Hey everybody,

The survey results are in! Thanks to those who responded, we now have a “starter” list for the Topical Lunch Tables, this year’s answer to that time-worn conference-goer’s urge to extend the conversation beyond the confines of those over-air-conditioned conference rooms.

Sure, we’ll have pastry tables, cocktail parties, late-nights at the piano bar, but how great would it be to have a conversation with folks who share your obsession with a particular subject. How great would it be to explore, a bit more deeply, the subjects that matter to you personally?

For each of the main conference days, you'll have the opportunity to join one of many topical lunch tables where you can gather and converse about subjects drawn from a variety of UX related topics. To keep things flexible and interesting, you'll also have an opportunity, once the conference starts, to suggest your own topics. Some of the starter tables will include a host who is a self-described expert of or passionate thinker about the topic or question at hand.

Just to whet your appetite (so to speak), here are some of the topics and hosts we’ve lined up:

Topic/Host
Documentation tools: Which ones do we use and why? / Nathan Curtis
Information Architecture: Art or Science / Joe Lamantia
IA Practitioners: Are we Designers? / Chris Chandler
Participatory design: How to make it work for me? / Greg Nudelman
Personas: When are the effective? / Andrew Hinton
Prototyping: When do we create prototypes? What tools work the best? / Todd Warfel
Search Patterns: What’s the future of search? / Peter Morville
Storytelling: Where can storytelling be leveraged in the design process? / Dorelle Rabinowitz
Taxonomy: In a Web 2.0 universe do taxonomies still matter? / Dave Cooksey

So what do you do? How do you sign up? How do you suggest your own topics?

We’re not there (in Miami) yet, but just look for the topical lunch tables sign-up near the registration area. Sign up will start on Saturday AM, the first day of the main conference. If you have another topic in mind now, please let us know by commenting on this post.

Cheers...