Yeah, so… the drinking. It’s like a week of pure pub-crawl. It’s a small miracle that we’ve made it on time. Though, the morning’s tweets have indicated several of today’s participants flew in only mere hours ago. The fools. Christopher Murphy (@fehler) does us proud by swaggering in, arms raised, proclaiming his fragile state. We all feel better.

And so, we have survived (in a manner of speaking), and this is the day we’ve been waiting for. Now that all the attendees are here, it’s good catching up with other speakers and folk whom you’ve met at other conferences. Or Maybe that’s just me. I’m as inevitable to conferences as the post-conference hangover. There’s free coffee and tea, but, oddly, no free water. Then there’s the schwag. Buttons, badges, pens and pencils, notepads, stickers and the like, adorn table tops for us to cherry pick. And, pulling out all the stops, there’s free pick ‘n mix! Build branded Hoodies and Shirts are available shortly during the first break for us to purchase.

I won’t dwell too heavily on the talks. They’ll all be released in glorious haytch-dee-o-vision soon enough. Andy took to the stage to kick off the day and quickly introduces Tim Van Damme (@maxvoltar) and Keegan Jones (@keeg) who cover designing for mobile platforms. A two-man talk is a tricky style to pull off, and I’m not pesonally convinced of the format, but their talk is good; insightful and full of practical information, so I’ll let them off… For now. And during the talk, for our amusement, Tim gets groped by a sound technician after his microphone fails. Highlight of the event, that.

Tim Brown (@tbrown) does his best to inform me of the intricacies of typography, much of which goes over my head, you know, because of my stupidity. But his talk is well delivered (He informs me later that night it was his first time conference speaking. Fooled me, I tell you.) and considering the more niche subject, held my attention pretty capably.

I had heard already that lunch would take place in a ‘rented market’, but still couldn’t quite believe it until I’d seen it. Several vendors had set their stalls up in an unused marketplace for us to choose our food preference. I had soup. Tomato and Basil. Because I know you care. This was such a nice touch, and one I reckon it’ll be hard to top in other conferences.

Frank Chimero (@fchimero), robed in tweed, and Liz Danzic (@bobulate) change things up a bit in each of their talks by covering topics outside of the normal design discussions. Liz is right at home on stage and her talk in particular about ‘The Pause’ makes a refreshing change from the usual conference topics but still maintains heaps of relevancy and tips for all facets of life, not just our work.

Meagan Fisher (@owltastic) has, by far, the most beautiful slides. With more than a hint of nerves she relates her work methodologies and inspirations, as we stare, mouths gaping at each hand-crafted slide illustrations.

Dan Cederholm (@simplebits), unfortunately, had the most disappointing talk in my opinion. A master craftsman and a leader in the field, the talk itself is fantastic and Dan is one of the more accomplished speakers I’ve seen in a while, but he’s using a battle hardened series of slides, the topic of which has become common knowledge in only a few months previous. Really, it’s more to do with the fact that I was already up to speed with what he was covering. I know others found it inspirational.

Aside from the slight microphone hiccup, the day went off without a hitch. Before we left, Andy revealed next year’s lineup, and other little secrets and plans headed our way in the not-to-distance future.

With the talks concluded we made our way on to the night’s proclivities. MediaTemple had graciously organised a free bar which lasted until some time after midnight. I’d lost track of time at that point. As had most people. The after-party gave us the opportunity to impress upon the speakers our amazing knowledge, or embarrass ourselves beyond all comprehension. I’m sure it was all there in equal measure.