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2022 Conference Recap

 February 1, 2023

Running a conference takes a lot of time, effort, and dedication.

On Friday, October 14, at the Sheraton Boston Hotel, we had 18 sponsors and over 640 attendees at our annual UXPA Boston Conference – our first in-person conference in over three years.

A big shout out to our attendees, sponsors, volunteers, group mentors, lunchtime table topic leaders, conference submission reviewers, and the UXPA Boston Board of Directors. You rock!

We had many highlights, including:

  • Over 640 attendees
  • 18 sponsors
  • 42 sessions, including:
    • Group Mentoring session
    • Lunchtime Table Topics session
    • Ten-Minute Talks session
  • 68 speakers
  • Over 80 volunteers and contributors

This year we decided to recruit five thought leaders in the UX field, who curated five tracks for our conference:

  1. “Career Development and Personal Growth,” curated by Darren Hood
  2. “Design for Belonging,” curated by Amy Bucher
  3. “Design in Society,” curated by Rachael Dietkus
  4. “Strategy and UX Entrepreneurship,” curated by Susan Rice
  5. “User Research” curated by Meena Kothandaraman

All the work that went into the reviews and curation of the conference submissions resulted in 40 first-time presenters (out of 68 total) at the conference.

The networking at the event was fantastic. It was wonderful catching up with old friends and making new ones. I hope everyone enjoyed the conference as much as I did.

Our UXPA Boston community is vital. We will continue planning new events, including monthly meetings and annual conferences. But we need your help.

Reach out to us at https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7071498/Help-Us-Make-UXPA-Boston-Even-Better and let us know how you can contribute to this great community of ours, which now has over 4,000 members.

2022 Conference Slides

Hey UXPA Boston Community!

Did you know you can find links to slide decks of speakers from the UXPA Boston conference on Sched?

To find a slide deck:

  1. Go to https://lnkd.in/e326HvUd
  2. Click on the session you want the slide deck for
  3. Find the link to the slide deck just under their speaker profiles.

UXPA Boston Call For Speakers

UXPA Boston is always looking for passionate speakers that can educate and challenge our design community. We’re open to experienced speakers and individuals looking for more exposure to professional speaking.

We’re looking for content that shows and educates — not tells and sells. Talks include deep dives, case studies, and specific examples. If you’ve got a captivating story of interest, we would love to have you! We typically look for topics specifically related to the design of digital products, such as:

  • Accessibility
  • Design Strategy
  • Design’s Impact on Social and Economic Issues
  • Design Systems
  • Research Methods
  • Emerging Technology such as AI, AR, and VUI
  • Expert Tips in Tools of the Trade
  • Career Advice For Designers

Send Us Your Pitch!

Have an idea?

We hold at least one event every month. We need a few details to get started, such as your contact information and idea.

If you’re a new speaker, let us know, and we’ll work with you to help you prepare.

Submit your proposal!

Letter from outgoing president, Bob Thomas

Hello UXPA Boston Members,

Happy December! This will be my last President’s letter to you. On December 31, my second term on the UXPA Boston Boston Board will end. It has been an honor and privilege serving on the board as Mentoring Lead, Vice President, and President these last six years.

One thing I’m proud of is the group mentoring process that Jen McGinn and I – and other mentors in our strong UXPA Boston community  – started over 10 years ago at the annual UXPA Boston Conference. Over the course of 10+ years, we have had over 300 mentors participating and over 1,300 attendees.

As I finish my last year, I can tell you that we have a great group of individuals on the board who care about our community.

Let’s recap the year for you.

  • Expansion of the Board. We have a lot we want to accomplish. With that in mind, the board voted to expand from 9 to 11 directors in 2023.
  • Welcome Our New Directors! This year, we welcome Brady Bonus, Craig Cailler, Ankita Dutta, and James Vasquez to our Board of Directors. I would also like to take a moment to thank Lisa Spitz, our Conference and Website Lead, for her hard work and dedication to UXPA Boston. This year, Lisa has been instrumental in helping us run our first in-person conference since 2019, and in working to build a new UXPA Boston website.
  • Here are the 2023 Officers and Directors for UXPA Boston:
    • Nick Di Stefano, President
    • Astrid Chow, Vice President
    • Chris Hass, Clerk
    • Susie Robson, Treasurer
    • Rich Le, Volunteer Director
    • Jessika Welch, Mentoring Director
    • Rachel Power, Monthly Meeting Director
    • Craig Cailler, Conference Director
    • Ankita Dutta, Website Director
    • James Vasquez, Marketing Director
    • Brady Bonus, Co-Conference and Co-Mentoring Director
  • 2022 Accomplishments. In 2022, we accomplished the following:
    • On October 14, we ran our first in-person conference in over 3 years. We had 650 attendees, 18 sponsors, 68 presenters, and over 80 volunteers and contributors. We could have not succeeded without your support!
    • We changed up the conference this year, based on your responses to our membership survey. For the first time, we worked with 5 hosts to create 5 tracks for the conference: Design for Belonging, Design in Society, Career Development & Personal Growth, User Research, and Strategy and UX Entrepreneurship. We would like to thank Amy Bucher, Rachael Dietkus, Darren Hood, Meena Kothandaraman, and Susan Rice for serving as our hosts and curators for this year’s conference.
    • Our work with our hosts resulted in hearing from new voices. Of our 68 speakers, 40 were first-time presenters at the conference.
    • In May, we ran our 8th annual UX Fair, our annual mentoring and career development conference for students and career changers.
    • We ran 10 monthly meetings on topics as diverse as Remote Journey Mapping, Selling UX Strategy, and Accessibility Trivia.
    • Our Slack community continues to grow. We now have over 2,000 members at uxpaboston.slack.com.

We’re striving to make 2023 an excellent year for the UXPA community in Boston. Look for the launch of our new uxpaboston.org website in early 2023! Thank you.

With gratitude,
Bob Thomas, President
on behalf of the UXPA Boston Board of Directors