What happens when you take the top leaders in the user experience industry and put them into a room together for two days? In a word, magic. On March 4 and 5th, 2012, Marker Seven's Lead Interaction Designer, Meagan Timney had the opportunity to attend Adaptive Path’s Managing Experience Conference held at the Julia Morgan Ballroom at the Merchant’s Exchange in San Francisco, CA.

Read more of Meagan's experience here:

"It was my first year attending MX, and I was very excited to be taking part. Beginning with Dr. Genevieve Bell’s stellar keynote, the conference speakers provided fantastic advice on how to create dynamic and effective UX teams. The key takeaway for me was how crucial it is to nurture relationships, build a strong company culture, and to provide opportunities for team members to develop their facilitation skills and self-efficacy. All of the speakers noted the importance of storytelling, communicating ideas clearly, allowing for serendipitous discoveries, and approaching UX with equal parts rigour and imagination.

I was particularly inspired by Ian Swinson’s “Arnie Lund Principle,” which states that “in a hierarchy, every employee should rise to the level of their passion.” As we move past the GUI to natural user interfaces (NUIs), the value and importance of user experience will increase, and strong interdisciplinary UX teams will help us build on the core competencies and key strengths of individuals to increase collective brain power so that we design services that make a difference in people’s lives. User experience design is a great metaphor for life: learning about people, constant iteration and adaptation, learning from failure, and moving forward. If the people I met at MX are any indication, the future of interaction design shines brightly. I returned to the office with fresh ideas for leading our interaction design team. We’re hatching some great projects at Marker Seven, and I feel fortunate to be at the UX helm, leading the way! Thanks to Adaptive Path and all of the folks who put on a fantastic conference. I look forward to next year!"