In keeping with my plan to get to as many events as I can afford, I headed off to the Future of Web Design tour in Leeds on Wednesday. When the tickets were first announced, I was a little disappointed when I realised I wasn't going to see Paul Boag or Drew McLellan. However, as we got through August and I started reading articles by the Leeds speakers, I started to get more and more excited. Paul, Simon and Brendan were inspiring.
Paul kicked the day off with his talk "Oooh, That's Clever! (Unnatural Experiments in Web Design". It was all about some not so subtle) effects online that (debateably) enhance the user's browing experience somehow.
Mike Taulty from Microsoft came to talk to us about Silverlight and Expression Blend. As I thought it would be more of a pitch than a presentation (apparantly it was) I took the opportunity to head into town and run a few errands, making sure I was back for the next talk. I made it back with plenty of time to spare, and sat chatting to Dan, Sam and Oliver.
Next came Simon's talk about developing his ultimate package. I have something similar, but not quite as in depth as the Erskine package. It was quite interesting to see how my own ideas scaled against their package, which was being used by quite a few people in a work environment.
After Simon's talk, we all had a speed networking session. I hate elevator pitches with a passion, as I'm really bad at them. It was really good fun though, and I met quite a few interesting people. I also met a few people I knew by name but had never met (even if I didn't realise until I was home and looking at business cards)
After lunch, Simon was back with his talk about Bahaus Ideology, and it's role in the future of web design. It was quite interesting, but I believe I would have been hooked if I was a "proper" designer. It showed examples of things we all do in design, and how they're inspired by principles that were built up in the 1920's.
Paul came back with "50 rookie mistakes and how to avoid them". Unfortunately there are no slides online for this presentation and I didn't write any of them down. Thankfully, I think there were only one or two that I've been guilty of in the past. 50 mistakes in 30 minutes was ambitious, but we managed to get through most of them,
After a short break, Dean Vipond gave us a session on "Totally Original I Swear!". I thought this would be a session on people stealing ideas, but it turned out to be focused on how personal touches in design can make people remember your site. Unfortunately, it seems as though more and more sites are removing these touches - the "Totally Original I Swear!" button was originally on digg, but it's since been removed.
By the time Dean had finished, it was around 4:30pm and everyone was getting quite tired. I wondered how Brendan from MagneticNorth would present to keep people's attention focused on him. He didn't disappoint. He spoke about some of the projects he's worked on, and how they went from being boring to being something that really engaged with the user. Unfortunately, all I can remember is the laughs Brendan receieved for not being afread to use expletives in his talk.
After Brendan, the conference was over and it was time to head to the pub. We went to Revolution, where I drank far too much, aquired a new love for Captain Club and got talking to people. All the speakers sat talking to all the attendees, and I had quite a good chat with Simon. I also chatted to Brendan for a while about how he got to where he is now (He worked in Nelson for a while!). I can't forget everyone else I talked to, though. I had a nice chat with Joe and Sam, and some fellas (who's name I can't remember, I apologise) about how Facebook handle privacy and why it doesn't really work.
I really enjoyed the day, and will hopefully be getting to the FOWA tour when it's next in Leeds. I met loads of interesting people, made a few new business contacts and learnt a bit more about design. Well worth the time 
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