Th@t w@s @media is a post on The Hickensian

(Are you finding the use of @ in posts about @media annoying yet?!) Sorry to be late with this post, but this is the first chance I’ve had to write up something about the UK’s first web standards and accessibility conference.

I travelled down early on the Thursday morning with Denis (designer of the @media branding), and the first thing that struck me was how slick the operation was. Patrick had done a stellar job in organising all of this – I’d expected the first conference to be ‘testing the waters’ with a basic venue, but that wasn’t that case. It was a swish location in London’s south bank, with the 2 days being very slickly organised.

The presentations were excellent, and in particular Jeremy Keith’s ‘Using Javascript for Good (not Evil)’ floated my boat. Joe Clarke was as engaging and entertaining as ever, and it was a thrill to see Zeldman speak in London. Was everyone else as amazed as I was at Malarkey’s transformation from Mod to sharp dressed man?

If I had one complaint, it would be that there wasn’t enough time to talk. Breaks and lunches were carried out a breakneck speed (although maybe this helped to disprove the myth of Brits always taking breaks for tea?). The party on the Thursday needed to be in a large beer garden with food served, so that we could mingle and talk easier. Then again, I come from the shires, where every pub has a garden, and these big cities just ain’t got room for such niceties.

Sadly I had to leave fairly early on the Friday evening, and didn’t manage to find everyone I’d met to say goodbye. I met a lot of great people, but I won’t attempt a list, for fear of missing someone out. However, I would just like to say how great it was to finally meet Roger Johansson, Pete Lambert and Veerle Pieters (You see the problem? There was also Patrick Lauke, Mark Boulton…). We’re all a nice bunch aren’t we? Unfortunately, my photos were generally really poor, and my flickr set isn’t up to much.

Now then Malarkey, what’s all this about my ropey old socks appearing on ebay ?