IDEA 2008 is shaping up to be quite a conference, in spite of my involvement. In terms of speakers, it’s looking great: David Armano writes the influential Logic + Emotion blog — one of the few voices online that understands the complexity of merging Marketing & Advertising with User Experience Design; Bill DeRouchey is one of the smartest people writing and thinking about the future of Interaction Design; visual-thinking sensei Dave Gray is the founder of XPLANE, a company whose blog I started reading religiously back in 1999, when my career as a Web Design person was really taking off; and Jason Fried, author of the provocative design manifesto Getting Real.

That’s just scratching the surface. They’re going to have in-the-trenches expert speakers from places like Maya, IDEO, The New York Times, 37 Signals, and more. In addition, I hear Jesse James Garrett will be doing an in-person presentation of Aurora.

It’s happening October 7-8, 2008; early registration is still in effect for another week or so, until August 17!