Web Design Conferences | September 30, 2005

I have been to a several conferences this year and have enjoyed every one of them. It is so much fun meeting like minded people who share the same interests and passions as I do. I have been to some great, eye-opening sessions and have been enthused by speakers I’ve admired for years. However it is the snatched conversations over lunch or between sessions that have provided me with the most inspiration.

I will be attending SXSW again next year, and am already looking forward to it. I’m planning to give a presentation with Andy Clarke which should be a lot of fun.

I’m keen to attend more conferences so would love to find out what your favourite conferences are and what conferences or events you are planning to attend in the next 18 months.

Posted at September 30, 2005 4:51 PM

Comments

Jacob Bøtter said on September 30, 2005 5:56 PM

You should definitely consider Reboot in Copenhagen next summer!

Steve Marshall said on September 30, 2005 6:01 PM

I’ll also be attending my first SXSW in March, which I’m really looking forward to.

I was supposed to have been attending @media05 but, due to ‘issues’ at work, I ended up missing out (but sent Ben in my stead).

Other than that, I’m due to be taught some ‘Advanced CSS’ by some bloke or other, who’s coming to where I work on the 10th of October (I think?). You might know him; I hear he’s pretty popular ‘round these parts?

Then, shortly after that, someone else is coming to my company teach us about DOM scripting.

(FWIW, I’m the one in my team who insisted we needed some Vivabit lovingtraining for our upcoming projects. It wasn’t just so that I could gloat to Ben. Honest.)

Steve Marshall said on September 30, 2005 6:06 PM

Your comment form ate my <del /> and <ins /> around loving and training respectively :(

Mark said on September 30, 2005 6:07 PM

I also am planning to attend SXSW next year. So far I’ve only been to one - Web Design World 2004 in Boston. Zeldman, Bowman, Fried, & co. completely revolutionized the way I do everything. I can’t speak highly enough about it.

Alun Rowe said on October 1, 2005 8:48 PM

Hi Andy,

@Media was my first ever event and I heard a lot of people talking about SXSW there. I’m tempted to go but the website still doesn’t have much info about the web side of stuff etc… Any more info etc greatly appreciated.

Steve Marshall said on October 2, 2005 7:12 AM

Alun, there’s actually a fair chunk of info on the SXSW site already: who’s giving opening remarks, who’s making the keynote speech, a partial list of panel topics, a partial list of confirmed speakers, not to mention things like the web awards and the various parties (opening party, closing party, and any other unoficcial parties that’re going on).

Keith said on October 3, 2005 2:06 AM

SXSW is my favorite. But for me it’s more than just a conference. I get to see my brother and stay for a ton of great music. It’s part conference and part vacation for me. But it’s all fun and I agree that you get a lot of inspiration out of the hallway conversations.

Others?

I’ve had a great time at WebVisions in Portland the last few years. Might be a bit of a trek for you Andy, but…

Oh and I’d LOVE to get over to @Media sometime…maybe next year if I can afford it.

Ted Drake said on October 3, 2005 3:51 PM

I also enjoy conferences and highly recommend attending a broad spectrum of events. If you can’t afford the whole shebang, try to at least get into the trade shows.

The school for scanning is a surprisingly well rounded conference series on intellectual property, digital rights management, digital content archiving, and user-experience of digitalized resources. The Siggraph festival is unbelievable. I always attend the Museums on the Web and this year flew to London for the @media and San Francisco for the Business Blog Summit.

Go for the people, the new ideas, new technology, and the nifty t-shirt to impress co-workers with.

Cam said on October 5, 2005 5:12 AM

Havning just attended Web Essentials in Sydney, I can highly recommend getting to that one next year if you can manage it at all.

Nick Cowie said on October 5, 2005 9:17 AM

Second Cam’s vote for Web Essentials. I survived WE05 and I am already saving the cash (and my liver) for WE06.

Ms. Jen said on October 8, 2005 2:33 PM

SXSW is my fave and I will try to be there this upcoming year if my thesis does not get in the way. I attended BlogHer this last July and enjoyed it enough to try and attend next year.

Faruk AteÅŸ said on October 16, 2005 8:24 PM

I’ll be going to SXSW next year, as well as d.Construct this year.

Most likely, or rather, if money and time permit it, I will be at the next @media as well, and to top it all off, I am trying to organize a 2-day conference in the Netherlands for somewhere next year (september).

Lucy said on October 25, 2005 1:45 PM

I don’t like conferences, really… I’m pretty much a self-learner. I hate listening to what I already know or what I’m not interested in. I prefer to read - books, articles, magazines and so on. Is every single hour at the conference so exciting for you?
Best wishes,
Lucy, web designer

Andy Budd said on October 26, 2005 8:53 AM

I guess it depends on the conference. Most of the ones I’ve been to have had an excellent line up of speakers. The kind of people you’d pay good money to see.

I’ll usually pick up a few new tricks, or remind myself of old ones. However I don’t see conferences as learning opportunities in the same sense that workshops are. You just can’t learn much from a 45 min presentation.

What they are great for sparking ideas and seeing what others are doing. I’ve had lots of light-bulb moments when listening to presentations. What if you combined this technique with that technique types of thing.

However I think the real value is in networking and all the hallway conversations people have. The presentations are simply the framework that all revolves around.

Business Girl said on December 17, 2005 6:40 PM

Frankly speaking I don’t like conferences too much, but I think that sometimes it is a good opportunity to get new theoretical points and to get acquainted with interesting people.