We are planning our celebration! If you would like to volunteer or sponsor, please get in touch.
If you would like to attend our celebration, please bookmark this page and check back soon. We will be updating our content in the upcoming days. We look forward to seeing you!
Venue, parking and transit
This is a virtual only event. The in person venue was canceled due to maintenance. The Zoom link is available after registration on the registration site.
Program/Schedule
We welcome you to World IA Day NYC virtual only on Zoom. Below are our confirmed speakers. Links to talk recordings and related resources are coming soon.
9:00am-9:15am EST
WELCOME TO WORLD IA DAY 2025
Rachel E. Patterson
Glocal Consultants Group LLC
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelepatterson/
MORNING SESSIONS
9:15am - 10:00am EST
The Double-Edged Algorithm: How AI Clarifies and Complicates Information Architecture
Artificial intelligence (AI) is shaking up the world of information architecture, revolutionizing everything from user testing to labeling systems and wireframes. But with great power comes great responsibility—or in this case, the challenge of taming misinformation and safeguarding content integrity in the age of generative AI.
Join us for an interactive session where we’ll explore how AI can either be your IA superpower or your archnemesis when it comes to information discovery, content understanding, and task completion. Packed with real-world examples, this session will arm you with the know-how to navigate the AI-driven landscape with your IA skills and methodologies intact.
Presenters:
Dr. Pierre Far
Founder/CEO, Deliberate Digital Limited
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierrefar/
Shari Thurow
Information Architect and Search Director, Information Architecture Gateway
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shari-thurow/
10:00am - 10:30am EST
The Science of Structure: Optimizing Website Categories for Better UX
Category taxonomy isn’t just about organizing content — it’s a strategic framework that shapes how users find, understand, and interact with digital content. A site can have otherwise perfect UX, but if the category taxonomy is off, users will have trouble navigating and finding products.
Join this session to learn evidence-based best practices for organizing category taxonomy, including recommendations on how to structure a site’s taxonomy as well as common pitfalls to avoid. The research and recommendations come from over 150,000 hours of Baymard’s large-scale e-commerce usability research, which not only highlights the issues encountered by users, but actionable insights on how to alleviate them.
Presenter:
Ania Klimczuk
UX Auditor, Baymard Institute
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aklimczuk/
10:30am - 11:00am EST
BREAK
11:00am - 11:30am EST
Architecture of the Unknown: Predicting, Testing, and Answering Frequently Unasked Questions
Information seekers - especially those foreign to our content’s perspectives or "domain of practice" - often arrive in our infospaces lacking practical experiential context. They arrive without the ability to predict key emotional, physical, cognitive, and implementation success factors (for themselves OR their stakeholders) that ultimately govern the content’s utility.
Join this session to step through an approach to predicting, researching, and then answering an audience’s Frequently Unasked Questions. Get practical and actionable advice that you can apply to your website, apps, and many user interfaces. We will show an example of people who make the mid-life decision for or against pursuing an advanced degree.
Presenter:
Garrett French
Founder, Citation Labs
Co-author, Ultimate Guide to Link Building: How to Build Website Authority, Increase Traffic and Search Ranking with Backlinks (Ultimate Series)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrettfrench/
11:30am -12:00pm EST
Be a Light in the Dark - 3 Tools for your Personal IA in Chaotic Times
We are in fast-moving, volatile times. These days, whether in our local community or around the world, we are served up so many examples of division, violence, disasters, broken systems, and other causes for hopelessness. It can be overwhelming. Yet, simultaneously, when we dig deeper, we also see the helpers, the leaders, the lights in the dark cavern who are creating the building blocks for a better future, in big and small ways.
Staying connected to a sense of hope is foundational to seeing the world both as it is, and how it could be...and to taking a step toward expanding the light and rebuilding. So, let’s be practical… How the heck do I filter the flood of news and anger, and not become toxic myself? How do I figure out what to focus on and do? And how do I stay connected to hope and keep my critical thinking cap on? This interactive talk will share three tools to help you develop your own “personal IA”
Presenter:
Rachel E. Patterson
Glocal Consultants Group LLC
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelepatterson/
12:00pm -1:00pm EST
LUNCH
LUNCH SESSIONS
12:00pm - 12:30pm EST
The Networker Platform - A Knowledge Curation Solution
The Networker is a platform that is both very easy to use and can serve complex application scenarios: multiple terms, multilingual, openly defined relationships, relationships considered as topics. This presentation will demo some of its features and will mention real world applications. Dr. Biezunski will discuss how The Networker will be made available to a larger audience.
Presenter:
Dr. Michel Biezunski
Founder CEO, Infoloom
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michel-biezunski-1248271/
12:30pm - 1:00pm EST
KEYNOTE: A Film by Andrea Resmini
Andrea shows a unique exploration of IA through the decades, highlighting pivotal moments that shaped the discipline. He will examine the challenges and opportunities presented by the rise of the web, the advent of mobile technology, and the current wave of artificial intelligence. His talk will emphasize the importance of preserving and building upon the foundational principles of IA while adapting to new technological advancements and evolving user needs.
Presenter:
Andrea Resmini
Associate Professor of Experience Design and Information Architecture, Halmstad University
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/resmini/
AFTERNOON SESSIONS
1:00pm - 1:30pm EST
Meta Grid - Information Architecture and the Enterprise IT Landscape
Information Architecture emerged distinctly as a method to structure the content on the open web, taking the best practices from Library and Information Sciences (LIS) and merging it with new technology. However, information architecture holds tremendous value beyond the web, for example, in an enterprise setting as well. In his talk, Ole Olesen-Bagneux, Ph.D., will present a new architecture for enterprise metadata management - coined as the Meta Grid - that stands on the shoulders of information architecture.
Presenter:
Dr. Ole Olesen-Bagneux
Founder, Searching for Data
Author, The Enterprise Data Catalog and Fundamentals of Metadata Management
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ole-olesen-bagneux/
1:30pm - 2:00 pm EST
Transforming Connection: How Technology Changes the Way We Relate to Each Other, Our Data and the World
Technology doesn’t just connect us—it transforms how we see ourselves, relate to others, and make sense of the world. Emerging tools like artificial intelligence, real-time data systems, and multimodal interfaces are reshaping how we access, process, and interpret information. AI, in particular, plays a growing role in filtering information and shaping digital interactions. It mirrors and reinforces increasingly divergent truths, deciding what we see, who we interact with, and even what we believe.
These technologies hold immense potential but also raise critical questions about trust, bias, and our ability to navigate a world increasingly mediated by machines. This talk explores how these shifts affect not only our relationship with information but also with each other—especially across divides in belief systems and lived experiences.
Presenter:
Noreen Whysel
Co-Founder and COO, Decision Fish
Adjunct Faculty, City University of New York (CUNY)
Research Director, Information Architecture Gateway
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nwhysel/
2:00pm - 2:15pm EST
BREAK
2:15pm - 3:00pm EST
Bridging the Gap: Why Agile Falls Short for Information Architecture
In today’s dynamic landscape, Agile methodologies have become a cornerstone of project management for their adaptability and speed. However, when applied to the structured and strategic demands of information architecture, Agile often falls short. This fireside chat will explore the inherent tensions between Agile’s iterative approach and the foundational, long term needs of information architecture.
Through thought-provoking discussions with experts, we’ll uncover the challenges, practical strategies, and best practices for aligning Agile workflows with architectural priorities. Attendees will gain valuable insights to navigate these complexities, foster better collaboration, and drive successful outcomes in their projects.
Perfect for project managers, architects, and organizational leaders, this session offers actionable solutions to bridge the gap between flexibility and structure in today’s fast-paced environment.
Presenters:
Sepi Browning
CIO/Co-Founder, Brighthour Consulting
President-Elect, Georgia Chapter of Health and Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
Professor at Morehouse School of Medicine
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sepibrowning/
Shari Thurow
Information Architect and Search Director, Information Architecture Gateway
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shari-thurow/
3:00pm - 3:45pm EST
Weaving AI of IA in Practice
More than two years after the significant take-up of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Jeff continues a 3-decade legacy of having worked on many Traditional AI solutions by being regularly participating in Business AI projects in the Product Engineering division at SAP. He will share at this conference the various scenarios where Information Architecture is influenced by opportunities to combine previous AI approaches with GenAI innovations to reply to the needs of the users.
Presenter:
Jeff Allen
Key Expert Advisor, SAP France
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffallen/
3:45pm - 4:00pm EST
Afternoon Recap and Prize Giveaways
with Rachel E Patterson and PM Speakers
4:00pm EST
Adjourn
See you next year!
