Well firstly I have to say a big congratulations to the DDD Day team that organised the whole event. It was a great day and they all did really, really well organising and planning it! I was very impressed with the range of topics covered in the talks and by the quality of the speakers. Well done all of you! You should have a DDD Day team blog... let us all know your plans and how you go about organising and planning the events... what do you think Melita? Or maybe you should just have your own blog.... (Now there's a great idea!)
On the note of speakers, DDD Day are now looking for speakers for the next event, so if you want to speak (Neil & Dave!) then go for it. It is great fun and an experience that everyone should try at least once! (You know you want to!)
A couple of things that I marked for improvement and that were noted for for next time were to get bigger rooms to replace the small rooms like Memphis and R1... Unfortunately those rooms just weren't big enough and a few people were left disappointed as they couldn't get into some of the talks. The other thing that was noted was that more people wanted to come to the event but weren't able to sign up because it was full. An idea that is being floated for next time is to do it across a weekend... What do you think... 2 day DDD Day... same speakers and talks both days.
Something else that would be a great improvement is to have lots of chalk and talk sessions throughout the day in the small R1 on different specific subjects like... mobile, architecture, HCI etc...
As a speaker I found it quite different being at the DDD Day this time... firstly when I turned up I was handed an official looking white DDD Day t-shirt... which nicely clashed with my cream trousers... ;) Thanks guys! Then we sat/ stood through the basic speach about what the give-aways were and health and safety stuff and tech support. Everyone was sat with their laptops out in the speakers area making last minute changes to their slides... and talking to each other about what they were doing their talks on... Then suddenly it was all systems go... The day just did not stop!
Once the first sessions got started, after a few minor changes to the agenda we were off. It all seemed to go pretty smoothly. I heard that there were a couple of minor disasters... one laptop failure and a code demo that didn't quite work out... but hey, these things happen and it all worked out alright in the end. There weren't too many hecklers which was probably a good thing ;) (at least not in my session!)
Oh and you guys missed out on some really fun fluffy cushion fights in the speakers area!
I really enjoyed doing my session, the people in it were nice and friendly, and the room although full was great for communicating to everyone... Sorry about standing in front of the bottom left of the slides... :S. I think an hour was possibly just about the right time for me... half an hour would have been a bit of a rush... I don't know how those guys managed to get info into half an hour... I guess I just like to waffle... although it didn't really feel like I did. (too much... ;) ) Oh... and incase anyone didn't realise I HATE photo's... Thanks for the off putting camera flash in my session guys ;) (Links and more info to be put on my blog site later... and slides will be up on the DDD day site shortly)
Any direct feedback on the talk would be greatly appreciated. Feedback is gooood!!! (It lets me know where to make improvements to both style and content!)
I look forward to the next event! Keep up the good work.