Blurred boundaries - Focused solutions

In financial services, like in nature, interesting things happen at the boundaries. As banking, brokerage, insurance, and consumer finance continue to converge, financial products mix and morph. Financial firms woo customers with hybrid accounts that combine diverse assets. Healthcare providers offer new plans which combine insurance with savings accounts. And there’s dramatic change in the communications channels, too. More and more investors are getting financial information and conducting transactions over the internet. Some firms are able to deliver account information to cell phones and other mobile devices. Never have investors had so much choice. And never have the communications challenges been so exciting and daunting.

A Focused Event

The International Institute for Information Design (IIID), a not-for-profit professional association, is sponsoring a special one-day conference in Boston to explore these new challenges in designing, delivering, and explaining financial information. The IIID has reached out to experts all over the world to share their experiences and insights in a collegial setting. The roster includes speakers from the US, Canada, England, Continental Europe, and Australia. This event has been designed to benefit professionals from diverse disciplines who share a common interest in the subject of financial communication — marketing and advertising executives, designers and writers, researchers and educators. See further on for the complete conference agenda.
 

An Ideal Setting

The IIID conference will be held in the Harvard Club, a historic venue that provides just the right mix of ambience and amenities. Located in the heart of Boston, the Harvard Club is close to public transportation, restaurants, hotels, and several educational institutions, including MIT.

In addition there will be a catered social gathering at the Harvard Club right after the event. Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food will be served. Kosher food is also available upon request.

IIID will provide registrants with a list of hotels in the vicinity with room rate information.

 
A Stimulating Program
 

8:00 - 9:00

On-site registration, Continental breakfast, and tabletop exhibits at the Harvard Club

9:00 - 9:15

Greetings

9:15 – 10:30
RESEARCH
David Sless (Communications Research Institute – Australia), “Ready, Fire, Aim: Why Financial Firms Still Miss the Target”
Harsh Jawharkar and JoEllen Kames (HSBC – USA), “Banking on Users: Ethnographic Research and Usability Testing”
10:30 – 10:45 Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30
PARADIGMS
Aaron Marcus (Aaron Marcus and Associates – USA), “MoGo: Presenting Financial Information on Mobile Devices”
Ruurd Priester (Informaat – Netherlands), “Web Presence as Architectural Planning”
Chet Geschickter (One to One Interactive – USA), “Customers from Venus and Companies from Mars: How to Avoid Disfunctional Financial Web Sites”
12:30 – 1:30 Lunch at the Harvard Club
1:30 – 2:30 CONVERGENCES
Cam Shapansky (Blue North Strategies – Canada), “Cross Dressing: Why are Transactional Documents Trying to Become Newsletters and Direct Mail Pieces?”
Martin Ashley (London College of Communication – UK), “Morphing Content Across Multiple Communications”
2:30 - 2:45 Refreshment break
2:45 – 4:15 EXPERIENCE
Max Dietshe (Addison – USA) and Madeleine Yates (Merrill Lynch – USA), “Beyond Chaotic Bombardment: Enhancing the Client Experience through Information Design”
Dirk Knemeyer (Involution Studios – USA), “Innovating the Online Experience: Better Interface Strategies for Financial Services”
Rob Waller (Enterprise IG – UK), “The Big Disconnect: Regulators versus Consumers”
4:15 – 4:30 Refreshment break
4:30 – 5:00 EDUCATION
Joe Saari (Precision Information – USA), “Developing Effective Education Programs”
5:00 – 5:45 All speakers join an “Ask the Experts” panel with open floor discussion
5:45 – 6:00 Wes Ervin (IIID Board and event chairperson), “Where do we go from here?”
6:00 – 8:00 Social at the Harvard Club


One place. Two events. Many opportunities

The IIID has deliberately scheduled this conference to precede this year’s Financial Communications Forum (FCF), which will also meet at the Harvard Club, starting the day after the IIID conference. Now in its eighth year, the FCF is a two-day conference that covers all aspects of financial communications, from the latest compliance and technology issues to marketing, branding, and design of investor communications. For more information, visit www.InsightForums.com.

Everyone who registers for the IIID conference will receive a complimentary pass to hear the FCF keynote speech on Thursday morning. In addition, anyone who registers for the IIID event can attend the FCF at a special discounted rate — $350 for the first day (a $100 savings) or $700 for both days
(a $450 savings).

About IIID

The International Institute for Information Design was founded in the early ‘nineties to develop research and practice in optimizing information and information systems for knowledge transfer in everyday life, business, education, and science. Since then, the IIID has become recognized as the premier organization promoting the growing field of information design. The IIID has sponsored ten “VisionPlus” conferences, with the next scheduled for July 7-9, 2005 in Vienna, co-sponsored by the American Institute for Graphic Arts (AIGA). The IIID also sponsors summer academies. The next academy, also co-sponsored with the AIGA, will be held July 11-23, 2005 at The Free University of Bozen/Bolzano in Italy. The IIID publishes a newsletter and monographs. The IIID is affiliated to the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA).

For more information about IIID visit www.iiid.net,
or about the conference contact Wes Ervin, Member of the IIID Board and chair for the IIID conference in Boston, at 617-750-2444 or wes.ervin@artplustechnology.com.