Meet Alysson Franklin: Regional Director, Latin America of World IA Day & Head of User Experience and Information Architecture at Base22 LLC
Board Spotlight
We’re very excited to introduce some of the people, organizations, and companies behind World IA Day. Today, we’re introducing a long-time event organizer at World IA Day and now one of the regional directors, Latin America of World IA Day. Alysson Franklin’s first WIAD event was in Brazil, São Paulo, back in 2012. He has organized the event in Mexico City from 2015–2017; Monterrey in 2017, 2019–2020; and Puebla in 2018.
Tell us about your journey to World IA Day
Wow, that’s a long journey! My first World IA Day was back in 2012, in São Paulo, Brazil. After that, I was fortunate to live in the States and Mexico because of information architecture.
My WIAD story blends with my IA journey, and I can say that some of the solutions I use every day came from attending and supporting this celebration. From a practitioner learning how to organize systems to a supporter of the discipline, World IA Day is when I refresh my views, touch base with my friends, and help spread the word, sparking the curiosity about our profession.
After starting my WIAD experience in Brazil, I had a chance to move to Mexico. When I realized that we never had the event in Mexico, I contacted the board to organize the first one. That was 2015, and since then, we already have five events, over three different cities, with more than 880 attendees so far. I hope next year we can celebrate our 1000th attendee!
Why and in what ways are you involved with World IA Day?
I’m involved because we need more Information Architects across Latin America. We need to develop and strengthen the practice in the region.
As a Regional Director for the WIAD, I want to leverage the relationship between the Academy, the Industry, the Market, and the most important: the Community towards Information Architecture.
My job is to support local organizers in preparing and hosting the event, besides raising awareness into the Academy, offering the opportunity for students to take a deep dive into Information Architecture as part of their journeys into the university.
You may think that the idea is to execute a one-day event, but it goes beyond that. The WIAD creates communities across the globe that celebrate the day and discuss (and breathe) Information Architecture over the year.
So the challenges are to increase the WIAD footprint, from prospecting different cities and universities with the volunteers, working together to connect the whole region in our day.
Drop me a line if you are in Latin America and want to spread the Information Architecture knowledge into your zone. I would love to talk and help you to achieve that!
