Today was not only April Fool’s Day but also the kickoff for conference presentation talks at the IUE 2009 Conference. It’s already been going for a few days, but the first couple days were strictly tutorials. Now it’s down to applying the knowledge.

Today’s talks were pretty interesting and ranged across several fields. My favorite presentation had to have been Kumi Akiyoshi who talked about feelings and ways to engage them and improve the user experience. Coming in at a close second was the talk that Susan Weinschenk gave which relvolved around her book, Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click. The last talk came from the gaming industry and while I’m not a huge gamer myself, I do own a Nintendo Wii and a Nintendo DS, so it did at least pique my interest.

Although I had to wake up earlier for the conference than I do on a regular work day, it was worth it. Not only did I sit in on some good presentations, I met some new people and talked with some of my old classmates.

Tomorrow’s my day to present. I’ll be talking about In-House Recruiting Made Easy. Hopefully I’ll have a decent crowd and be interesting enough to keep people engaged. We shall see.