I just returned from Interaction 10, the always-exciting conference organized by the Interaction Design Association (IxDA).  This year’s event was held in Savannah, Georgia. I know there was a lot of live tweeting, Johnny Holland was there, and the conference site will soon feature loads of videos. Folks have been busy on Flickr, too. So, since the event reporting has been pretty well covered by others, I thought it would be interesting to look at the physical paper trail this conference generated for me.

Interaction with dead trees
I had a client years ago that refused to allow paper into the office. Everything was electronic. Needless to say, this got them a lot of PR, but made them fairly ineffective. Let’s face it, paper is really, really useful. (I’m partial to beermats…for taking notes).

But honestly, is all this paper really necessary? How can we make the world a little more sustainable? Just look at what I dragged home from Savannah:

2 train tickets for the Copenhagen subway
1 printout of a so-called “e-ticket”
4 boarding passes from Delta
2 luggage receipts
5 security stickers of various kinds on passport and luggage
1 receipt for currency exchange at Danske Bank
3 taxi receipts (1 Danish, two US)
1 paper conference badge
4 schedules and maps from inside the badge
1 map of Savannah
17 sundry receipts for meals, drinks, and other conference-related expenses
1 reservation sheet from the Hyatt
1 welcome letter from the Hyatt
1 check-out description from the Hyatt
1 bill from the Hyatt
3 Delta paper napkins (with sketches)
12 pieces of promotional literature from the conference sponsors
14 pieces of United States paper currency
43 business cards

"Empty your pockets in the plastic tray provided"