Why we are switching to UX Belgium

The long version is that UX Antwerp as an organisation has always had the goal of sharing knowledge. Ever since the first event with 5 designers at a bar, it was about sharing knowledge and evolving ourselves as designers. 

The way we organise this group is no different. We are all volunteers that are always looking to evolve not only ourselves but also the organisation of UX Antwerp and above all we’re all looking for the next challenge.

We switched to digital and kept organising events during the lockdown, and now switched to hybrid events so people can join both online and offline. And I can certainly say that was a challenge we enjoyed (and are still enjoying) figuring out as we can now offer things we weren’t able to offer before. 

However, it’s with a certain degree of confidence that I can tell you that after this amount of time (nearly 11 years) we know how to organise an event and we’ve got the formula down. :) So regarding events specifically we were naturally already looking to what that ‘next challenge’ was going to be to keep evolving the group and community. 

And then we met Karol and Ellen, purely by chance they ended up sending a similar message to us within days, once again pressing on a pain point that we already knew existed. 

UX Antwerp is spread too thin between the city of Antwerp and Brussels. 

The almost too obvious solution is to just organise separate events in both cities… Duh. 

But then we started thinking we can do better on an organisational level and learn from each other and build something cool within the spirit of the community. Something none of us had done before. And there you had it…. The challenge was laid out. :D

So here we are, we are rebranding to UX Belgium with two chapters: UX Antwerp and UX Brussel. Sharing resources and knowledge between the two so we can all keep growing and evolving as one big community. 

So regarding the events, nothing is changing at all. It’ll still be UX Beers with 2 speakers by and for the community. There’ll just be more of them, and we are very excited to be organising them!