Posted: Wed 16 June, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: @Media 2010, Geeky, Introspective, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related |
The @Media conference has always had two sides – the conference itself, and the sociable side of things, getting to meet one’s peers, make connections and all that.
Unsurprisingly, it’s not the side that interests me the most. In fact if I’m honest it doesn’t interest me at all.
I don’t really know why, but conferences like @Media bring out more of the autistic anti-social in me than they should. I find I don’t particularly want/need to make connections with other developers in general and I’m not overly interested in being put together in social situations with a butt-load of people I don’t know. I’m OK with people I know (whether in person or on-line) and on that score I’m OK – which is why I did meet up with friends while in London, but didn’t bother with the social @Media guff at all.
So for me I could happily live without the social side of the conference. Maybe I should do more on that side, but well, I really can’t be chuffed.
Posted: Sun 13 June, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: @Media 2010, Geeky, Own Business, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Work-related | Tags: wdx. #wdx |
So last Thursday and Friday I was in London for the Webdirections @Media Conference. It was the first time I’d been in a couple of years (I last attended the 2007, I think – holiday for the ’08 one, and tubularity stopped me from attending the ’09 one) so it was interesting to see what had changed – and of course what had stayed the same.
Of course the big difference was that @Media is now run/organised/owner by WebDirections, rather than through Vivabit as it has been in previous years. I’d not heard of WebDirections before, but apparently they’ve done a number of similar conferences in Australia etc.
To me, it seemed that the focus of the conference had changed quite a bit this year (or maybe over the last couple of years, I don’t know – can’t really comment on the ones I didn’t/couldn’t attend) to be more about design and programming, rather than the accessibility and user experience themes of previous @Medias I’ve attended. And that’s a disappointment.
The focus this year was very much on Javascript (which used to be a real no-no) and about telling designers to not worry so much about making designs work in all browsers and versions. There was virtually no mention at all of accessibility, except in one session through the two days. For a conference where accessibility and so on were paramount at the start, that’s a pretty sad state of affairs.
The other thing I really noticed this year was how corporate some of it seemed. In previous ones there’s been sponsorship from big companies and so on, but this time it was more going down the “stands in the public areas” type of promotion. Again that could be something that’s happened more in the last couple of years that I’ve missed, so it’s not such an eye-opener for other more regular attendees.
It was a good conference though, don’t get me wrong – I’ve got a lot of stuff to take out of it, bits that I’ve learned, bits that will make sites I work on better in anumber of ways. I’ve enjoyed it – it’s just been interesting to see what’s changed.
Posted: Thu 10 June, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: @Media 2010, Driving, Parking, Travel |
I got up to London last night, driving direct from work. It took me an hour to get from Bury St Edmunds to the junction of the North Circular Road with the A12. It then took 80 minutes to get from there into the city (near Southwark station). Utterly ridiculous.
[UPDATE : I actually did the maths/mileage on this last night : It was 70 miles from work to the A12, which took an hour. 70mph on the dot. It was 10 miles from the A12 to the Travelodge, and that took 80 minutes. 7.7mph.]
I’d planned to park in a close-ish NCP car park for the two days I’m here, which would’ve cost £18 per day. Better than lots of places, but not great. However, I couldn’t find that NCP carpark – and I tried twice, once in the car, once by foot. Fortunately, I knew I had options – I’d done my research.
As it was, I found a place right next to the hotel that cost me sod-all for overnight parking, so long as I was gone by 8am. By that time I’d gone down to the first of my two alternative options, found it was available, and done the deed. £20 for two days – yes, £10 per day – in a locked secure place. Bizarrely, it’s making use of some of the car-parking spaces in the building where I was working last year before I got the current job.
So I’ve managed to get 2½ days parking in central London (right by Blackfriars and the OXO Tower, for those who know/care) for £20. Pretty good by anyone’s standards.
Posted: Thu 10 June, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: @Media 2010, Geeky, Web Development, Work-related |
Today and tomorrow I’m in That There London, attending the @Media conference again. I missed it last year through being a completely forgetful twat, so I made sure I was going to be at this one, stuffed spine and all.
I’ll write more about it as time goes on, but for now, well, that’s it, I’m away.
Enjoy.
Posted: Tue 25 May, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: @Media 2010, Travel, Work-related |
Remember that Travelodge in London last year when I did the contract? The one I said I’d be happy to never see again?
Yeah, that one.
I’m there again in a couple of weeks.
Turns out it’s actually pretty convenient for this year’s @Media conference, so I’m going to make use of it again.