IA Summit 2007

I just returned from this year’s IA Summit. Honestly, I wasn’t going to attend this year’s Summit. I’ve got a lot going on right now – building a new office space, starting a book, just got married… But after I was invited to attend Stanford’s Startup School I decided I would stop by the Summit. Well, that turned out to be a great decision.

Not only did I get to catch up with some great people I hadn’t seen in a year, I got the chance to work with some clever folks on some ideas for a large on-line publication – hopefully you’ll get to see some of that in the near future. I was so busy doing research for my new book on prototyping, that I only got to attend two-and-a-half sessions. Fortunately, many of the sessions are being Podcasted and I’ll be able to view a number of the presentations with Slideshare (Go Rashmi!).

One thing that really sticks out at this year’s Summit is that our field is changing. We’re no longer a bunch of geeks, although I like to think of myself as chic geek, we’re starting to evolve. A growing number of us are actually building things. Lou Rosenfeld, started his publishing company – you know, that one I’m writing a book for. The guys over at nForm have started a product to help find better research participants. Frank Ramirez has started My Picture Book – you can make a book telling how your car saved the world from aliens. You can even get one printed. Rashmi started Slideshare - think Powerpoint meets YouTube. Christina Wodtke started Public Square - on-line web publishing w/o all the pain. Victor Lombardi has started a new school concept for a school. And we’re starting a few products as well. The first one will be a research tool and is due out in beta in the next couple of months.

One thing is clear – we’re stepping into the driving seat. Many of us have been solving problems and creating products for clients. Why shouldn’t we be creating our own products? We’re well equipped to do it. So, folks, keep your eyes out for some changes over the next couple of years. Many of the people you thought were IAs are evolving into entrepreneurs.

Want to see what you missed out on?

• Summit presentations on Slideshare
• Summit photos on Flickr