It’s been a good conference year for me. I’ve had the good fortune to attend and speak at some excellent events.
It’s a great way to travel. I get paid to go somewhere exotic and then speak on subjects that I love speaking about anyway. The highlight of this year was going all the way to Australia for Web Directions where I nattered on about Ajax.
Much as I love travelling to conferences, I take special pride when a conference takes place in my adopted hometown of Brighton (with the exception of the Labour Party conference). Most Web conferences in this country take place in London. That’s just the way it goes.
Following in the tradition of dConstruct, a major Web conference is about to hit town. Flash On The Beach will be taking over the Brighton Dome complex from the 4th to the 6th of December.
This looks like a biggie. There will be three tracks of talks over three days, all based around the subject of Flash.
One of those talks will be delivered by yours truly. I’m going in to the lion’s den to give the provocatively-titled presentation, Ajax: Flash Killer?
This should be interesting… if the term “interesting” encompasses “scary.” I’ll be putting my cards on the table and making it very clear that I’m not exactly an expert in Flash; in fact, I haven’t done anything in Flash since version 6. But I still think it will be interesting for Flash developers to hear from someone in the Ajax camp.
Oh, and just in case anyone thinks I’m going to be cheerleading for Ajax, that’s not my plan. I come not to praise Ajax but to bury it… sort of.
In any case, this will be a very different crowd than I’m used to addressing and I’m very intrigued as to what reaction I’ll get. I’ve got one week until my talk so I’m now in the stage of major panic.
I hope I won’t be so nervous and worried that I won’t be able to enjoy the other presentations. The line-up—with the exception of my aberrant presence—looks amazing. Hillman Curtis, Brendan Dawes, and all the other superstars of Flash will be there. Todd Purgason—whose work I’ve admired for many, many years—is speaking on the last day of conference. And, get this; Neville freakin’ Brody is also speaking on the final day of the conference! Those two are worth the entrance price alone. Speaking of which, if you sign up before November 30th, you get in for £399.
Alas, I won’t be able to hear what Messrs Purgason and Brody have to say. I’ll be ducking out of the conference early. I need to catch a flight to Berlin where I’ll be sitting on the jury for the Biene Web awards.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not complaining. Once again, I have the opportunity the travel to an exciting far-off place. I just wish it didn’t have to be during the one time when Brighton is the very place where any self-respecting designer would want to be.