Back to the Future: Welcome to CanUX 2015

Canada’s premier annual UX event has a brand new identity. As of May 1st, 2015, our conference will now operate under the moniker ‘CanUX’, continuing the tradition of excellence set by our five previous editions. You may remember our humble start 6 years ago, when we spent a snowy Saturday in November at the University of Ottawa. We listened, shared, learned and celebrated with 175 members of Ottawa’s UX community, over Di Rienzo sandwiches and Second Cup coffee.

And if you’ve been lucky enough to join us throughout the years, you’ve probably noticed constant change. We’ve grown in attendance, duration, venue quality. We’ve attracted amazing speakers from around the world. We’ve made it into a full weekend affair produced at a state-of-the-art venue with receptions, dinners, after-parties, yoga and running. And yet through all of this we’ve remained loyal to our original vision of being community-oriented and volunteer driven.

But somewhere along the way, people noticed there was a mismatch between the name and the event itself. Even as early as the third edition of UXcamp in 2012, Jared Spool quipped: “There are 375 people here. This is not a camp, it’s a real conference.”
Since then our attendance bubbled closer to 500, and we’ve felt the mismatch even more.

For the past three years, the idea of reframing our event brand simmered in the background, so we started a wishlist of names that would reflect our status as Canada’s largest and longest running annual UX conference. But no matter how long our list got, the name that always really got the conversation going was CanUX.

CANada. UX.
Short. Obvious. A little punny.
We are all canu(ck)x.
We have attendees and supporters from every corner of the country.
We can open a mean can of whoop-UX anytime.
It just feels right on all fronts.

Except that… there already was a CanUX.

Jess McMullin, Gene Smith and the nForm crew created Creative CanUX as the original Canadian UX workshop / retreat in Banff, AB in 2005. They ran it for four more successful years simply as CanUX, until 2009. Some of our UXcamp speakers were in fact CanUX speakers. Some of the CanUX attendees were also UXcamp attendees. The fact that so many people we know mourned the void that CanUX left on the Canadian UX landscape contributed directly to the creation of UXcamp Ottawa just one year later (2010).

And this is where the story takes an interesting twist.

Our Canadian UX community is pretty tight-knit. If you’re a UX designer and your cousin asked you over Christmas dinner “Hey, my buddy Jason is a UX designer in Vancouver, do you know him?,” your answer would probably be yes. And even if you don’t know him personally, he’s probably your Twitter buddy.

Luckily for us, the great people behind CanUX knew all about UXcamp Ottawa. It’s a bit of a mutual admiration society, if you will. In fact, Cornelius, one of the UXcamp co-chairs fondly remembers the original CanUX events as the best UX conferences he ever attended. So when we reached out to Gene and nForm to ask if they would be ok with us taking over their beloved CanUX name and brand, they were incredibly supportive! To our great delight, they’ve given us not only the name, but also their blessing for this new chapter in the history of the event. This drove home something we’ve alluded to all along throughout the years:

Canada has an amazing UX community.

So… what’s next? Well, now that you’re up to speed with the whole CanUX / UXcamp switcharoo, you probably have some questions. So we compiled a few FAQs for you:

Is this going to change the event?

Our event has been changing and growing since it started in 2010. This name reflects our present state as well as the future growth we’ve envisioned. You can expect us to continue to grow and progressively evolve to suit what the community needs. So really, nothing is changing. (Except that it’s much easier to pronounce.

Speaking of easier to say… How do you actually pronounce it?

Just say it the same way you say ‘canucks’.
/kəˈnʌks/

Is the CanUX schedule going to have multiple tracks?

UXcamp has thrived by having our entire audience experience all of the presentations in a single plenary track. The energy created by a large crowd is second to none, and we see no reason to change that direction at this point.

So who’s organizing CanUX?

The event will continue to be organized by the same local group of chairs who created UXcamp Ottawa; we are simply adopting another name (and maybe some fond memories from those who attended the original CanUX). That said, Jess and Gene, the original organizers of CanUX, will be making the trip across Canada to attend our event this year, so say hi to them if you see them in the fall!

The original CanUX was a relatively exclusive (and significantly more expensive) event. Will prices go up?

One of our main objectives has been to create an accessible, affordable event. This objective will not change. Our ticket prices will be in line with our past UXcamp prices. If you’re on a budget, make sure you grab one of our 100 early bird tickets in June for only $195 (in line with last year’s UXcamp)!

Are you going to move the event to Banff?

As our event is anchored by the amazing Ottawa and Montreal UX communities, for the time being CanUX will continue at its current location. But Banff would be nice… we should really work on an excuse to host an event there one day.

Where do I find you on Twitter & stuff?

We’ve taken care of that for you. If you were already following @UXCampOttawa, you’re now following @CanUXconf. The account has been renamed, but otherwise remains the same. As for email, the website, etc., all uxcampottawa.org addresses will redirect you to canuxconf.org .

Who do I ask all my other questions about this?

Drop us a line anytime on twitter @CanUXconf, or send us an email at info@canuxconf.org. We love to hear from you!

So, there you have it.  We’re so thrilled to finally be sharing this news with you, and we couldn’t be happier with our new name. From this point on, we’ll be referring to our UX event as CanUX (even though we’ll most likely still slip some ‘UXcamps’ in there since it’s been so ingrained in our ethos).

Try it. Go on. Say it out loud.
Sounds good, eh?

*Image credit: Josh Schroeder / Flickr