New horizons for IA: 2006 Information Architecture Retreat (Latin America)

Santa Cruz, Chile

Date: November 10-12, 2006

IA in Chile

Web Development in Latin America has grown organically and in an informal way. Demand for rigorous design processes has grown slowly, but some of the major cities have still managed to develop small communities of IA practice, such is the case of Santiago de Chile. This group has already organized a seminar and built a website.

Chile 's government is a strong advocator for information architecture, usability, accessibility and standards compliance, and there's a growing need to educate a new generation of local IAs in order to satisfy this growing demand.

The retreat

As in past retreats, we will explore the latest trends in Information Architecture, but this time we will also discuss challenges of practicing IA in different world regions. We'll look at the similarities and differences of our different market contexts and how these affect our practice.

This new retreat will be a space to gather the IA pioneers of Chile and other Latin American countries with their Northern-hemisphere peers.

This is your perfect excuse to visit this distant country for a good reason, and you'll also get a nice chance to pamper yourself with the local food and world-famous wines.

Speakers

We're still working on the program and topics, but so far we've been able to confirm presentations from:


  • Peter Morville

  • Peter Merholz

  • Gene Smith

  • Peter Van Dijck

  • Jorge Arango

  • Javier Velasco

  • Juan Carlos Camus


Santa Cruz – our venue

The town of Santa Cruz is located in the Colchagua valley, one of the rich agricultural areas of central Chile , distinguished as the world's best wine region 2005. The town of Santa Cruz is surrounded by wineries and is the typical example of life in the Chilean countryside, and has a nice wine route including some of the country's best wineries, and some gorgeous antique mansions.


At the coastal end of the Colchagua valley, about 45 mins from Santa Cruz, you can find the town of Pichilemu, Chile 's surf capital.


Santa Cruz Hotel

We'll be staying at the Santa Cruz Plaza Hotel, a four star hotel located in the heart of Colchagua valley. It is designed in colonial style and decorated with antique furniture, art and traditional country tools.

Museo de Colchagua, this museum has collections of Paleontology, Mapuche Silverworks, Pre-columbian Art, Colonial Pieces plus a carriage and antique car set.

There are also wine route tours and a wine train that crosses this valley. Our retreat will include visits to the museum and wineries, as time allows.

Page updated: 03/14/06

Contact: jvelasco at dcc dot uchile dot cl