A number of usability industry luminaries, plus me, are speaking on an AIMIA panel entitled "Customer Experience: The Future of Usability" in Sydney on Dec 3. I plan to talk about emerging pressures on user-centred-design: faster design, design by everyone etc.

• How can user experience professionals support the design of great customer experiences by everyone, not just by user experience people?
• While user experience professionals continue to lobby for more time and resources, the time available for user experience design is actually shrinking.
• How can we adapt to the phenomenon of beta-ism: 'release first then refine the user experience later'?

http://www.aimia.com.au/i-cms?page=3559

All the speakers are really experienced with these issues, I'm looking forward to the discussion part at the end of the panel most.