ServDes.

Good news everyone!
We just made the paper templates for the conference available on www.servdes.org/participate/submission-templates. Do visit to start writing on your submission!

The deadline for the conference is June 19 and you can find the full call for papers here: www.servdes.org/participate/call-for-papers.

The conference homepage is launched this week together with the new logo and the announcement of the Call for contributions. We are really happy with the work Doberman have done and excited to open the page for the public.

We have also gained some ground in the planning of the unconference part (Dec 1 2010) of the conference, after a long and rewarding meeting with Arne van Oosterom. Hopefully we will have a discussion going around themes and structure of that part. You can participate by going to the Wenowski forum.

We have chosen a venue for the conference. Thursday and Friday (Dec 2-3 2010) will be spent in the concert and conference hall in Linköping (it’s marked on the map on the homepage). We intend to take a few photos and show you more from the venue in the future.

The theme for the conference will be ExChanging knowledge, emphasising both the restructuring of existing knowledge inherited from other disciplines, as well as the distribution of experiences among the participants.

The date has been preliminary set to 1^st – 3^rd of December 2010. The date was chosen not to interfere with this year’s Thanksgiving and also not to be too close to the network conference in Berlin in October. Like last year, in Oslo, it will be a 3 day event with lots of interesting presentations. The first day will be held in an unconference format to provide opportunities for participants to openly discuss interesting topics, cooperations, definitions and future challenges. We are delighted to have been joined by Arne van Oosterom in the preparations and discussions for that part of the conference.

The following two days will be set up as a mixed conference, with sessions dedicated to specific themes or topics that are discussed from a research-, practitioners-, and client perspective. The scientific content of the conference will have a double-blind review process and information about call for papers will be announced soon.

As always, any comments, ideas, or suggestions are welcome. As of late you can also be a part of the discussions by joining the Wenovski design thinkers network, and our group there called Nordic Service Design Conference 2010.

We decided that the old name was too long and put unnecessary focus on the nordic part. Last year we had participants all the way from Australia and Mexico, and since the focus of the conference is service design we collectively decided to call it ServDes.

Doberman is working diligently at the moment to produce a logo and a webpage for the conference. Stay tuned for the result.

It’s been quiet here for a few weeks now, but in the background a lot of exciting things have been happening.

- Earlier this week we visited the potential venues here, and found one which we do think provides excellent potential for hosting our conference. It’s more or less dow to the paperwork before we can announce the exact date and venue for the conference.

- We have ventured further into the format for the conference, and we have found an interesting format which breaks away somewhat from earlier conferences in the field. We look forward to sharing it with you and get your help in sharpening it when we have been able to confirm the dates and times for the scheduele.

- Finally we are thrilled to announce that the digital service design agency Doberman has agreed to help the conference with our digital channels. We have had a interesting session planning the digital aspects of the conference today. Members of Doberman staff will also help us keep an practioner-eye on the planning of the conference.

The planning of the conference has now started properly, and we are in the midst of structuring the planning process; a reference group is being set up with representatives from the Nordic countries, various venues are being considered and the call for papers is being structured (early tip: the deadline will most likely be in late May or early June).

But what is foremost on our minds is to set a date for the conference.
Having discussed various aspects, we see mid or late November, or possibly the first week of December as the most feasible options. Why? Earlier in the autumn is just too close to last year’s conference, and the first half of the autumn is already filled with other conferences (the SDN conference as well as NordiCHI). Later than early December is too close to Christmas and early spring collides with the end and start of new semesters for Swedish students.

Given the time-frame, when would you like the conference to be held? Are there any national holidays or other events which might collide with the Nordic SDC (we are aware of Thanksgiving in the US during the suggested timeframe)? And would you prefer a two or three-day conference? Please comment below or on twitter using the hashtag #ServDes!