we05 done and dusted

Well, I'm just back from we05. I'll be blogging about this quite a bit over the next few days or weeks as my brain is full at the moment.

I was sitting on the plane on the way home thinking 'Cripes. I've forgotten everything that was talked about' and 'Who was that guy that said blah?' but I realised that I was just in overload mode and gradually my thoughts started to clear a bit.

It was a great conference not least by just being able to sit in the same room as all those digital heroes that I admire and read their blogs and whose books sit on my shelf (or more likely are spread out over the desk).

Fantastically, podcasts of most sessions are available to keep the experience alive and also to kick start the old brain 'oh yeah - that's what she said!', as well as share the love with you poor souls that could not attend.

Overall assessment? 90% good. There were a couple of disappointing sessions (more later) but that's probably the way it goes. Some speakers need to learn to slow down a bit (Tantek, Steve and John - you know who you are), or the conference organisers need to allow more time rather than cramming these excellent speakers into 30min 45mins blocks.

The actual conference organisation was excellent and very well-planned, keeping to schedule pretty much. Love the satchel and the free Sitepoint Firefox Secrets book. (Til now, I didn't know sitepoint was pretty much Australian - great stuff!)

Most memorable incident of course will always be the fire evacuation that happened right at the end of the second session with Tantek - the first caught on podcast we believe and flickerd! This incident was handled extremely well and we all filed out in an orderly manner - well done to the organisers for maintaining calm and for handing out water when we went back in. Turned out that building work next door caused dust to get into the airconditioning system and set off the alarms.

Unfortunately most of the rest of the conference was accompanied by various decibel levels of jackhammering from next door - but them's the breaks.

Flickr photos of we05 sessions and speakers are up, official and by everyone else. I love this photo of Eric sitting on the street with his laptop - he was probably blogging about the evacuation or something...

Best and most inspiring speakers? Molly Holzschlag, Jeffrey Veen, Eric Meyer (second session), Kelly Goto, Douglas Bowman.

But now, I must go have words with Steve Faulkner who made some disparaging remarks about Dreamweaver in his session that I must correct...

life online

Today was a very technology-based day and strangely enough quite satisfying.

I sent an SMS via SMSPup to my other half for whom I had risen at the unearthly hour of 4am in order to take him to the bus which would then take him to the airport.

I spent about ten minutes fiddling with my PC speakers and headset which were crackling - fixed that.

I then later Skyped his mobile phone and spoke to him for a few minutes - having used Paypal to get some SkypeOut credit.

Then I left feedback for some eBay items I purchased on the weekend that had arrived yesterday. Those I had paid for via Netbanking. Noticed I now have over 300 feedback ratings. That means I have bought 300 things on eBay - that's absurd. Can't be true, can it? At least it's all 100%

Next, I Skyped my daughter who is camping with friends on Phillip Island. She's coming home tomorrow. Goodie.

Let's see... oh yes after that I listened to a 30 minute Savvy Technologist Podcast about accessibility and new technologies - while I did the dishes and tidied up around the place - just pumped up my PC speakers.

A short time later I received an email from a friend who has just gone to Canada for a year. She was letting me know her Canadian mobile phone number so I Skyped her too and we chatted for about 6 minutes for the grand total of 20c!

Then I viewed her Flickr photos - I had told her to set up an account before she left to make it easy for her to share photos rather than emailing them to everyone and she did. Left some funny comments to cheer her up.

Fixed some things on my Dad's blog and Technoratied it.

Checked all my Bloglines feeds.

And here I am... it's teatime and I'm still in front of this thing. I need to get out more...

we05 - i'm still going...

I've previously mentioned how excited I am at being able to go to the WE05 2 day conference this year in Sydney (sold out by the way!).

Once I got over the initial surprise at being allowed to go, I realised that I had very few people to share the joyous news with. You see, in our organisation NO ONE gets to go to these things even if they happen to be held in the same state where you live, never mind a whole different one that requires airfares and accomodation.

If I went around spouting about how lucky I was and where I was going, an awful lot of people who be saying, 'How come she gets to go?'. Much unpleasantness would ensue.

So I just have to sit quietly in the corner as usual and keep mum. It's a bit of a let down in a way but as the day approaches I'm sure the excitement will ramp up again. I'm not much of a traveller so it will be my adventure in the big smoke. I hope I don't get lost or something...

Then I suppose my only problem will be when I get back - I will be expected to report on this conference to the wider team, at which point I can already hear 'How come she got to go?' Ah me...