One of the hardest things about creating a conference program is the endless cat herding.

One of the hardest things about creating the Enterprise UX conference program is that we really annoy the heck out of the cats—and sometimes they scratch and hiss.

We really do push our speakers to the limit, but the outcome is something our attendees truly love.

In the case of each of our four themes’ speakers, we get them working together as early as six months before the conference takes place. We nag them into having regular conference calls so they can meet each other, brainstorm ideas, refine topics, and eventually hear each other’s presentations well in advance of the event. Multiple rounds of conversation lead to groups of talks that are cohesive—where conflicts, overlaps, and issues of terminology are dealt with long before our speakers take the stage.

Ditto our keynoters (this year’s are Elizabeth Churchill and Mark Templeton). We nag them into submission months in advance, making sure their ideas fit into the Enterprise UX zeitgeist. No canned talks!

Our storytellers are another story (sorry, couldn’t resist). Dan Willis chooses eight from the dozens of submissions, and works with each storyteller closely. The result is amazing: each story is fully-formed, yet manages to “fit” in its five-minute allotment. You’ll never feel like they were rushed or unfinished.

We think our curation really sets us apart from many other conferences. Check out our past years’ videos so you can see for yourself.