Pete Lambert

I’m tapping this post into my iPhone from the train waiting at platform 4, Kings Cross Station as I make the trip back to York after an immense five days in the capital staying with my brother James and his lovely wife, Cris.

I made the trip down on Wednesday evening to attend the Web Directions @media conference, of which I’ve been a part on numerous occasions since it’s inception in 2005. It’s always an enjoyable event, not least because of the normally stellar line-up of speakers but also because of the people. I’ve made good friends here in the past and it’s always nice to revisit those friendships in person (the web is often too distant) and to make new friends.

This year’s @media, now presided over by it’s new foster parents, Web Directions’ John Alsopp and Maxine Sherrin, certainly didn’t disappoint. In a year where CSS3, HTML5 and Javascript are breaking into the mainstream press, let alone into the toolboxes of even some of the most conservative web designers, the theme of the event and of the individual presentations was very well judged.

I’m not going to go into masses of detail on the conference content other than to say that my personal highlights included Simon Willison’s session on Crowdsourcing (surprising and inspiring), Mark Boulton’s Designing Grid Systems (so, so useful — I came away feeling scolded), Andy Clarke’s Hardboiled Web Design (It’s Malarkey, I always enjoy Malarkey), Aral (inspiring) and more than any other, Relly’s Microcopy presentation (hilarious, beautifully designed and delivered, incredibly useful).

The easy-going receptions after each day were a welcome change from the standard conference ‘party in a nightclub too loud to hear conversation’ thing. The first evening in particular was very well thought out. In the foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre where this year’s event was held, complimentary drinks and canapés were served as Lloydi mixed up a storm (at an appropriate volume) on the digital decks. We’re geeks who are mostly at events like this through choice. We’re all passionate web designers and developers and there’s very little we like more after sitting and listening to people talk about web design all day than to carry on that conversation with our fellow professionals and the speakers themselves. The atmosphere was perfectly set for this and I applaud the organisers for their obvious efforts here.

After day two a similarly easy-going reception was held on the 5th floor balcony of the Festival Hall, next door. The sun graced us with it’s presence and a hundred or so geeks quickly reached for their bags to find whatever piece of clothing they could to protect their pale skin. My brother (an economist in the Foreign Office — a different type of geek) and I sank a few beers with @media veterans, Leigh the Librarian and Karl, and Dave before heading back to the flat to catch a bit of football.

Saturday was the big day. England would be playing their first game in the World Cup that evening and we had tickets to watch it somewhere pretty special. The day was basically going to lead up to that, so in an effort to fill it we took a basketball down to Kennington Park to ‘shoot a few hoops’, as I believe is the vernacular. The court was busy as three other likeminded Londoners had got there before us. Obviously we stepped up and challenged them, ignoring thoughts of any trouble and the consequent move to live with relatives in Bel Air. We got beat. Pretty badly. Cris played well, but with only the Lambert brothers behind her she had no chance. Back home for a beer and to watch a bit of afternoon football.

Eventually we headed out to see the England v. USA game. No 42” telly in a pub would do for us though. We were going to The Hammersmith Apollo to watch the game with 3500 other fans on the biggest HD screen in the UK. The atmosphere in there was tremendous and the beer was only £2.10 a pint.

I’ve been to Wembley (old and new) on a number of occasions, including for England games and I’ve never experienced an atmosphere like I experienced in a North London theatre this Saturday night. Highly recommended.

Today (Sunday) we got up at lunchtime and James and I decided to give Cris the house to herself to study. We got on the tube and headed east to Liverpool Street to explore Spitalfields and London’s Trendy Brick Lane. And what a fab day we had. Markets, street food, art galleries and architecture up the wazoo. A proper cultural day out. Also, does everybody in Brick Lane ride a retro singlespeed? There were thousands of them. We had a look round a shop called 14 Bike Co that specialised in classic conversions. I could have spent a fortune on shiny metal. 

We finished off the day with a walk through the City, past the Bank of England, which looks a fairly well built piece of masonry, over London Bridge and stopped for a pint in a pub off Borough Market. And now I’m on a Northbound train, reflecting on a brilliant trip South in what seems like far too many words. After all that though I’m just dying to get home to see Nicki and Miles, both of whom will probably be fast asleep by the time I crash through the front door. I’ve never been away from Miles for this long and I’ve missed both him and Nicki terribly. As I finish this post, by the way, the train is pulling into York. Too many words. Tomorrow it’s back to work, which as a freelance web designer means making up for taking five days away from the desk and hopefully implementing some of the things I learned while I was away.