Walter Rumsby's Web Site

A Few Weeks Ago

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Klute is playing in Queenstown on May 13.

Webstock: The Final Countdown

Well, here we go. Assuming my addition is correct here is the final memescore for Webstock 08:

I'm sure some people will be surprised that the LOLcats count is so low.

There were a few other topics that got frequent mention. History was quite a common thread - Nat Torkington started it all off with the Crimean War, Liz Danzico talked about Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, Scott Berkun talked about Guttenburg and Newton, Jason Santa Maria talked talked about graphic design during the Renaissance and I'm sure if I scour my notes I can find more examples. Last.fm also got a few mentions as did Facebook. Russell Brown talked about SuicideGirls (I think he has a wee crush on Posh - but given that she is an attractive, creative, Mac fangirl who spends her spare time playing WoW and dates the owner of an independant media site maybe that's not so surprising).

So how did Webstock 08 rate? My opinion has shifted a bit over the last few days. Initially I thought the event wasn't as strong as 06, but thinking about it more that's probably because I attended two full-day workshops in 06, and only one half-day workshop this time. When it came to the actual conference I think I actually got more from the general conference speakers this time round (I've already made a series of redesigns to this site based on Luke Wroblewski's workshop and presentations by Dan Cederholm and Simon Willison).

To be honest my big mistake this time was probably forgetting to go to the Matterhorn (technically speaking I did pop my head in the door trying to find some Webstockers who ended up being next door at Mighty Mighty).

Over the next few days (or weeks) I'll post some more detailed entries on my favourite presentations - Liz Danzico, Tom Coates, Dan Cederholm and maybe a few others - plus the Luke W workshop, but as a general review of the whole event I'll have to say well done again Webstock.

Just to emphasise that point, on Friday evening I was chatting to Tom Coates and along came Nat Torkington who said hullo (to Tom). They both agreed that this was one of the best conferences they had ever been to. So I wouldn't be surprised if O'Reilly conferences borrow one or two ideas.

Meanwhile, I'm already looking forward to the next Webstock.

Scorecard: The 8 x 5 Session