Here’s a summary of upcoming conferences that will cover Design Research in one way or another. Of particular relevance of course is the Design Research Conference in Chicago in September.
To add to that list, the Design and Emotion conference is just about to take place in Hong Kong as well.
http://www.sd.polyu.edu.hk/de2008/
If the last one was anything to go by it’s well worth considering. Selected papers will be published in the Open-access International Journal of Design