Last week, I was in London to give 2 talks. The first one was last Thursday, in one of the conferences I wanted to go ever since I learned my first CSS properties: Web directions @media. The second one was 2 days later in a smaller event called Standards.next.
Web Directions @media
I managed to get my @media talk early on schedule, so I could relax afterwards and enjoy the rest of the conference. Before I saw the feedback on twitter I thought they hated it, since the audience was silent and didn’t laugh at any of my jokes and asked no questions afterwards. However, I was wrong: The tweets about it were enthusiastic! Here’s a small sample:
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/KrokoHunter/status/73686696381779968″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/adrmakow/status/73688461537849344″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/KrokoHunter/status/73691398058147840″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/xtinafowler/status/73691708138848256″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/stefsull/status/73692171684941825″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/ubelly/status/73692212772343808″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/pauliom/status/73694312315092992″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/mfujica/status/73694696517545984″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/johnallsopp/status/73694876524490752″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/johnallsopp/status/73695196986085376″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/prawnstar/status/73697565970935808″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/KrokoHunter/status/73700078921056256″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/matmannion/status/73700794624516096″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/farinab/status/73700896722268160″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/GlennCahill87/status/73701420704075776″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/NIMRweb/status/73701806122868736″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/xtinafowler/status/73702048620744704″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/KrokoHunter/status/73728517489172480″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/KrokoHunter/status/74227907878334464″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/blagdaross/status/74429856514965504″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/sparrk/status/74556639608442880″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/anttio/status/74575465905520641″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/sirbenjaminnunn/status/74900149448609792″]
You can play with the HTML version of my slides or view them on slideshare:
I really enjoyed some of the other talks in @media, especially:
- Stephanie Sullivan‘s “Modern CSS”
- Bruce Lawson‘s “Multimedia in HTML5”
- Nicole Sullivan‘s “Performance of CSS3 and HTML5”
Standards.next
The morning before my Standards.next talk, I woke up with a sore throat, a running nose and a blocked ear. I even thought about cancelling my talk, but I’m one of those people that have to be dying to change their schedule. So I went, and I’m glad I did, as I got to attend Peter Gasston‘s incredible talk on CSS3 layout. I really learned so much stuff from that!
As for my talk (“CSS Secrets: 10 things you might not know about CSS3”), it went fine after all. I had some trouble hearing the questions, due to the blocked ear, but nothing too bad. I had trouble with my last demo, as I got confused and used background-origin: padding-box; instead of content-box, but nobody there hated me because of it, like I was afraid would happen if I ever screwed up one of my demos 🙂
That event was much smaller (it took place in a small room in a pub), so the tweets were much fewer, but still very positive:
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/patrick_h_lauke/status/74496751716929536″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/stopsatgreen/status/74497512261693440″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/mfujica/status/74499137558687744″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/danielknell/status/74499496746299392″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/brucel/status/74500503098245121″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/patrick_h_lauke/status/74501557349138432″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/danielknell/status/74502234251071488″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/mfujica/status/74504295927648257″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/designjuju/status/74504416534855680″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/mfujica/status/74504823881469952″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/twitrnick/status/74506406191046656″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/patrick_h_lauke/status/74506910807764992″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/stopsatgreen/status/74508394974810113″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/stefsull/status/74508645513175040″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/albybarber/status/74532879832584194″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/jackosborne/status/74608125289828352″]
I found out afterwards that one particular lady in the audience complained about my pronunciation of the words “fuchsia” and “ems”. That’s what I would’ve said to her if I heard: “Here’s some breaking news to you: Not everyone is a native english speaker. Shocking, isn’t it? I would really be interested to hear your pronunciation if you ever did a presentation in Greek. KKTHXBAI”
Overall, I had a great time in London. I hadn’t been there for more than 10 years, so I had forgotten how beautiful city it is. I loved attending and speaking at both of those events, and I would like to thank Maxine Sherrin and John Allsopp for inviting me to @media and Bruce Lawson for inviting me at Standards.next.