💪💪 Hello powerful and passionate UXers! 💪💪

Our next meetup will be on Tuesday, Feb 20th at 6 pm. It'll be hosted by our friends at Fearless.

As usual, the meetup will start with an informal half an hour of socialization with food. We'll do our usual potluck. BUX attendees are encouraged to bring food to share with other participants.

Following social time, we're going to have a panel discussion to tease apart questions about UX influence and power. We're super excited to have a amazing line-up of panelists/moderator.

🕒 Event timeline 🕒

6:00-6:30pm: BUX members arrive and socialize
6:30-6:35pm: BUX organizers welcome/job announcements/housekeeping
6:35-6:40pm: Introduction of panelists by moderator
6:40-7:15pm: Lively discussion between panelists
7:15-7:45pm: Q&A with audience
7:45-8:00pm: Clean-up & goodbyes.

👀 The moderator/panelists 👀

Panelist#1 - Julie Abe (she/her) is a UX researcher and organizational consultant for large corporations, government, and small business spaces. With 9 years in UX and two decades prior as a developer, she earned advanced degrees from the School of Hard Knocks before realizing that knowledge doesn't guarantee influence and to trust the process of human-centered design because it really works. Born and raised in the Baltimore metro area, she lives in Owings Mills and enjoys spending time with horses and people and loves swapping recipes for delicious low carb food.

Panelist#2 - Jennifer Hunsecker (she/her) is the UX Research Manager at TaxAct. She has over 12 years of experience in research, but only a handful months of experience of living in Baltimore area. She loves to talk about any aspect of research, privacy, ethics, and general foolishness. She also loves knitting, hiking, and adorable animals.

Panelist#3 - Jordan Watts (they/them) is the Director of Design at Fearless, an impact-focused digital services integrator building software with a soul, while creating the conditions for organizations and their people to thrive. Jordan is one of the leading experts on the inclusive design, government-as-a-platform, and scaled DesignOps adoption for large institutions going through change. They've spoken on these topics at venues such as the Maryland Tech Council and Code for America Summits, and as a consultant to leading design technologists at the federal, state, and local level.

Moderator - Tony Vergara (he/him) isn't just passionate about design; he sees it as a transformative force. With over eight years of design experience and a prior background in research, he has a proven track record of partnering with clients across diverse industries to craft impactful user experience (UX) strategies. Currently working at Fearless as a service designer and UX lead, Tony focuses on simplifying Medicare.gov for coming-of-agers and beneficiaries. By translating complex policies into clear, self-service experiences, he's helping millions of seniors navigate their healthcare with confidence.

🙏 Kudos 🙏

🏢 Meetup space provided by Fearless
🍲& 🚰 Food We'll do a community potluck again and BUX will provide beverages.
🎁 Joe, a former attendee of BUX is organizing ConveyUX conference in Seattle and very generously offered THREE Virtual Experience conference passes to BUX members. We'll draw 3 random names (of people interested in attending) during Tuesday's meetup. If you are interested in getting one of the 3 passes, please send an email to baltimoreux@gmail.com with the subject line "ConveyUX conference passes" and your name in the body of the email. If you are interested in attending the conference in person or virtually and don't get one these passes, there is a discount code for BUX members (see description below):

Join us at ConveyUX in-person or online to learn the latest in UX, grow your skills, and connect with like-minded peers from around the world. The conference is February 27-29 online and in Seattle. All the details: https://conveyux.com/­
Use the Promo code "Meetup" for $100 off the ticket price.

Parking/event detail: Park at 15 south Frederick St garage (there is a charge). Take the elevator down to the first floor. Exit the elevator and turn left, follow that hallway all the way to the end. This puts you in the Power Plant Plaza. Turn left and look for the black awning directly next to Rams Head Live. You'll see a large sign inside the doors that says Spark. BUX volunteer will let you up to the 2nd floor (if you're late, there will be a phone to call/text for someone to come to you).