Personal webspace of Michael Grinstead a designer slash web developer, and a wannabe illustrator

@media 07 London

Back from the @media 07 conference which was held in London.

This badge sums it up…

Now I’m useless at writing reviews so this shall be kept short and simple.

1st day:

After an early start, what with catching the bus, train and tube it was nice to see on arrival coffee/tea and a selection of pastries being laid on.

After Jesse James Garret it was a toss up between listening to either Molly E. Holzschlag or Jason Santa Maria, it was a tough one but Molly won in the end. Why? although Jason is one talented designer, I’ve read so much about Molly and her passion for web standards I just had to hear her in person.

The high-Noon shoot out between Drew McLellan and Simon Collison had me aching with laughter (There is no fold)

Dan Caderholm’s session was excellent, such an inspirational speaker, I’m glad I wore my tee as he spotted it whilst on the way to the after party :)

Another inspirational speaker was Mark Boulton with his talk on typography, which he related to the art of Martial Arts, and being a (ex)martial artist myself (Tae Kwon Do, Kick Boxing & Pak Mei) I was hooked.

Joe Clark rounded the day off nicely, I also had the chance to chat with him at the party, and was honoured to have my photo taken :)

The Party

Just a few I got chatting to:

• Joe Clark
• Molly
• Andy Budd
• Steve Marshall
• Natalie Downe (Discussed about geeks nights in Southampton)
• Matt Harris, who works for the Hampshire County Council, we got on to briefly discussing school websites particular the one my wife teaches at.
• and of course the two guys I had met during the day, Ben & Adrian.

2nd Day

OK I shall let you into a little secret here, I’m a big fan of Jon Hicks and was looking forward to actually seeing/hearing him in person, I wasn’t disappointed. His inspirational talk was how to be a creative sponge, the slides themselves were creatively done, you can certainly tell that Jon has a passion for (all things) design.

It was also nice that he spared the time to chat with me after the session, even though Leigh had decided it was time for a shopping spree and I could see Jon secretly wanted to go as well, maybe just to make sure the credit card wasn’t getting abused :)

Andy Clarke’s talk was another great one.

The closing hot topics panel was a great way to end the two days, some interesting questions were asked, Jeremy Keith just had me in stitches, especially calling the orange t-shirted staff Oompa-Loompas

Well I shall certainly be attending next years, thanks to the Vivabit team and speakers on providing an enjoyable and informative two days.

Posted: 10 June 07