MX 2008 – Managing Experience Conference Shaping Up to be the Best One Yet

Adaptive Path’s MX San Francisco 2008 is shaping up to be a major event for managers, directors, and VPs of user experience design. Taking place April 20-22, the program is devoted to defining the emerging discipline of creative leadership, and we’ve already lined up an amazing set of presenters, with more to come.

The contributor that probably most excites me is Chip Conley, CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, a chain of boutique hotels in California. I blogged about Chip a couple years ago because I was so impressed with an interview he’d had with the SF Chronicle. Chip is not only a great experience designer — his hotels are some of the most fun and funky around — but he’s a thoughtful manager who recognizes that the key element to a great experience is happy happy employees.

And hey, why settle with only one Chip? We’ll also have Chip Heath, co-author (with his brother Dan) of Made To Stick, an excellent text on what it takes to craft and present ideas that resonate with their intended audience. Communication of concepts is a big challenge for experience designers (we can get caught up in our own abstractions). I first heard Chip in this interview with Moira Gunn, and am thrilled his joining us.

We’ve also got Peter Coughlan from IDEO, Cordell Ratzlaff (formerly Frog and Apple, now at Cisco), Ryan Armbruster (formerly Mayo Clinic, not at a healthcare startup), Secil Watson (VP of customer experience at Wells Fargo), with more speakers to be announced.

As with prior MX events, MX San Francisco is devoted to figuring out what it takes not just to create great experiences, but get them out in the world for people to enjoy. Those past MXs have been some of the best events we’ve put on at Adaptive Path, and I have little doubt that this one will surpass it. (And I haven’t even mentioned the venue, the delightful Mark Hopkins hotel on Nob Hill. This means we’re taking advantage of the Top of the Mark, perhaps San Francisco’s premier penthouse bar, and the Tonga Room, a famed tiki hideout in the Fairmont across the street, for evening fun!)

The current registration price is $1295 (through February 3). If you register with promotional code FOPM (friend of Peter Merholz, as you all are!), you’ll get 15% off that price.