DIBI Conference - My experience graph
The inaugural DIBI Conference kicked off on Wednesday 28th of April 2010, hosted at The Sage Gateshead by Newcastle and was a split conference for both designers and developers. Organised by Codeworks and brought to you in no small part by Gavin Elliott, it was the first big web conference this far north since Edinburgh’s infamous Highland Fling’s of 2007 & 2008.
DIBI: Design It, Build It was an interesting concept bringing both developers and designers together in one location for a two-track conference that you could freely roam between. I was particularly interested in most of the design side of the conference but hear the development side was just as good.
I am not going to go too in-depth on individual speakers talks, you will be happy to know they will be available to watch online in a few weeks time if you couldn’t make the event or the online broadcast. I have yet to find out how successful that particular option was, hopefully we do soon.
Adii talked about how design should be a key focus of any startup, it was an interesting start to the day and is definitely something I am a firm believer in. Adii managed to answer some tough questions on commoditising great design and personal branding, he handled these well.
Sarah spoke honestly about the principles of iPhone UI design the struggles designers can face and managed to cover a good array of tips in a short amount of time.
Tim blasted through his 2020: A Design Odyssey discussion and emphasised the need for designers to continue evolving else you’ll turn into lazy monkeys. Always interesting to hear Tim speak and the extended Q&A session was a refreshing take that I hope we see at more events soon.
Simon spoke in depth about the theory behind design and how we should be bringing these offline thoughts into our online work. There was a wealth of information in Simon’s talk and some great book recommendations to boot.
Dan presented us with a unique and interesting way to handle usability testing that is so simple and effective. In-browser prototyping and fast iteration during testing sessions looks like it might be a thing of the future.
Andy was last to speak and is always a treat to hear, he spoke about working with the most modern and interesting CSS techniques and designing from the top down with best browsers first. Always inspirational and Andy talks about everything I very firmly believe in.
Gowalla vs Foursquare
Some Highlights:
- Pre-party Venue and general good times.
- Gowalla vs Foursquare banter with Tim! ;)
- Location – The Sage was a great conference venue.
- Field Notes on Entry, Red Bull’s at the Afternoon Break.
- All of the Design side Speakers.
- Catching up with friends and new faces.
Lowlights:
- Lunch – I can’t imagine cooking for 325 people is easy.
- Sponsored Talks – Always a Catch 22.
- After Party – More on this below.
The After Parties at all web conferences suffer from the same problems, a small and crowded venue, too dark and always with music that is way too loud. It’s been an inherent problem for me across the board, FOWD, dConstruct, Build & now DIBI. I love a party as much as the next person but after a super successful event I want to then be able to talk with people and not have to yell in their ears. Hopefully better locations can be sought after at future events.
To wrap up, DIBI was a super successful and very enjoyable event from start to finish. Gavin and the Codeworks team really nailed their first conference and I can say without any hesitation that this will very likely be a conference worth attending again next year.
