This week’s Create09 will examine the impact of the global economy and climate change on IT research and design practice.

Jointly organised by the British Computer Society’s (BCS) interaction specialist group and the human-computer interaction specialist group of the Ergonomics Society, the two-day conference — “Boom and Bust” — will explore how creative technology can be used in designs, interactions or in digital consumer products to make a difference in people’s lives.

The conference is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, 1 and 2 July, at the BCS’ offices, Southampton Street, London.

A number of speakers from both the academic and practioner fields will give presentations, including Josephine Reid from the Pervasive Computing Lab, Steve Benford from the Mixed Reality Laboratory at the University of Nottingham and Andrew McGrath, director of design and usability at Orange Global. Crispin Jones, an industrial and interaction designer will also speak to delegates.

The conference will include demonstrations of artefacts and prototypes, as well as an interactive session hosted by Edinburgh Napier University.

• Drowning in big data? Take smarter computing for a spin
• Charity tracks CO2 to deliver sustainable help to Africa
• Arctic College visualizes, then builds, more efficient buildings
• Cutting websites cuts energy, carbon footprints
• New IBM solutions target ‘smarter commerce’
• HP aims for connected future in the cloud
• IBM expands Institute for Electronic Government
• Data centre energy management firm joins climate group
• Haiti publishing firm enters IT for e-learning
• Peru enlists IBM for cloud-based govt services