UX Careers 2015: Where is the field headed and how do you stay current?

The UX field is ever changing and expanding and it can be tough to keep up with all that is going on as you advance your UX career. Is your best path to career growth going to be more often found in agency or in-house roles? Is everyone going to become a unicorn, or will the idea of a specialist persist? How do you account for things like service design, the internet of things and wearables in your practice? If you’re an experienced UX professional wanting to keep your knowledge up-to-date, this is the place to be! Join us for food, drink, networking and knowledge! Hear perspective from leading UX professionals: Tanarra Schneider, Michael Faddis, Nicole Maynard, and Shay Howe with Moderator Amanda Stockwell Enjoy drinks and appetizers Network with others in the UX field. We'll also be giving away some awesome books from Rosenfeld Media! Schedule 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm: Networking time, drinks and appetizers served6:30 pm - 7:30 pm: Panel Discussion7:30 pm - 8:00 pm: Panel open for questions from audience8:00 pm - 9:00 pm: Additional networking and wrap up   Panelists Tanarra Schneider (@saltysweetgirl) Senior Director of Interaction Design at Fjord Tanarra is a skilled user experience strategist with a passion for solving key business and social problems by putting the user first. Tanarra has helped crate high fashion websites, customer support tools, intranets, extranets, learning management systems, social health programs and learning applications over her 18 year career.  Michael Faddis (@michaelfaddis) Head of UX at Vokal Michael has been helping great brands create better customer and product experiences for over 15 years. He is currently at Vokal Interactive, building a world-class mobile design agency to help businesses respond to the changing demands of the new digital landscape. Prior to Vokal, Michael worked at Critical Mass, Chicago, where he grew and led the user experience team. He worked on brands such as USAA, Humana, United, and HP. Michael received his graduate degree in e-commerce technology from DePaul University.    Nicole Maynard (@punkynixter) Interaction Design Lead at GE Nicole is a Lead Interaction Designer at GE Capital creating solutions that improve the way commercial lending teams work and use data to manage their growth. She got her start in graphic, information and interation design and has been performing user research well before realizing it was an actual thing. Her work has been published nationally and has won various design awards. Nicole has recently taken the helm as the president of the Chicago chapter of UXPA.   Shay Howe (@shayhowe) Director of Product at Belly As a designer and front end developer, Shay Howe has a passion for solving problems while building creative and intuitive products. Shay specializes in product design and interface development, specialties in which he regularly writes and speaks about. Currently he is the Director of Product at Belly, helping build the world's best loyalty program. Additionally, Shay helps co-organize Chicago Camps, Refresh Chicago, and UX Happy Hour. Sarah Bellrichard SVP Wholesale UX - Interaction Design at Wells Fargo  Sarah currently leads a large and growing Interaction Design team for Wells Fargo's Wholesale Internet Solutions group, creating scalable solutions for diverse types of financial web applications across a spectrum of device types. She's focused on establishing and evolving UX processes, large-scale design systems, and supporting toolkits while fostering professional growth and development for junior and seasoned designers alike. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Sarah honed her UX and interaction design skills working for agencies, libraries, and start-ups.    Moderator Amanda Stockwell (@MandaLaceyS) UX Consultant / UX Career Specialist Amanda has a unique blend of UX process and research expertise and job placement and career advancement insight. Amanda splits her time between performing UX research and strategy projects for clients and providing UX hiring expertise to Aquent/VitaminT.  Amanda evaluates client needs and associated job descriptions, reviews and interviews scads of UX professionals, assesses UX candidates, and helps individuals shape and advance their UX careers. She has written related content for UXmatters, HowDesign, and several blogs.       Sponsored by Aquent and Vitamin T