2011 TechHui Conference

It's TechHui Conference time! The goal of the conference is to highlight interesting Hawaiʻi-based people, projects and organizations working in technology and interactive design. We seek to facilitate education and networking within the Hawaiʻi tech and design communities as well as educate people about the latest developments and trends in these fields. Schedule and Speakers

There are a number of new twists to the conference this year. The local chapter of the International Game Developers Association will be gamifying the conference. Christine Koroki and her partners in crime from HI Capacity will be running Ignite as a session. Participants will be talking about everything from UX design on mobile devices to robotics.

The Kukui Cup team will share how they are gamifying energy conservation at UH using a mixture of technology, events and excursions. Philip Johnson, Robert Brewer and George Lee will talk about the software systems they built to support the competition. It's an exciting experiment that could become a model for other universities seeking to move toward net zero campuses.

In the Apps for the People session Honolulu DIT Dep. Director Forest Frizzell will cover Code for America, City Camp (coming Dec 3, sign up), the Honolulu Transparency Portal and mobile apps the city is developing to make Honolulu a better place. I was excited to read that Honolulu is already rated the number one digital city by Digital Communities. Congrats to Forest and Honolulu CIO Gordon Bruce for their part in making this happen. HTDC CEO Yuka Nagashima will close the session with a status update on the new Hawaiʻi broadband initiative and a discussion of what new types of apps ubiquitous gigabit connectivity can facilitate.

This year our keynote is theoretical physicist and adventure sports enthusiast Garrett Lisi. He will explain how every elementary particle in our Universe may be facets of the most beautiful structure known to mathematics, dancing over spacetime according to the laws of quantum mechanics. If you've seen Garret on the Discovery channel or at TED you'll know that he has a talent for explaining aspects of his work to any motivated, intelligent person, even if they are not a physicist. For our design community, I think you will find the visual representations of his theory inspiring.

The conference is organized by the University of Hawaiʻi Pacific New Media College, Ikayzo, Ignite Honolulu, HI Capacity, IGDA Honolulu Chapter, and ThinkTech. Sponsors include HTDC, Ikayzo, Migration Counsel and PubCon.

A full list of speakers with bios will be posted shortly. We've posted the schedule for labs and sessions.

Have a great weekend!