BlackBerry®Fluxible is blessed with the support of some amazing sponsors. We wouldn’t be doing this event without them.

Our Platinum Sponsor BlackBerry® shouldn’t need any introduction. Beyond the obvious global scope of the brand and its products, its maker RIM has been a major presence in Waterloo Region, home of Fluxible, for a very long time now. Everyone here is connected to the company and its iconic products in one way or another. Bob and I made it a priority to track down someone from the company who would be able to deliver a compelling UX talk, and we were thrilled when that finally came to fruition with our closing keynote talk from Dan Gärdenfor, Inventing the future of public computing surfaces.

After we announced Dan, the magic of social media brought Fluxible and RIM even closer together, and BlackBerry became a Platinum Sponsor for Fluxible. Needless to say, we’re grateful to have their support. (By the way, say hello to them on Twitter!)

But why did they get involved? Here’s what our friends their had to say.

Can you tell us a little about a bit about the role of UX in RIM's business?

User Experience is involved from the first step of understanding the goals and creating the vision through detailing every pixel and radius in shipping the products. We look to inform the business through design insights and the users perspective. Then we explore concepts and ultimately end up designing all aspects of the user experience from the display on the shelf to every pixel on the screen. The biggest reward is to see our work in the hands of consumers and making an impact in how they get stuff done. If we have done the user experience design part right then we have delighted our customers which has a nice impact on RIM's business.

Can you share any thoughts on the perceived corporate value of UX and benefit of it to your users and customers?

UX is a trusted partner within RIM. We work with marketing and development to define and deliver our products. I think we have moved past the notion of "perceived" value and jumped right to the "must have" stage . The 3 disciplines (UX, Marketing and Development) work to ensure we have the 3 pillars of product development covered: UX designs a user experience that user's want and love to use Product marketing ensures we have a product that has the features to be competitive in the market place. Finally development ensures we can feasibly build these ideas in the highest quality possible.

Why did RIM sponsor Fluxible?

We are a community. The UX community in Canada is growing and we want to be a part of it. From a RIM perspective the designers and developers who are defining the user experiences of mobile applications are a crucial partner tied to our future so we want everyone as excited about our platform as we are.

Is there anything interesting that RIM hopes to learn at the conference?

We are always looking to understand the hopes, dreams and challenges of those designing/building experiences in the mobile space.

Is there anything else you'd like to tell our Fluxible extended family?

Come give us a hug at the conference.