many other bright minds and great speakers–and frankly, intimidating to some degree, but getting to spend time hanging out with Steve Portigal, Christina Wodtke, Robert Hoekman, Jr. and a lot of the really great people at Peachpit / New Riders. Gotta be honest here: we didn’t do so hot. I like to blame it on presenting on the last day AND after Jared Spool and a flat room, but I don’t think we–or at least I–projected the energy we needed in the room. The reviews were far from great, and I took a few things away from the experience. But it was also odd, because just a few days later…
• Carolyn and I presented at the Chicago Interactive Meetup on the exact same topic and we really held the room and got really high overall remarks. Each audience is different, the energy of the speakers is different, home turf advantage, etc. Who knows? But we did a lot better and restored a bit of confidence that I was needing at this point in time.
• May came along and I had to miss the Web Strategy Summit put on by the brilliant minds at nForm. Everyone at nForm is top-notch and world-class (if not thought leaders, right? No, really…) and they completely understood when I had to back-out so we could get Avery in for some more tests to try and figure out why she wasn’t sleeping right, was fussy, stuffy, and an all around mess. I hated missing this conference and it was one of the biggest letdowns of 2009 for me. I’m hopeful that now that Miss Avery seems to be sleeping and on the right track, I’ll have another opportunity this year.
• Chicago’s UX Book Club also happened in May, featuring “A Project Guide to UX Design”. It was nice to meet somewhere that I could walk to from work, and also informally interview Abby Covert, who would be an addition to my “team” at Draftfcb. The whole event was great, and Chicago’s lucky to have Gabby Hon putting things together for us! My pal Steve Baty had started this UX Book Club thing at the tail end of 2008, and it’s done wonders for authors–I’ve attended a variety of meetings from Toronto to Minneapolis to Edmonton via Skype, and it was pretty great to be a part of. 2009 is starting off with more of these events, and it’s always a blast to get to engage with people who have an interest in the book!
• Somewhere along the way, Carolyn and I did a podcast interview with Peachpit which was a lot of fun for us, and helped get us some exposure for the book. The book also started getting positive reviews on Amazon and started making its way on a bunch of lists of books UX / IA / Designer-y types should own. It was fairly euphoric, when I wasn’t busy waiting for a horrible review to arrive and crush my already-fragile insecurities.
• June and July were just busy. Busy beyond belief. At work and on the planning front for the IDEA Conference. The IDEA team was busy wrapping up logistics, lining up speakers, planning a program, launching a website, getting registrations, making mistakes, recovering and generally propping each other up and making me realize what a great team I’d put together.
• At the end of July, I was able to bring my first employee on board. Just in time to take a much-needed vacation. Whew.
• At the end of July, I also flew out to Philadelphia during my vacation and went to the Philadelphia UX Book Club put on by Roz Duffy (@stellargirl) and hosted at the awesome offices of Happy Cog. Afterward, we had some local drinks with a bunch of folks (and I got to meet the Cavaluccis!) and then had dinner at El Vez with Kevin Hoffman, Angela Coulter, Mick & Jen Carvin, Roz…and maybe another person snuck in there that I forget? (sorry) If you’re ever in Philly, go there, and get the surf & turf tacos! Then, my pal Livia Labate picked me up and I stayed at her place and finally got to me the awesome Amelia Pousson. I got to visit the really cool Comcast Center the next day when I trailed Livia to work – that place is awesome. Finally, on the way out of town, Liv and I got to eat some true Philly Cheese Steaks (and I bagged a handful to bring home with me).
• August brought us the Agile Conference in Chicago, where Todd Zaki Warfel, Joe Sokohl, Jonathan “Yoni” Knoll and I did some pretty fun and well-received workshops on User Experience. In 3 days, we delivered our asses off. It was unreal what we pulled-off and that we were able to raise so much money for a non-profit in such a short period of time (basically, just during the closing keynote dinner). To summarize: We Ship.
• August also brought ad:tech to Chicago. It was interesting to see where ad agencies sit from the UX perspective, but also from Social Media and Mobile. Personally, I submitted 5 proposals to ad:tech in Chicago and I think a couple/few to New York, but I never heard back–not so much as a “sorry, but you were not selected” email. Instead, I emailed them and received a “we’re too busy to email everyone, but if you don’t hear from us in X days, you weren’t selected” email. Hey, it is what it is, and these are my thoughts and I’m not disparaging them nor the event, but now I have expectations moving forward, at least.
• And then something crazy happened. I went to Zappos to talk to their UX team. Brian Kalma invited me out and I got to spend about 90 minutes talking and listening to them and then I got a tour of the facilities. Visit the place yourself and take the tour and I promise you that you’ll be sold. It’s a pretty awesome place and it’s nearly impossible to NOT think about what it would be like to work with/for them, no matter how happy you are.
• Mid-September brought about the IDEA Conference. From everything I can tell, the numbers hovered around 250 attendees, the same as in 2008, but we added significantly more sponsors and managed to keep our registration the same while cutting out a few expenses. I’m a harsh critic of myself and I was fairly depressed after the event, even in light of the mostly positive feedback that we received. The conference, however, was pretty good. I think most people enjoyed it, enjoyed Toronto and left feeling pretty inspired. Matthew Milan saved my ass and stepped in as a last-minute speaker replacement and then rocked the damn house with his “Innovation Parkour” talk. Guys like Matthew make you realize how lucky you are to have great friends. But, the event wasn’t perfect, and the mistakes that were made were mine to own. There was stress and strain (and a pinched nerve to combat with that kept making my arm go numb throughout most of the summer and fall–thanks, body, for getting old on me) and I didn’t perform as well as I should have to a few folks, in particular Jeff Parks, and I’m sorry that happened and I own the mistake. At the same time, people like Yoni, Abby Covert, Brad Simpson, Mario Bourque, Denise Phillipsen, Andrew Hinton, Will Evans, Melissa Weaver and a host of others really stepped-up and helped prop me up to keep things moving along with only a few hitches. Overall, IDEA09 was a pretty big success and appears to have been the best by the numbers.
• Right after IDEA, Yoni and I worked up a few samples for how to tackle the Repeat Email Address issue. It was wild to work on something like this together–sketching ideas in IM and code and throwing them live for people from mailing lists, twitter, etc. to comment on and give us inspiration to do more. It’s great to now be able to implement some of these myself and to see them from others starting to filter out in the world. We’d love to tackle more issues like this–if you’ve got one, bring it! It’s much better than pontificating about it message after message on a mailing list, after all!
• Somewhere along the way, October snuck up on us and I became president of the Information Architecture Institute. I also started speaking to many of the founders and previous board members and I’ve learned more than I could have ever hoped about our history. The board has a great set of directors, but always a shortage of time and bandwidth.  It’s interesting to me that a lot of people don’t realize that the board of directors is entirely volunteer–anything we’re able to do for the IA Institute is on our own time, after our work and personal time (or in some cases, in place of). I used to think that the board was rather cliquey when I wasn’t on it, and now I realize that we, as board members, are so infrequently able to be together in-person, that we do our best to capitalize it and catch-up talk to and see as many people as possible. What I can assure you is that we’re all approachable and we all look forward to hearing from you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to any of the board members, and please don’t hesitate to volunteer. Please.
• I was also fortunate enough to get to work with Leah Buley and Todd Zaki Warfel to curate the Research track of content for the 2010 IA Summit. I can safely say that we’ve got some great speakers lined up and what looks to be a great program overall.
• Out of the blue, I got a note from SXSW asking me to curate a workshop for them on Information Architecture. Yoni, of course, tells me that since I’m president of the IAI and have written a book, I could pretty much be a monkey and they’d choose me for such a task. Monkey or not, it was still pretty damn flattering. I chose 3 1-hour sessions that will be on taking place on Saturday, March 13th, 2009, and I’m pretty excited about that, too!
• November and December brought about the announcements of a few conferences for 2010, so I’ll be happily speaking at some of the primary User Experience conferences in the first quarter of next year. More on that later (different blog post).
• Unfortunately, I had to decline speaking at UPA (Usability Professionals Association) in Munich in May of 2010. It really stung to turn down the opportunity, but it’s difficult to, as a speaker / presenter, also pay for the conference on top of the airfare and hotel, which is all on top of the time that is invested for preparation. Side bar: I think that a lot of folks think that presenters (or at least, me, in this selfish case) have an easy task. For me, I generally put in around 1 hour per slide and I try to do about 1 slide per minute, depending upon the talk, etc. This is generally my time, above and beyond the day job and above and beyond the family / personal / volunteer time. Woe is me, right? That’s not what I’m trying to say–I bring this upon myself and I really, really enjoy how lucky and fortunate I am to be able to put ideas out there into the community. And it’s work–hard work. But it’s good work, if you can get it, and you can, if you put your mind to it, start to change the world through design.
• December winds down 2009, but winds up starting the big giant ball rolling that is the IDEA Conference for next year. Getting together a pretty kick-ass team, if I do say so myself.
• Throughout the entire year, I struggled to maintain a balance of work and personal time. It was challenging, but I do my best to sacrifice sleep over family time; there’s an abundance of caffeine at my disposal, but face to face time with my kids is something I’d never be able to get back, so it wasn’t an infrequent case that my office light burned late into the night and my eyes had bags under them, but it was worth it, and it is worth it every night at dinner time when we talk about the day, what we learned at school and explore the learnings of an almost-two-year-old. I’m hopeful to continue the trend for 2010 and to even amp it up a bit. I mean, by now, I should be used to this stuff, right?
• Also throughout September, October, November and December, Todd and I continued to work through our book proposal. We’ve been through multiple reviews by other professionals and have revised our proposal to the point where it actually kind of has a gleam to it. Now, we’re negotiating the contracts, but I dare say we’re so close to wrapping it up that we’ll be officially Writing A Book(tm) for Morgan Kaufmann in 2010. It’s going to be 4 glorious colors and on the topic of Research Methods. I think you’re going to like it, lots, and I say that knowing that Todd’s book, “Prototyping: A Practitioner’s Guide” is nothing short of amazing. I also say this because over the past year of working together from–from proposals to workshops to insane meals with top notch wines (trust me: trust Todd with your wine selections!) to contract negotiations, we find ourselves on the same page, easy to negotiate/argue with and still maintain civility and friendship. It should make for some solid book writing and new workshops and I’d say we’re pretty excited for 2010.

Wow.

That took a long time to write and is officially longer than at least a couple of chapters in “A Project Guide to UX Design”. And I’m sure I left things off and forgot to mention some people (and I’m sorry if you feel missed here!). It’s been a whirlwind and I think I’m sufficiently steeled and ready for 2010. I’m nervous and excited and it’s a big year all around.

Let’s do this.

It’s amazing what a difference 2 weeks can make! It’s also pretty amazing that we each only knew 1 person in the room–quite a few people less than we knew in San Francisco, and Chicago’s our home town! Not only that, I think we both were recovering from being a bit rattled from our presentation in San Francisco.

To be honest, the room was a bit flat–and that’s not to blame anyone, but it was a room with people in the web design space, on the last day of a conference and 2 fairly unknown authors.

Right after the always entertaining Jared Spool, too.

Hey, Jared’s one of those wicked-awesome, keynote-giving type of guys.

Hey, I’ve been hitting the stage and giving a handful of presentations this year and Jared’s been doing this for… let’s just say a bit more than I have. But, you know, sometimes the room can make a lot of difference.

That’s not to say we fell flat on our faces–there were some pretty good questions at VTM, but it felt dry. Regardless, I felt much better about my own abilities as a speaker (and a few people have been twittering my talk from the IA Summit on Heuristic Analysis for the Pitch Process in a positive light and that’s been a welcome boost to my own morale). Back to the local Meetup…

The room was pretty packed–it looked like around 50-60 people showed up, counting the late stragglers. We gave our presentations, felt the room was a bit more alive–and it was pretty nice to be in a room where everyone wasn’t staring down at a laptop. We also had some really great questions and genuinely interested people.

My portion of our discussion was on disruption, and Steve Portigal has been kind enough to work through this discussion. He provided some pretty good insights around how to re-frame problems, and that really helped me provide anecdotes that help others understand the value of disruption. Disruption can be something as simple as performing design testing with users, forcing very critical internal design reviews of your own work, or even getting your butt out of your chair and experiencing the environments where your end result will live (I give some examples using AMC’s touch screen kiosk and shower knobs that tend to paint the picture pretty clearly). We shouldn’t be afraid of someone knocking us off course–we should embrace it! We should be heading it off at the pass and encouraging it early on so we can get knocked out of our comfort zone and force us to be a bit more creative in the way we design. Disruption can be your friend.

Carolyn did a great job of talking about Chaos and Tension and how to work with them within the design process–there were some great questions around how to reign in chaos and how to wrestle with the tension to keep it balanced.

This group was outstanding–and it’s important to note that it’s been around for quite awhile. Judi Wunderlich, of Wunderland Group, has been setting up the local meetups. I’ve yet to be able to attend, and I can tell you that it’s been entirely my loss. The large group was attentive, interested and engaged and it was absolutely my pleasure and privilege to be asked to present to such an awesome audience.

Without Judi’s efforts, I’m not certain we’d have this type of meetup, and it’s important to recognize how lucky we are to have her support in our interactive community. Thanks, Judi!

This is been a rare local appearance–I’m really happy that I was able to take part, and look forward to getting more locally engaged. Support your local scene–they’re support is pretty fantastic!