I’ll be blogging this week (June 12-15) from DIS 2012 in Newcastle, UK.  This year’s DIS conference is actually part of a two-week conference series that also includes Pervasive 2012 and the International Symposium of Wearable Computers (ISWC 2012).

When I arrived I was very pleasantly surprised that my registration “bag” included:

•  My badge/nametag.
• A cool bit of electronics (more on this later).
• A conference program, which fit into my plastic name badge.  The reverse side has a map, for easy reference.
• A USB key with conference proceedings.
• The ubiquitous conference bag … which is actually an Onya Bag that fits into a tiny stuff sack and attaches to a keychain.
• A lanyard, to which everything is attached.

I tend to a) recycle 90% of the flyers that come in conference bags within 10 minutes; b) continually forget my conference program; and c) begrudgingly lug former conference bags to the grocery store.  Thank you, DIS 2012 organizing committee, for thoughtfully designing registration and being well-organized.

You may still be wondering about that QR code and cool bit of electronics near the bottom of my name tag.  Registration let me know that it’s being used to identify me automatically in video taken at the conference, and that it works with interactive coffee tables in the main lobby area.  I’ll do a bit more investigating on how this works and will report back soon!