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Future of Web Design 2007

On wednesday I went to the Future of Web Design conference in Kensington. Had a great time and really enjoyed myself, plus I feel like I learnt a surprising amount considering it was just people on a stage talking at the crowd for hours on end!

Andy Clarks talk was definitely my favorite and really made me feel more confident about the way I’ve been thinking about web design and development. The whole experience was very enlightening in a number of ways:

• I feel I understand what makes a good speech and a good speaker at these kinds of shows now, you can’t feed professional designers and developers buzzwords and marketing fluff and expect them to respect you, but if you reach out to them, give them something useful or insightful then you will be admired much more.
• The conference also helped me to understand what direction I’m heading in with my work, I’m certainly not a graphic artist, and the more I think about it and talk to people the more I feel like I’m becoming a developer, or at least moving into a spot in the middle between the arty designers and the hardcore programmers.
• If your going to go to one of these conferences then go with a friend or colleague. I went on my own to this one and felt quite alone most of the day, I’m notoriously shy as well and find it very hard to introduce myself to new people so I struggled to make any new friends or contacts.

But saying that I’d definitely go again, Ryan put on a great show and was really friendly too plus the location was excellent along with free wifi (from Microsoft) and plugs all over the place for juicing up those macbooks. Some more comfy chairs would have been nicer tho!