As a supporter of Jared Spool's Unicorn Institute it excited me to learn that he would be opening Midwest UX with a presentation on designing great developers. For those not familiar with the Unicorn Institute its purpose is to develop well rounded user experience professionals who go beyond theory.
Sketchnotes from presentation
Jared explores what makes a "user experience designer". As illustrated in his slides it becomes apparent that you can no longer settle for bring a strong information architect or usability specialist. You must also be willing to master a domain such as onboarding or election reform.
My main takeaway from this presentation was that as professionals it is critical to never stop learning. In fact a great user experience designer will not only work through failure but seek feedback from others and then pass on that knowledge through mentorship. Setting the tone for an excellent two days of talks, his explanations of "Why UX" might be persuasive enough that this video is worth sharing with developers, project managers, and others in your team who may not understand what makes it so important to any complex project.