GEL Conference 2008

Posted by John   |   Apr 28th, 2008 9:04pm

We just got back from a long weekend in New York. Emily, Mahtab, Jennifer and I attended the GEL conference. What is GEL you ask? It is Good Experience Live. It is a conference that focuses on many different types of experiences from the design of OXO tools to what it is like to be a server in a Thomas Keller restaurant. The conference goes 2 days. On day one you sign up for a morning and afternoon “experience” event. Day two is the conference where 16 or so speakers give 20 minute presentations about experiences they are involved in. As with any conference there were good speakers and not so good ones. These guys were my personal favorite. I also enjoyed hearing OXO’s president talk about their design and usability philosophy.

The best part of the conference was what we experienced in the city on the first day. I got to go on a walking tour that focused on the food of Greewich Village. Here are some highlights.
Joe’s Pizza is apparently the best in town. I am not going to argue with that. They say the reason why New York Pizza is so good is because of the water.

Murray’s Cheese Shop was also a good experience. They have over 300 different types and their own custom cheese caves built under the shop. It smelled awesome in there.

The tour guide stopped and pointed out that this was the fictional building that supposedly the TV show Friends  took place in.

And this my friends is the only celebrity sighting that we had on the trip. He was probably on his way back from the studio, stopping off for some street food… before a long night of clubbing.

Entry Filed under: Conferences, EatonGolden, Fun, User Experience