The end of the road
All good things come to an end, for whatever reason. This is the end of UX Design Day, a design conference and organisation I founded in a break between jobs two and a half years ago.
For something that was supposed to be a one-off meetup, I think we’ve achieved a lot. We brought two fantastic design conferences to Dunedin, really putting the spotlight on user experience and interaction design in southern New Zealand. We had one incredible conference in Wellington with over 500 attendees and a glamorous $80,000 budget—which I am still shocked by—although we somehow managed to keep the ticket price extremely low.
I have been thinking a lot about how I could modify the structure of the organisation so the conferences can continue running with less involvement from me personally, but unfortunately I came to the realisation that such a structure would be very difficult to achieve. I can no longer justify the time investment required to keep it going when I get minimal return; UX Design Day has never turned a profit, rather I invested the minimal leftovers back into the conferences and marketing.
It’s been very fun, and I’ve learned a great deal, but the reality is I have moved on and want to spend my time pursuing other interests. I struggle a lot with saying ‘no’ and often take on far too much in my work life and personal life. I'm learning that it's a critical skill to have, otherwise you end up stretching yourself and burning out.
They don’t teach you how to deconstruct an organisation with a web presence, some money in the bank, a company listing, and a following on social media. I'll learn how to do that in the coming days!
Thank you to the various people who have helped me along the way: Philippa Dawe, Charlie Gavey, Veronica Stevenson, Kitty Higbee, Silvia Zuur, Dave Strydom, Gerwin van Royen, and of course Lucy. I couldn't have done much without you all.
