As my wife and I were driving to Savannah, she found a quote in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil that succinctly sums up the differences between our home city and our favorite getaway destination:

“In Atlanta, the first question asked is, ‘What’s your business?’ In Savannah, the first question posed to you is, ‘What’s your drink?’”

This journey was for both business and pleasure. I was excited to attend the IxDA Interaction 10 conference, but even more enthusiastic to have an early valentine’s dinner with my wife and meet up with my parents to celebrate their 40^th wedding anniversary.

My locals-only “balcony” badge (courteously extended to Atlanta IxDA members from our Savannah brethren) limited my access to events held at the wonderful SCAD Theater.  Despite the restriction, I was highly impressed by the majority of the presentations that I attended.

Best of the best:

Cindy Chastain’s “What’s the deal with storytelling?”

Cindy’s presentation contained that perfect combination of theory, instantly applicable skills to implement for client projects and inspiration.  Bravo!

Follow Cindy on Twitter: @cchastain

Excellent:

Dave Gray’s “Knowledge Games”

Dave’s very entertaining presentation was full of great concepts that can be directly put into practice. Can’t wait for the book to come out.

Check out Dave’s Knowledge Games blog.

Nathan Shedroff’s “Meaningful Innovation Relies on Interaction and Service Design”.

The kick-off keynote did not disappoint. Nathan provided insight on the key need of clearly expressing the value of innovation through design for the C-suite crowd.

Download his presentation

Tasty tidbits:

Guillermo Torres’s “Rapid Prototyping with Adobe Flash Catalyst”.

As a long-time Adobe program user, this new offering is the missing link!  Download the Beta.

Allan Chochinov’s “Girls & Women—Object Lessons in the Primacy of Interaction”

As a design educator myself, I thoroughly enjoyed Allan’s spirited showcase of his student’s work.

Denise Wilton’s “Writing For Relationships & Applications”

Well-crafted argument for how copywriting and tone can improve brand communication and help guide user behavior.

Support Denise by ordering from Moo.

Ezio Manzini’s “Design For Social Innovation and Sustainability”

Amazing thought leadership on steps to the new, local economy. Worth it for the note of the reforestation of Detroit alone.

Shelly Evenson’s “Service + Social”

Effective framing of the fuzzy Service Design concept that other presenters struggled to articulate.  Great job highlighting new online services gaining steam.

Interaction 10 delivered the goods.  I came away from the conference armed and inspired.

Up next on the conference circuit: South By Southwest Interactive in Austin, TX!