@Media 2005 Reflections

Well after months of anticipation @media 2005 has been and gone in what seemed like the blink of a slightly blurry eye.

Every single presentation was delivered well and I enjoyed them all greatly. Some of the stand out presentations for me were the ones that were delivered by the comic genius that is Joe Clark. Joe is so funny that even he doesn't know when he is doing it.

This guy calls a spade a spade and relishes the opportunity to do so. Hopefully the pictures that Patrick took will be as good as we hoped so we can make that Joe Clark banner we talked about

I don't want to say too much about that banner as it will only spoil the fun when Patrick first gets the chance to use it but the guilty parties know what I mean ;)

A few other stand out presentations were by Andy "Malarkey" Clarke from Stuff and Nonsense, Molly Holzschlag of Molly.com and Douglas Bowman of Stopdesign.

Andy Clarke's presentation was exactly what everyone needed to hear in my opinion. Too many people get caught up in what they are doing and don't sit back and think about why they are doing it. So what if you use a definition list for products? the guy is a genius with a top class eye for design without a doubt. He is also extreemly funny and has a realistic, grounded view of the web design "front line" including what people should do and what they should be paid which most employers dont. (If anyone from work is reading this then I obviously don't mean my employers)

I am sure his old art teacher "Dai Dactic" would be ever so proud ;)

Molly. Well Molly just rocks. It's always a pleasure to hear what she has to say about anything. Really I think that I could listen to her talk about paint drying and still enjoy it. Molly knows everything about everything and has probably written a best selling book about it. Although she claims still to be shy of the million mark she was credited with in the programme.

Douglas Bowman was a natural speaker who had everyone in the auditorium in the palm of his had the whole time he was "on stage".

Bowmans word was Raconteur. Dictionary.com defines this as "One who tells stories and anecdotes with skill and wit".

I don't think there could have been a more appropriate word in the hat.

Added to this I have never seen such a beautifully put together presentation. The time and effort that must have gone into producing each and every one of those slides must have been phenomenal.

No wonder that Douglas is a very sought after designer. It is obvious that he has an ingredient that some other designers don't which is passion for what he does and, most importantly, the skill to back it up. He also got the audience involved in a "rising stars" kind of thing and I am sure it meant a lot to the people he mentioned. It must have been great to hear Douglas say that he reads your blog. Whereas no one reads mine but hopefully that will change :)

One of the highlights for me was that I managed to meet and chat to most of the speakers. I was surprised by the friendliness of all the speakers at the conference and humbled that they would actually care about anything that I would say.

I also had the pleasure of going out to dinner with some of the speakers and also some great people that I knew from the forums or from their websites.

The table was quite impressive and included Ian Lloyd, Douglas Bowman, PPK (yes, that PPK), Jeremy Keith, Alex Armstrong, Derek Featherstone, Jon Gibbins, Matthew Pennel, Patrick Lauke and some other great guys who's sites I am not sure of. (Apologies if you were on the table and didn't get a mention I certainly didn't intentionally miss anyone)

I also had the pleasure of meeting Roger Johansson, Philip of Stuff and Nonsense (Sorry I didn't catch your last name, must have been the free beer!) and last but by no means least Simon Collison.

I had quite a good chat with Simon at the after show party and found him to be an approachable friendly guy. He listened to me drivel on about a new project I am going to try and get off the ground and managed to look interested throughout. He also offered me some good advice and even the possibility of helping me out in what I am sure would be a small way for him but would probably make all the difference to the project.

One regret was not getting to speak to Andy Budd about Skill Swap. A large part of my job is community education and it would have been great to have a nag with him and try and pick up a few tips. It's not that he wasn't approachable, far from it, but he always looked busy and I didn't want to be as rude as to butt in on any conversations he was having.

In conclusion @Media was great experience for me and on a personal level it exceeded all my expectations. I am already looking forward to @Media 2006. Can you book tickets yet?