We have written before of Edward Tufte.
Tufte is the original user experience - UX - designer. He teaches one day seminars in information design which are highly, highly recommended. His specialty is a design philosophy that is at once beautiful and effective. Think that's not important? Tufte heavily cites examples of PowerPoint presentations that were poorly designed. People died as a result of decisions based on those self same PowerPoints. The seminar is reasonably priced as it includes a set of Tufte's reference books. It is also fascinating and entertaining; Tufte is professor emeritus at Yale.
Edward Tufte one day seminar on information and presentation design in downtown Portland.
Details at www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/courses. 8:45AM-4 $380